Rock climbing, mountaineering, bouldering, hiking all of it is problem solving. I understand it's not for everyone (I've taken people on hikes and they whinge that they had to think about where their feet were going) but I personally love that it engages my mind and my body. Everest has its own challenges, it always has, currently I am reading a book titled 'Everest, The First Ascent' it talks about Mr Pugh's role in uncovering the science that would make the first ascent successful after almost 3 decades of failed attempts, whereby people didn't understand or weren't prepared to acknowledge the effects of high altitude, acclimatisation and fatigue on individuals. It fascinates me how some individuals were adamant they could attack the mountain with little or no training and no oxygen and others were dedicated to investigating ways to ensure a summit success. Since I began training and I became comfortable enough to tell people it was my goal to reach base camp I have met people who have completed it by simply 'walking 3 times a week for half an hour' or just 'rocked up' to Kathmandu and hit up the base camp and then there's....me. Training 20 hours (minimum) a week plus 5/6 hour hikes regularly on the weekend non-stop and still working a 40 hour week. My logic- I refuse to be conquered. I don't care what mountain it is, I'm going to see that view. In fact, I've dreamt about it, the tears on my face, the smile from ear to ear and my face getting sore, my mass sighs of relief and screaming in excitement that all my hard work has paid off to be sitting on top of the world.
Over this series you'll notice, even in the picture below that I am ME. My training isn't perfect, I've never not lost motivation, I've eaten cake more than twice a week since I've been training, I look in the mirror and wonder why my stomach won't go away (probably that cake haha), some days I feel super confident other days I want to rip my face off and replace it with another face out of frustration. Yep, I am just a plain jane woman. Whilst people go on at times with crap about me being inspirational I'm not, I'm just a person who chose a goal, has intrinsic motivation for it and decided how I will achieve it. Anyone is capable of achieving what they want. I guess you just have to be crazy enough to think you can.
I hope you liked the first segment of the series.... Any comments/queries are welcomed.
Julia
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