Preface

As I am completing my blog, I realize there is an important preface to come before all that I have blogged, so I now add it at the end knowing it should have prefaced all of my thoughts.

Preface

On January 23, 2015, approximately two months before my Everest Expedition is to begin, an acquaintance of mine, Alan Arnette, sums up my feelings.  Since he’s been there and done this many times, he knows what first-timers may be thinking.  I read it to family and discovered it moved me considerably.  What follows is his direct quote:

The Moment You Know

For many people, they can tell you the exact moment when a dream became reality, when planning became real, when the butterfly began to move from within. For many Everest climbers, that was this week.

Everest is not a spur of the moment decision, it’s sometimes a life long dream – literally. Some climbers, in their teenage years, carefully read each word in famous books, letting the imagery sink in as they tried to envision themselves on the Lhotse Face or at the North Col. Now decades later they will get their chance.

Other climbers, later in life, made a huge decision to move from dreaming to planning.  They looked out the window of their office and seized the moment. This week as they looked at the calendar, they counted the days.

60

In sixty days, they will arrive in Kathmandu; step off Thai TG319 and smell the warm, moist air of Nepal. Their dream will transform into an experience of a lifetime.

This week, they began to finalize all the preparation – bought rescue insurance, finalized payments to an outfitter, made a decision on what goggles to use, what color lens.

Their training has taken on a new intensity, yet the fear of injury tempers their zest to push too hard.

The butterflies took off.

Each day brings them closer. They look at their families with a more tender eye, taking a moment longer to listen to each story, lingering as they make eye contact.

No, Everest is not some wide-eyed romantic adventure. It is serious mountaineering. People die. It is this reality that gives flight to the butterfly.

The moment is exact, it is sealed for eternity.  -Alan Arnette