Expedition Day 10 (Practice, Preparation and Base Camp!)

Today will go down as a highlight for me for sure.

This morning we had an awesome practice on the wicket. The ball picks up respectably from the wicket, and it’s clear we will be able to have a truly competitive game, which is a huge relief.

In practice I managed to bowl so badly that you’d think we hadn’t been near a net in the last year! However, I made up for it with my batting, so I am confident I will be able to play my part tomorrow. It was pretty special seeing everyone out in their kit practicing. Only 3 years since I had my vision, and now we are so close to it being real!

Just as we finished up our practice and let the Zingers on the pitch, we saw a sight; 2 columns of uniformed people approaching from Base Camp down towards us. One column all in yellow, the other all in red. As they roll up, it turns out to be Russell Bryce and his HimEx Summit expedition. They had come down to lay down a challenge to us. Having heard of our World Record attempt, they wanted to challenge us a week later to a higher game of cricket on the vast glacier above the Khumbu Ice-fall at about 6800m! It was done and received in good spirit and it was a real honour to meet this legend and his team. We gave him a pink Nokia ball, and Everest Test cap to be taken to the summit (amazing!) as well as signing a bat for them. They kindly invited us to visit their camp (a real honour as Russell is notoriously militant about not letting strangers into his camps as strangers bring illness) before heading back up the glacier.

After an early lunch, a few of us decided to ignore medic’s advice and head up to Base Camp. One thing that has become increasingly apparent to me up here this time is how unstable this glacier is compared to 3 years ago. The ceracs coming off the Khumbu Glacier are a fraction of the size, and constantly under the glacier you can here the torrent of melt-water running underneath. That was not a sound I heard at all last time. This year has been the hottest and driest that the guides can remember. Whether it’s a freak year or Global Warming I don’t know, but if it’s the latter then that is genuinely disturbing.

Base Camp is a cool place and we had a good wander. We had tea at the HRA hospital tent, met some climbers. I got invited to meet ‘The Colonel’ at the Indian Army Expedition tent. Nice bloke. Wanted to send his boys down for a game of cricket! Told him no as we only have a licence for one game and I didn’t want to get arrested!

After a pastry at the bakery (yes they even have a bakery there now!) we left the main camp and popped in to see Russell at his separate camp. At the entrance to his camp there is a sign that reads ‘Trekkers – F**k Off!’ (Like I say he doesn’t like visitors). However, we ignored this as we are in fact cricketers! (Besides we had an invite).

Once in the camp we were given a warm welcome by Russell and the others. We were given a tour and then lead into his ‘lounge tent’. This guy doesn’t do anything by halves. Compared to the squalid conditions the climbers at main Base Camp endure, this camp was 6 star! The cooking and dining facilities amazing, toilets amazing, looking at the supplies going to the upper camps, amazing. You are able to see how he has such a phenomenal record when it comes to getting his clients to the top and back safely.

However, it was the lounge tent that was the ultimate. High ceilings, full walled windows, plasma screen, DVD player, stereo, scalextrix and most importantly bar with beer fridge! Russell was quick to offer up a beer to us all. I know we’re not supposed to drink up here, but you can’t refuse Russell Bryce, that would just be rude. So we enjoyed a Tuborg and had a good old chat – awesome! However, we needed to get back as it was getting late, so we didn’t hang around.

On the way out I was fortunate enough to meet Phurba Tashi Sherpa. This man has already climbed Everest 14 times and is looking to summit twice more this year at least. And he’s still only young. What a legend! Getting back was a little hairy as we raced the setting sun back along the glacier. We all just got back in safely and have eaten.

Poor George has taken a bad turn though. He’s over done it today and has gone down with exhaustion. The medics currently have him on an IV drip to rehydrate him. Simmo, Joe and Zoobie rejoined us while we were up at Base Camp. Great to see them, particularly Simmo.

Expedition Day 9 (Arrival!)

