Nepal: A Lesson on Perseverance

Teachers are always talking about 'perseverance,' right? It's often something commented on for report cards, and we ask you to reflect and assess for it yourselves. But this time, I'm the one who had to demonstrate it.

My eight day trek in the Himalaya mountain range started as expected. It was tough - steep uphill climbs in high altitude areas, but the views were fantastic, and I was proud of what I was accomplishing.

My water was frozen in its bottle when I woke up!

But by Day Four, my spirits were lessening. Each day had been a steep climb to higher elevation, and with it, the temperature dropped and the wind grew. The teahouses we stayed in were little more than planks of wood nailed together, so they didn't do much to keep the wind out at night. I huddled inside my sleeping bag in multiple layers of clothing to try to stay warm enough to sleep. The toilets were squat - a hole in the ground usually in a separate building outside of the sleeping house, and shared with twenty other people. The worst ones had ice all over the ground around them so you had to be really careful. Basically, I was feeling drained.

Day Four was the toughest of all. It was the day we had to climb up and over the mountain pass. It was probably -15 degrees C and snowing, which I was not prepared for with my thin wool mittens and gortex raincoat. But I had my eyes trained on what looked like the peak above me so I gritted my teeth and kept going. When I reached that peak, I was able to see the path beyond, not down to the other side, as I had hoped, but further up, into the windy, snowy pass. I'd say, 'I just about cried,' but that would be a lie... I did cry a little. It looked like so much further to go, and my hands were so cold already I couldn't move them, and it was slippery, and the elevation was so high that it was hard to catch your breath before the biting wind whipped it away... I thought I was going to collapse in the snow in a full-blown panic attack. But then I had a tiny little thought as I looked up: I was hiking through a mountain pass in the HIMALAYAS. The highest, most unforgiving mountain range in the WORLD! This wasn't Everest, but Everest wasn't that far away from us! It was SUPPOSED to be hard!!!

Plus, I had started this strategy back in Calgary, six months before I left for the trip. I was worried that the gorilla trek in Uganda was going to be really hard, so I tried finding hikes to do in the Rockies that were really steep as a way to practice. And when it got hard, I'd chant to myself, in my head, "Gorillas, Gorillas, Gorillas" for motivation. It really worked! So after the gorilla trek, I realized that I needed a new goal, and the trek through the Himalaya seemed like the perfect one. So all through Madagascar, every time we'd go for a hike, and things got difficult (like our Peak Boby trek!), I'd chant in my head, "Himalaya, Himalaya, Himalaya."

So here I was, trying to make it through this mountain pass, when a tiny voice in my head said, "Himalaya, Himalaya, Himalaya," and I realized that I had been preparing for this for the past two months. I KNEW it was going to be hard - really hard, and I had done other treks to prepare myself for it. So yes, it was going to be really difficult for a little bit longer, but then I would make it. I would get to the other side. And that made me smile and keep going.



Plus, there was another little voice in my head that tried to be rational. It said, "What do you want to happen here? If you sit down in the snow and cry, your guide is going to think that you can't do this, and you'll have to go back down the way you came, back to the beginning of the trek. Is that really what you want? Or, you could go just a little bit further, and the hard part of the trek will be over, and you will get to go down the other side." That voice was pretty smart.

We made it! With our guide, Surendra, and porter,
Niraj,at the end of the day's hike.

Now, I'd like to say that it was that easy, that I finished the pass, and the rest of the day hiking without any other moments where I wanted to give up. But truthfully, about five minutes later, I was in tears again when I slipped on some ice and fell on my shoulder. And then again ten minutes after that when my hands were so cold I had trouble using my poles and I was worried I might slide down the slope. But, I did it. And I can hold on to that moment of good perseverance for future struggles to come. Then the best thing of all? Despite it being so difficult, and feeling a little embarrassed about not handling it better, it is now one of the things I am the most proud of myself for ever doing.

Relaxing with a game of cards after the hike.
We used pistachio shells as a way to keep score!