An amazing journey it was, one that only those that have carried all they need to survive in any type of weather in the middle of nowhere could understand. Breathtaking landscapes, hard and strenuous hikes, cold climbs, encounters with very special people and a continuous race against disease were all present. It was a formidable character building experience through the mountains from which I will only share one particular moment on this blog.
We were already done climbing our first peak, achieving an altitude of over 20,000feet (6,000m). Brendan had decided to go home early and Mike and I started the 3 day trek to our second peak. On our second day we come to a familiar town where we bought bread, cheese and pasta for the coming days. We also heard that somewhere near the town there was a small temple up on the mountain. From the village we were able to see it up, a few hundred meters up on a nearby mountain; a 20min hike perhaps. How mistaken we were. It took about an hour of steep climbing and route finding. After hard work however we reached what was an abandoned small temple, seemingly built for a spiritual retire.
And that was exactly what it was, even for us who were only there for a short time. We sat in silence on flat rocks, listening to the water running in the river going by the nearby town, a few hundred meters below us. We sat feeling the wind rushing through, colorful praying flags dancing in the air and nothing but astonishing mountains ahead of us and a few birds circling between us and them. At that time nothing but absolute peace would reign in our hearts and minds. We wanted to stay there for weeks, thinking about the absurdities of life but like every other climber with a mission, our feet demanded us to keep moving.
There were many such moments. Some more adrenaline filled than others, like the time Mike got us on the wrong route up a mountains and we ended up doing some alpine rock climbing without being roped up or having safety gear on. But with every adventure a magnificent story came out of it, and wonderful lessons followed. The most valuable one probably being that it isn't unethical to score left overs from rich Europeans when you are running out of money and want to eat.
A fair amount of the photos we took have been posted in the Picasa album for this blog. The photo below should work as a link to it.
Picasa Nepal: Mountains, Bridges and Batteries album
You will notice that Sam I am features in a few of the posted photographies. Sam I am, in all his grace joined us for the entire trip. We were very careful on cutting weight down. For example, we cut our toothbrushes in half just to save an ounce or two. But Sam I am came along and never failed to represent the good spirit and the proper breakfast that every well hearted person should start the day with: Green Eggs and Ham.
It was an incredible journey.
Upon our return to Kathmandu we tried to overcome out hunger and weakness by overstuffing ourselves with the cheapest and most delicious food we can find in the area. Living in Kathmandu has suddenly turned to be about food and hitting the 50% off at bakeries after 7:30pm.
Despite our weaknesses brought upon us for carrying 55pound packs for 3 weeks and the diseases that we are still trying to overcome, we have renewed and strong energies to keep working on a 9 to 5 schedule. We have been working hard for the past few days in order to get this 6V cell phone charger out and running as soon as possible.
Our new approach to this problem involves using what is called a Low DropOut voltage regulator. Unfortunately these components are not to be found in Kathmandu and ordering them to be delivered here would take too long. So we are trying a different option and that is using a much more complicated circuit that uses a non-Low DropOut voltage regulator and that could potentially function under the desired parameters. For those more technically inclined we are using a MC34063AP1 regulator, see the applications sheet AN920-D.
Hopefully we'll have some working prototypes very soon. In the meantime Brendan has gone back to the states to attend med school interviews and we hope he will be bringing some key electrical components back from the land of promise.
On other news, we attended a Halloween party hosted by Rosie's boss last week. A spectacular night it was, full of laughter, delicious momos and new exotic bars. But the character of the night was our lit up carved pumpkin. Mike spent all afternoon carving it in his preparation for the elections. Can you guess who it is?
1 comment:
mate, some wicked photos. it was really cool reading about your trek.
and thanks foir all the effort you put into those cookies tonight!
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