We are here! What an amazing feeling it was arriving. We were back in our teams again for this final trek, and arriving with the Hilary boys to the place of our year long obsession was a very special moment. It was gutting that Simmo couldn’t also be there, or indeed the great Charlie B-N.

It’s such a spectacular stretch of trekking. We are up above 5000m for the entire days trek, looking down at the moraine and ice of the Khumbu Glacier as it makes its way down from Mount Everest. Constantly walking over that same Moraine, up as high as 5500m at some point. Amazing weather too.

Arrival was pretty special, but soon we were down to the business of preparing the pitch, clearing the out-field etc. Tiring work at such heights. However, really pleasing to see the track laid on a specially prepared strip. With the outfield cleaned and boundary calculated we’re looking in good shape. Tomorrow both teams will have a practice session on the wicket. Can’t wait!

On another positive, Simmo and Isla have made it safely to Lobouche. They are with Joe and Zoobie who we left behind this morning. All will join us tomorrow, which means we will have successfully got the entire expedition up here in time for the match. That is an achievement I will be very proud of. Massive thanks to the guides and medics for making that possible.

Expedition Day 8

Last night’s comedy night was nothing short of genius. We have some seriously hilarious individuals on this trip. Quite amazing. Joe, Miles and Jules were clear stand-outs though with their beat-boxing and wrapping outfit ‘MC Shark and Base Camp 1’. What a tough day we had today though. For the first time I have felt the symptoms of AMS much more severely. My usual mild headache became quite severe at lunch. I have started on the diamox as a precaution.
We had another casualty today. Simmo has been left behind at Dughla (our lunch-time spot) with a guide a porter and Isla the medic. Really horrible leaving him behind, but it was the right thing to do and he still has time to catch us up. The walk itself is probably my favourite stretch of the whole trek. There’s an amazing spot where there are shrines to the fallen of Everest. Mainly Sherpa’s but also climbing legend Scott Fischer who died in the 1996 catastrophe. It’s such an amazingly peaceful spot.

Now we are in Lobouche. Traditionally the worst place on the whole region. However, our digs have been a pleasant surprise – new and really quite comfortable. An impromptu photo shoot at dusk was a fun distraction too. However, a couple of heads have gone down and I am asking certain people to keep an eye on certain others and to help keep morale up. We may need to leave a couple behind tomorrow too. Another day here, and some rest, would be good for a few people I think. I really can’t wait to set foot on Gorak Shep again, and tomorrow is the day all being well – so exciting

Expedition Day 7

Our second acclimatisation day was today. However, last night wasn’t without its events. Haydn has shown some serious signs of AMS and had to be monitored carefully throughout the night. I’m pleased to say he is on the mend. Others too have been showing symptoms, but all ok at this stage. I was last to bed last night, and just as I was drifting off I got awoken by the guides. A French woman from another hostel was really sick with AMS. Our medic Ian and then Isla took a good look at her as did Motti (our HRA Doctor). Using some of our meds, the medics got her into a fit enough state to be carried to the HRA hospital in Pheriche. We understand that she is now ok.

Today was the first day that I could visibly see people struggling, despite not having packs on for the acclimatisation walk. We did head up to 5000m for the first time and the weather was the coldest we’ve know so far with quite a biting wind. It’s been interesting to see who rallies around those struggling. I also have certainly made a note of who to keep an eye out for. It’s not just AMS, but knee and back problems too. The medics are nervous about the next 2 days of trekking. I have arranged for some extra porterage to take half the personal baggage over the next 2 days. Everyone can then take it in turns with a single bag between 2 people. This will reduce the strain on everyone, and hopefully reduce problems.

Today is also Kinsey’s birthday. The guides gave him a birthday cake this morning. This evening we will be having a comedy night in his honour. But not before the medics have done a full check on everyone.

