Elbrus training – the joys of altitude… in Wales

May 29, 2017

With now only a month to go before the climb, I thought I had better step things up and head to Wales to walk up some big hills – so off we went. I was joined by my good friend Vanessa who I went to Everest Base Camp with so she is more than familiar with training for a trip such as Elbrus and is being a great support chasing me up huge hills whenever she can.

 

The long weekend involved three days of walking up the side of some big (ok small compared to Elbrus) mountains in the wind and rain, getting lost at the top and coming back out to surface in places that you had no idea you were even remotely close to! Think two Bridget Jones’s with a soaking wet OS map, no compass and basically no idea what direction is South walking around in circles then you’ve pretty much got it. I should add, that we are normally quite good with a map walking around the Chilterns but the paths in Wales seem to randomly turn or disappear or merge into seven paths which made map reading rather challenging (well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it anyway.)

 

 

 

The long days got us reminiscing about our trip to Everest Base camp and in particular, the joys of altitude. If you’ve ever been above 4,000m you’ll know the deal but delights include; sleep deprivation, loss of appetite, splitting headaches, sickness, Kumba cough (specific to Everest Base Camp) and your breath being so short that even rolling over in your sleeping bag at night makes you feel like you have run a marathon.

 

Having experienced these delights twice now and swearing after the second round at Kilimanjaro never again, Vanessa was questioning me as to why on earth am I doing this to myself again. The answer to which I am still unsure about. Perhaps, I needed a challenge, perhaps I wanted to do something amazing for Rays of Sunshine, perhaps it’s just the pull of the mountain and lure to climb another one of the seven summits, perhaps I am a masochist. I don’t know.

 

What I do know is that I’d like to support Rays of Sunshine in any way I can on this journey. They grant some amazing wishes to children who are very sick and really make some very special things happen. Please read more about the amazing wishes they grant here http://raysofsunshine.org.uk/wishes/

 

If you would like to support Rays of Sunshine for my efforts, please do donate to my Just Giving page.  https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Tracy-KingsnorthMountElbrus

 

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