Everest Base Camp. Just tents, two layers of quilts, hot noodles and a magnificent midnight moon, shining fully on the tallest point in human-populated Earth. A blanket of snow came down that night - in the middle of the year, what was effectively summer! Mount Everest was just another 80km's hike away for the beginning of another journey, a kind that you do to conquer your own Everest. That morning we woke to a clear sky, and there it was beckoning before the fickle weather blew another hail storm down on us.
The journey took many turns and that many ups and downs. This was one darn big challenge, imposing and overwhelming yet not insurmountable. It will take many days to train and acclimatise. It will surely demand you to earn the respect of this god of a mountain. Yet it will definitely impart with you a lesson of life that will never be found anywhere else.
I left base camp with more questions than answers. Could it be possible that one leave with an obsession that had haunted many because "it's there"? Maybe I shall return one day to China's base camp or Nepal's, but I already knew that Everest had instilled in me, the need to learn to overcome your own doubt, no matter how high it may be.
For then, and only then, not even the highest point in the world could stop you.
