2018 In Review

I haven't written a lot of posts for Running Conversations this year. In fact, I've done very little posting on any social media platforms at all. I've continued to write, but I've gone back to using actual physical journals to record mainly my travels, and, to a lesser extent, my thoughts/feelings. A large part of the withdrawal from social media is due to something I read decades ago in Western Civ at KU. WEB Dubois' words about religious experience have always stuck with me. And, while I'm not religious, I do want to take a moment to explain his thoughts. To paraphrase: your religious experience is your own. It can be very real/valid, but it only applies to you. My religious experience would only be valid for me. I like that idea. I have had many thoughts, dreams, revelations, etc... - they make sense to me completely. Yet if I were to try to explain them to others, they would be meaningless or simply unrelatable.

This past year I applied that concept, not to religious experience, but to life in general. I have stopped sharing on social media (this posting being an obvious exception) the everyday humdrum activities (and even some non-humdrum activities) that I undertake. While they are valid to me, they really have no bearing upon anyone else. We (and by that I me) waste an incredible amount of time on social media reading friends' postings about nothing. And I really mean nothing. And I too am guilty of this. I know so much more about my friends (even distant ones) than I used to. Yet I am no closer to any of them as a result of all of this information. In fact, it gets in the way of human contact, because when we get together we have very little to talk about.

Enough explanation. I'll now write a bit about 2018 and then get to the lists of books, TV, movies, etc... that I found interesting in the past year.

Kilimanjaro (photo credit: Diarmuid Morrissey)

2018 marked a big change in my outdoor athletic endeavors. Following a bike accident in 2017 (which I wrote about in an earlier post), I decided to stop putting on hold the things I wanted to do in my life. I hired a trainer and began to work out in order to strengthen my core and upper body.

In Jan/Feb I flew to Tanzania and climbed Kilimanjaro through Ian Taylor Trekking. I found the country to be one of the more remarkable places I have visited. The people are uniformly friendly and dress in wonderful colorful garments. I felt at home the moment my plane landed. My main regret from the trip is not allowing more time on either side of the climb. I did get to spend a couple of days touring the countryside and also the city center of Arusha. But if I could have stayed longer I certainly would have.

Happiness at the base of the Barranco Wall on Kilimanjaro

In May I flew to Seattle and rented a car that took me to Mt. Rainier. I had no interest at all in climbing that mountain, but felt I needed to learn how to climb on glaciers properly. My team was one of the first of the season to take the Emmons Glacier Route. The famous mountaineer, Eric Simonson, joined our IMG-led group as well. I ended up getting much more than I  had bargained for. While my group did not reach the summit, we did get to experience a storm at 12,000 ft that locked us in tiny exposed tents for a day. I hated every minute of that trip and have no plans to return to the beautiful place. But I did get the training results I needed.

Starting up the Emmons Glacier on Rainier

In August, some friends and I drove to southern Colorado to climb a mountain called Blanca Peak. Blanca is one of Colorado's 14ers. It is the highest of three 14ers that share a ridge line - Ellingwood and Little Bear sit to either side. Blanca has a little bit of exposure between the saddle ridge line and the summit. There was some decently-challenging scrambling required as well. When we reached the top we were greeted with the best weather I have ever experienced on the summit of a mountain. It was clear and warm. I felt fortunate to be there with friends, a good view, and great weather. We stayed in our camp at 11,000 ft. an extra day after the climb and enjoyed the pretty valley lakes that sit in the trough of the three mountains. For me, Blanca served as a final tune-up before what would be the big adventure of the year. Here's a link to an interesting description of the Blanca Peak trip by Gary Henry - https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=18903

The rest of the team coming up the saddle to the summit on Blanca

In September/October I was in Nepal. I was there to climb a mountain interchangeably called Island Peak/Imja Tse. In order to climb the 20,305ft peak, I spent 3 weeks acclimatizing with a team of people trekking around the Everest region of the Himalaya. On our journey we went to Everest Base Camp (EBC) and later got beautiful pictures of the world's highest mountain from the summit of the 18,000+ ft Kala Patthar nearby. A few days later after leaving the last vestige of civilization at Chukung, our team of seven found ourselves at high camp on Imja Tse preparing to head up the mountain at 2AM.  Following a rocky steep trail under a perfectly clear, starry sky, we reach the crampon point for the glacier in the dark. In the coldest portion of the night, we roped up, and trekked along with crampons and ice axes. We abseiled down a crevasse or two, ascended ladders and made our way to the base of the headwall just as the sun came up. The team ditched ice axes and began to ascend the wall using jumars and crampons to follow a fixed line.  The summit was the highest and smallest summit I've encountered. All 7 of us and a couple of our sherpa guides were tethered to an anchor as we spent about 15 minutes enjoying the view of Lhotse, Imja Lake and the surrounding mountains. It was then time to abseil down the face of the headwall and make our way back across the glacier. We spent a short time packing up high camp and then descended to basecamp, stopping there for only a short time before continuing on to Chukung for the night. The summit day was something like 17 hours of work at high altitude. I don't ever recall a time in my life where I was as tired as during the long trek from basecamp to Chukung.

