23rd of September

Reached the Summit of Kala Patthar 6 am this morning


This morning we got up at 4.30 and immediatly started the climbing of Kala Patthar.

The climb was not without its dramas – after 15 minutes we passed Mory an american girl that was feeling very bad and couldn’t see clearly.
I asked my guide and a nepali guy to take my flashlight and to follow her down into safety. I waited in the darkness, and once my guide came back we carried on with the accent.

After a while I realized that something was not right with my guide – it was clear that he was now suffering from altitude sickness. I kept insisting that he should go down, but he refused – bless his soul – he is like a nepali father to me, never willing to leave me out of his sight, always taking care of me. After a while and a little bit of raising my voice, I convinced him to go down.

On the way up I saw some people had been spitting blood on the ground(!!). A bit later on Clara a german, was luying on the ground completely knocked out by the cold. Some people had given her chocolate, coffee, and some nepali guys and her boyfriend was rubbing her feet to warm her up – I gave her my down jacket to keep her warm.

After she was warm again, we all continued our accent. And around 6:15 we reached the summit – 5545 meters altitude. The weather was extremely cold – the ground had some snow on the summit. But we where extremely fortunate with the weather.

I cannot describe the feeling – I was so high on adrenalin and happiness.

After that we spend the rest of the day on the road to decend as fast as we could. We are currently at 4270 meters altitude.

My body is very tired and exhausted, but my hearth and soul is full of joy!

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Categories:  Nepal Travel
22nd of September

Reached basecamp today


Just a quick update from Nepal. Reached the basecamp today – after 20 days of hard work. The weather has been terrible all along, and I have only managed to get glimplses of Mt. Everest for a few seconds on few occations. But the journey has been amazing, and every day has been worth it.

Sleeping at 5180m altitude tonight, and getting up tomorrow at 4 am to climb a 5500m summit (Kala Patthar). After that – probably around 11ish we will start our decent.

Cheers from the roof of the world, from a very tired but very happy man πŸ™‚

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Categories:  Nepal Travel
19th of September

Earthquake in Nepal – I am OK


Last night a massive earthquake hit nepal, and Bangladesh. I don’t have access to a very fast internet connection or a lot of information from here, so you guys probally know more from the news than I do.
I know that there has been casulties in the bigger cities, some bridges here in the himalyas has collapsed and the pass up to everest has been temoporarily closed.

It was a scary feeling having a whole mountain shake underneeth you, and last night I slept in my clothes – I think everyone did – ready to run out of something happened again.
Anyhow just wanted to let you know that I am safe and healthy.

This is really a reminder of how tiny we are compared to nature. Please guys do what you love to do, and spend the time with the ones you love – you never know how much time you have left on this planet.

Hope you are all well.

Internet is very lousy in this part so not sure If I will have the possibility to post further updates.

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Categories:  Nepal Travel
13th of September

Quick update from Lukla – alive and healthy


I found a very expensive internet cafe in Lukla. I am alive, healthy, and in good spirits – although tired – or should I say exhausted. 8ish days away from basecamp.

Hope you are all well!

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Categories:  Nepal Travel
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2nd of September

Off the grid for 27 days


This is just a super quick post to let everyone know I am safe and arrived safely in Nepal.

Tomorrow morning 6 am I leave for a 27day trek to Mt. Everest basecamp. The past 2 days have been super busy with preparing for the trek – organzing insurance papers for my guide, buying trekking permit, equipment, medicine – all sorts of logistics. Actually one of the trickier issues has been money – it is not easy to withdraw large amounts of money here in Nepal. I am happy that I brought several credit cards – that makes things a lot easier.

First impressions: Nepal may be one of the absolute poorest countries in the world – but they are still stellar in hospitality!

I can’t believe I am finally here. It is an overwhelming and quite scary feeling. Actually glad I have been busy with logistcs, otherwise I think I would have been to busy overthinking things, missing friends, family and loved ones.

I will be off the grid for 27 days if everything goes accordingly to plan (hope the altitude sickness doesnt get to me).

I am off to bed now, as the adventure starts tomorrow morning 6am.