Expedition Day 6

It's been a tough day for everyone today. Breaking the 4000m barrier is a big deal and we have been on the case in terms of monitering people's progress. Probably the most enjoyable leg of the trek so far with Everest constantly looming ahead, it has been a great day.
We're now sitting at 4400m, with the entire expedition present. However, some early signs of AMS are becoming apparent and suitably dealt with by our awesome medical team. Despite this, spirits remain high, which is inevitable with such a great bunch of people.
Tommorrow is our 2nd acclimatisation day. We'll take everyone up to 5000m and stay up there for a couple of hours before returning to overnight at our current altitude. This is essential for making sure people are in the best possible state to cope with the forthcoming days. Altitude is no joke, and all the expedition members are becoming accutely aware of that fact. On a personal note, I am really enjoying this trip. It continues to put a smile on my face seeing peoples eyes light up every time a new view comes into sight!

Expedition Day 5

What a couple of days we've had. Only in the Himalayas can you pack this much in!

Yesterday was really special. A 'rest' day or more appropriately an acclimatisation day meant that we were to sleep in Khumjung for a second night. It is critical to have these days to avoid the problems of AMS that are inevitable in a group of this size. However, rest we did not. The morning saw us coaching cricket with the amazing children of The Hillary School in Khumjung. This is sure to be one of the highlights of the trip. It was great, at the end, to donate some cricket equipment courtesy of the Lord's Taverners. It's a real pleasure to be thanked by certain members of the expedition and told that that was the best day of their life (and this by 2pm!).

The afternoon saw us taking on a spectacular acclimatisation walk up to altitudes of 4100m. The return to Khumjung was followed by 'The Everest Factor', an inter-team singing competition that left our guides amused (or should that be bemused?!).

Todays grueling trek up Tengboche was rewarded by amazing views of Everest, a visit to a Buddhist Monastry and an impromptu game of cricket with Everest herself as a back-drop.

Like I say, only in the Himalayas!

Expedition Days 1-3

We have had an immense few days. First off a succesful press conference at Lord's. Next, navigating a Heathrow bomb-scare that lead to us playing cricket in the dropping-off area. This delayed us, meaning that Qatar (who gave us 2 of our own check-in desks and have been completely amazing!) had to delay the connecting flight. Vick Staves lost her passport, which meant we nearly lost her and Jules! We made with, miraculously, all our central kit in tact

Despite having booked the rooms 6 months before, we had to be shifted to another hotel. wUs Hillary boys then went and coached some orphan kids at Aamir's 'Shangri-La Cricket Acadmey, which was an awesome experioence in itself.

Tenzing arrived but didn't do as I asked, leaving me furious. We got on the 'death flight'. We got to Lukla without any problems and are now firmly on the trail, having made it to Phakding, where we had some Tongba (see earlier posts!). Now we are in Namche Bazarre.

It has been immensely satisfying seeing this thing begin to materialise. There's a long way yet to go, and it's been eventful, but we are all safe, as is our kit and spirits are high. We have certainly had our planning tested, but am pleased to say that each challenge has more than been met and everyone has operated with the utmost professionalism. Today we had our first real health problem, one of the expedition falling ill mid-trek with AMS caused by dehydration. The medics stepped up to the plate and he is now safe, resting and will be fit to continue tomorrow. The journalists here seem more than happy with what they are getting, which is great. Sometimes I find fielding all the questions and handling the various situations a little tiring, but that's the job and I suspect that when I look back it will be fondly and with pride. It's great to be back here though!

Final Preparations

Well, we are now on the eve of departure. It has been a truly manic week since I got back from Nepal. From The airport I went straight to Lord's for an expedition meeting and some nets at the MCC indoor school.

The rest of the week has been spent running around town, trying to pay all the people that need paying (insurance, equipment hire etc). The Nokia money didn't come through until yesterday, which has meant that we have had to leave a lot of things to the very last minute. Tomorrow I still need to drop cash into one of the insurance companies main account in order for us to be fully covered!

