We made it!!!! Today (April 29) we woke up at 3am, breakfast at 3:30am and left for the pass just after 4am. The trail started steep and didn't relent. We ascended just over 3000ft in 3.8 miles (14,600ft to 17,769ft) to get to the pass. It was really hard! The air was thin and we had to stop several times just to "catch" our breath... I realized that at 17,000ft, you don't ever really catch your breath.. You just keep moving. We made it and I couldn't be happier!
On the descend ( just as brutal, 5000 ft in 6 miles), Bryan asked me what my favorite part of the hike so far was. I told him I'd have to think about it for a minute, then stopped myself short cause I had the answer.
For me, my favorite part was accomplishing what I set out to do. I know that I've achieved my goals in the past, but lately I've had a lot of negative self talk about me not accomplishing my goals, so this was a great achievement.
When preparing for this trip, I told myself to avoid any negative self talk that could get in the way. Also, I used doe visualizing techniques to picture myself climbing and climbing until I got to the top. I my phone, the screen saver is a picture of the sign at the pass and the background is a panorama of the Annapurna Mts. That way, when ever I used my phone, I had a reminder of what my goal was. Also, when climbing a steep incline on the treadmill at the gym, or hiking in Alaska, I would visualize that I was on the trek completing my goal.
Sometimes a negative thought would creep in and I'd have to work at replacing it with a positive one ( yes, I work in the psychology field.. Can ya tell 😊). While coming down from the mountian top village I volunteered at, I fell twice!! I don't really know what happened, I stepped down with my left foot, but I rolled and I lost my balence and fell. And, I had my camera in my hand so I tried to protect it from hitting the ground... So embarrassing! I got up and said to myself "and you think you can hike Annapurna??!??!!!" Well then, I did the same thing and fell again!!!! This time I told myself, "no more negative self talk.. You just stepped wrong, that could happen to anyone anywhere. You trained for the trek and you will complete it!" I didn't fall again, on the hike out if the village or in the trek. In fact, aside from breathing hard with mild excursion (and major excursion), I didn't suffer from other acute mountain sickness symptoms. Visualization works!! Try it on your next goal!
I also realize I could not have done the trek without a lot of help. My porter was amazing! Very fast up the hills, kind, and patient. I met a bunch of great people along the trek and we were all on the same schedule. We'd see each other through out the day and just had a great time getting to know them! And of course Bryan, my "adventure buddy." He's been a great travel and trekking partner. He's way tougher than me!
So, with the hard part over, we have a few more days walking to get to Jomsom, then we'll try for a flight to Pokhara and spend a few days there relaxing. We leave the wonderful country of Nepal next week, Wednesday May 7th.
No comments:
Post a Comment