Climbing the headwall (Allen above and Andy Stark from Manchester in the foreground)

Abseiled into the crevasse - now need to climb out

Full team on the headwall at Island Peak

Buddhist Temple in Tengbouche

Island Peak/Imja Tse

My climbs on Kili and Island Peak, as well as the trek to EBC, introduced me to some of the nicest, determined, and interesting people I have had the pleasure to encounter - the other team members as well as the in-country guides, porters, and Sherpas. I've stayed in touch with most of the other team members and a good number of Sherpas and guides from Tanzania, and am in the process of making plans to do more climbs where we can once again go for a summit together.



Some notable books I read this year

Sparsholt Affair - Allan Hollinghurst

The Feather Thief - Kirk Wallace Johnson

Selected works (an assortment) - Felice Picano

Lions and Shadows - Christopher Isherwood

Solo Faces - James Salter

The Snow Leopard - Peter Matthiessen


My favorite movies I saw this year

Call Me By Your Name

Zabardast - (My second fave climbing documentary of the year - 50+ min on YouTube.)

Free Solo - (Doc about the greatest climbing achievement of all time.)

Gabriel and the Mountain

Sherpa (I had the pleasure of watching this in Namche Bazaar with one of the Sherpas featured in the movie)

Lunag Ri: David Lama and Conrad Anker Walk the Line (My fave climbing documentary of 2018 - 35+ min on You Tube)

First Ascent of Lunag Ri Solo (3+ min - David Lama)

Meru (My fave climbing doc ever. While I had seen this before, I watched it another couple of times in 2018)

TV

Great British Baking Show

Big Mouth (Season 2)

Atypical (Season 2)

Million Pound Menu

London Spy (Season 1)

Somebody Feed Phil - The Second Course

American Ninja Warrior (my favorite thing on TV)

Queer Eye Season 2 (great, heartfelt show in the midst of the world turning ugly)

Deals in the Desert (Like Million Dollar listing except in the Middle East)

American Crime (Season 2)

Money Heist / Casa De Papel - (Just started binge-watching this on Christmas Eve - pretty great).

Best Cities/Towns I've Visited in 2018 

Geneva, Switzerland (one of my favorite cities in the world - I love being there every year or so)

Namche Bazaar, Nepal (first night in my room I cried - I was so happy to be in this fabled town)

Kathmandu, Nepal

Arusha, Tanzania (I felt instantly at home in this city and surrounding area in Africa)

Alamosa, Colorado

Best Places I Spent Time In

Musee d'art et d'histoire - Geneva http://institutions.ville-geneve.ch/fr/mah/ - fantastic museum

MAMCO - Geneva - https://www.mamco.ch/en/100/Homepage-partners - great space for modern art/installations

Nelson-Atkins - Kansas City - A gem in the center of the US.

Amani Cultural Tourism Coffee Plantation - Near Arusha, Tanzania

Buddhist Monasteries in Tengboche and Khumjung, Nepal

Garden of Dreams - Kathmandu

Thamel district, Kathmandu

Hong Kong Airport - Weird, I know. But the airport is a great place to spend a long layover. It features nice lounges that can be joined for not too much money, good art exhibits to look at, and lovely, clean, open architecture.

Runyon Canyon - Nice place to take a hike in the middle of LA. Great views from the top of the park.

Best Things I Listened To

I wouldn't classify any of these as my all time faves, but I did listen repeatedly to the following songs:

I Am That I Am - Peter Tosh

Soul and Cigarette - Daniele Luppi & Parquet Courts

New Soul - Yael Naim

I Don't Want You Back - Borns

Yafaké - Victor Démé

It's All In My Mind - Teenage Fanclub (pretty much any other song by them as well)

Final thoughts:

I do hope to do a few more posts in 2019 than in 2018 here and on my other blogs/websites.  I have written a couple of reviews of the Tanzania and Nepal trips in this blog and on google and Facebook. You can find the google review by typing in 'Ian Taylor Trekking Company' on a search, and then clicking on the word 'reviews' in the company information that comes up on the right side of your screen.

For 2019 I'm looking at one or two epic runs. I also plan to climb a difficult little 14er in Colorado and then a larger summit somewhere else on the globe.

I plan to spend more time reading and writing as well.  I hope everyone who reads this will be inspired to find things that are meaningful to themselves, and will then have the courage/motivation to just go do them.