Dare To Dream
After the mad rush prior to Christmas to send out all necessary mail before the festive period, Christmas and New Year were actually very good and almost relaxing with a trip to the Peak District in hurricane force winds on Christmas Day.
New Year brought to a close the eventful and successful year of 2011, which included a Scottish winter, climbing in Kyrgyzstan upon Peak Lenin subsequently learning many lessons, and closing with the Baruntse and Mera Peak expedition. These were the big milestones of the year for me, however many other events occurred too numerous to mention. 2011 was the first year I have properly recorded events, and only now do I realise what a busy year it was. I managed to travel to 5 new countries, graduated from uni, and made a lot of new friends, amongst countless other occurrences. Not all were the most successful or even particularly fun. I had a particularly eventful attempt on Peak Lenin, and spent a vast amount of time in front of a computer devising a sponsorship package that I can be proud of. With all the events of the year, can honestly say I have learnt so many lessons. Firstly my university studies where for the first time in 16 years of full time education I found a revision strategy that works for me just in time for my finals, where I spent 6 weeks doing nothing but sitting on a black swivel chair preparing for what would be some of the most successful exams I’ve undertaken.
Next was the Peak Lenin where I learnt so much both about expedition life and myself, enough to successfully make an ascent of both Mera Peak and Baruntse in October & November 2011. Finally, there were the countless hours I have spent both on my own and with others devising a marketable expedition to allow me the chance to achieve that most unexplainable of goals; standing on top of the world. These countless hours in turn have given me countless lessons and skills which I am sure will serve me well.
This brings me to 2012. This is the year, the one I have been training for, and the challenge which I finally dared to accept on the 5th September 2010, after many years trying to believe in a dream.
In the spring of this year, 2012, I will be hoping to make an ascent of Mount Everest via the Southeast ridge from Nepal. This expedition will not just call upon everything I have learnt over the past year, but everything I have ever learnt; and I fully expect the mountain to push me to the utter limits both in a physical and mental capacity. I would expect nothing less from the highest mountain on earth.
I have dared to dream; now I hope 2012 is the year I can turn my dream into reality.
To follow and find out more about the expedition, I am on Facebook here, and Twitter here. You can also find out more about the sponsors and organisations partnering the expedition at my website here. A final thank you to everyone who has supported me over the last year, and since the inception of this expedition; I could not have got to where I am today without the support of others, so thank you.