Greetings from the rooftop of the world πŸ™‚

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Categories:  Nepal Travel
28th of August

No Smiling Allowed


The good old days of passport photographs, in which you where allowed to smile, are long gone – due to the restrictions that where introduced following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Normally I am a very laid back, pretty much always happy kind of person. BUT – I really don’t like being told what to do or what not to do, so when the passport photographer told me “Sir, no smiling is allowed”, I think I got slightly pissed off.
I think if I decide to give up my career in IT, I could always go into some sorts of crime related career – I already have the perfect mugshot.

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Categories:  Travel
18th of July

What Really Matters


During the past few months I have been getting ready for the rather big lifestyle change ahead of me. As part of the preparations one of the major issues have been deciding what to do with my stuff.
Originally I wanted to clear out stuff that I didn’t need any longer and put the rest in storage. But once this process started, I began thinking about what it really was that I wanted to achieve with this change in my life.

I’ve experienced 30 summers so far in my life. I’ve travel to a lot of interesting places. I’ve lived abroad for almost 4 years. I’ve been married – I’ve been divorced. Had the privilege of being able to study at university (it is free here in Denmark – actually you get paid around 700€ a month by the government to study here!!). Many experiences – some good, some bad, some sad, some happy – all contributing to making me who I am today. And I find it the more I experience the more I realize what really matters to me. What makes me happy is experiences. Relationships with people. Eating great food. Climbing mountains. Doing crazy things.
Material goods are not of great importance for me to be happy. The only few things that I really feel that I need is a laptop, my camera, a photo printer and an internet connection. All the other stuff to me is just luxuries. Oh yeah and a bed and some warm dry clothes might also go on the list of essentials πŸ™‚

Therefore I decided to part way with pretty much most of my belongings, cutting down to only possessing a few boxes that will be stored with friends and family. Furniture, electronics – gone. I sold these. Clothes, various household stuff – gone – donated it to charity. Lots of various crap – gone – I fed the container with this. Left are just a few physical memories (postcards, photographs, etc), my favorite books and nothing much else.

Throughout my whole life I have been conditioned by society that in order to be successful you need to get a good education, have a career, make money, build a home, settle down with a family, and once you retire you can enjoy the good life. I know that things are not really this black and white, but often I get the feeling that this is what my culture and society expects of me. A fair amount of times I have been wondering – what does it mean that I only have a few boxes to my name and a couple of coins on my bank account at the age of 30? But I have to say it is at this point in my life that I feel the most free. I am of good health, I have great people in my life and rather importantly I am full of hopes and dreams. And I am doing what makes me happy.

As the departure date gets closer it is not my things that I think about. It is people – the people that I will miss back home in Denmark. The people that I will meet on the road. Of the experiences to come.
Things are and will always just be things…

β€œThere is something perverse about more than enough. When we have more, it is never enough. It is always somewhere out there, just out of reach. The more we acquire, the more elusive enough becomes.”
– Unknown

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Categories:  Thoughts Travel
8th of July

Into the Unknown


For the past 3 years or so I have been having this idea in the back of my mind of trying something else than the comfortable life of being employed 9-17, having a steady income, and 6 weeks of annual vacation (yes – the luxury of being a dane!). Back in the end of 2009 I decided to conduct an experiment – to travel on my own for three months (Russia, Nepal and India), to see how I would enjoy traveling for an extended time period. And I have to say that I absolutely loved it!
Photograph by Julian Bialowas
Photograph by Julian Bialowas

So now the decision have finally been made. I want to live the dream! So I will be traveling for an undefined time period. Just go, and roam until either I get enough (is that even possible?), or run out of cash.
So I let my company know that I will resign employment per 31st of August. I will stop renting my room with Dorthe and Dennis (two lovely people, whom I will miss a lot!), and whatever few belongings I have not either sold or donated to charity
will be stored away with friends and family. The journey starts in Nepal with 2 months of hiking with my tiny guide and friend – Ratna (first time ever that I bought a one way ticket that far).

Initial plan is to travel Nepal in September and October, and then go to Bangladesh in November to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr with my crazy friend Zubayer.
After that I am pretty sure I will go to India for a while as I never travelled much in north india – and after that I have no plans – but I hear that there is supposed to be a lot of countries in Asia πŸ™‚

Needless to say – I am pretty excited!

β€œNothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.”
– Christopher McCandless

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Categories:  Travel
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