I've had an amazing year. Eight walking trips, 95 days of full- on walking and loads of adventures. At the moment, as well as trying to keep fit on the South Downs, I'm busy working out a schedule for 2013 and reflecting on the lessons I've learnt this year.
The lessons with hindsight seem blindingly obvious.
The first - already having an impact on plans for next year - is that you can't have too much of a good thing. I had thought that 7 weeks in Nepal would satiate my appetite for the Himalayas but it had the opposite effect.
Although I didn't get to the top of Mera Peak (the weather was exceptionally bad this spring and very few groups did), I had an amazing adventure. The memories of the night at high camp (perched on a 5,400m cliff on the edge of a glacier in a ferocious storm), the attempt on the summit next day (a fall into a crevasse followed by an agonising trudge through fresh snow a metre deep) and the descent the following day with arguably the best mountain view in the world (clear sight of five 8,000 m plus summits including Everest) will stay with me forever.
The lessons with hindsight seem blindingly obvious.
The first - already having an impact on plans for next year - is that you can't have too much of a good thing. I had thought that 7 weeks in Nepal would satiate my appetite for the Himalayas but it had the opposite effect.
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| The view to Everest from Mera |