Tonight I did a studio interview with Setanta Sports, which was really fun. I also dropped round some kit to Wes' flat wher it is all being packed up ready for the off. What an amazing sight that was. We have so much equipment, there is absolutely no questioning it now, this shit just got real!

Nick Mulleneux is going to be excellent as quatermaster, looking after all the central kit. He had an impressive system. With Jamo and BJ as his Hillary lackies, I have all the faith in the world.

We also took delivery of our Nokia phones, complete with Sports Tracker. Unfortunately I haven't had time to upload any tunes onto it as would have been ideal.

Well, the UK stuff is nearly wrapped up. We've had our fairwell party, we're packed, we're fit I am now ridiculously excited. A press conference at Lord's in the morning, and finally, dare I say it, we are off!

Just one saddening thing. We have, in the time I was away, lost one of my favourite Everesters. Charlie Bathurst-Norman has had to pull out due to an ongoing stomach issues. I'm pretty upset to be leaving that man behind. I'm sure though that will make us Hillarians play that much harder on match day.

Results All Round!

Well, what a manic time for 'The test'. But everyone has come up with the goods, as I have come to expect!

One of the hardest things about heading back to Nepal on an impromptu visit like that was the stuff I was going to have to miss out on.

Just before I went away I was able to announce that ITV London Tonight were going to send a journalist, Mark Jordan, to cover our expedition. That was an amazing scoop. Captive Minds were a big help on that one too. Alex Rayner and I had planned an ITV News Tonight feature whereby I would present to a school with James Butler and get them to make prayer flags that we would take up to Everest with us. They were to write their own prayers, hopes and wishes on these. In the end I had to miss out on this and let Glen and Wes take over. I also missed the table cricket with the Lord's Taverners and the disabled children. I also missed out on a big team weekend down in Cornwall. These things were pretty gutting to miss out on, but particularly the school as that was my creative idea and I really was looking forward to it.

Possibly harder than that was missing out on closing the Nokia deal! All the work I put in trying to find us a sponsor and I couldn't even be there to seal the deal. Still, at least we have a sponsor!! It's not as much as I'd have liked, or we may end up needing, but it'll mean we cna definitely do this thing so long as we are shrewd with spending! Massive thanks to Gerorge Powell and Vicks for managing this. Also to Wes for stepping back up whilst I was away.

My trip was also a success. At one point we were staring down some obnoxiously large demands from the Government there. It wasn't looking pretty, that's for sure! However, I'm starting to understand Nepal and its politics a little better now, and started palying this game properly.

First up I spent my evenings networking like a beast. It's all about who you know out there! Through a great guy call Aamir, I got to meet the CEO of a massive TV station out there called Avenues. He agreed to put together a promotional video campaign out on national TV for me. This suddenly started putting them in a corner. I also changed up the website homepage to include the Nepal Tourist Board logo prominently placed. This CEO also had some words in the right places. all this serves is to heap up the potential embarasment factor for the Government if permission was not to be granted.

Thanks to Nir's amazing tenacity, a few words from the right people and me losing my rag a bit, I am pleased to say that I have come away with full permissions and we should have no further problems. What an amazing feeling!

Back to Kathmandu

It was with no little concern that I found myself back on a Gulf Air plane back to Nepal. Despite all our efforts at Christmas, and all Nir Lama’s considerable efforts over the following weeks and months, with 3 weeks to go we still hadn’t been re-granted full permission. We had individual permissions from just about every relevant ministry in the Nepali Government, but were being floundered by some corrupt politicians and the sticky power-share arrangement currently in power.

I’ve actually been stressing this ever since Christmas. The regular updates from Nepal have on some days been reassuring, and some days deeply concerning. Something I have not felt I can share with the rest of the expedition. Cuzza knows some of the concerns, but even he not all of them.

It’s difficult to keep this stuff from Wes. However, I am aware of his ongoing problems with anxiety. I don’t get anxious easily and some nights this keeps me up all night. Really don’t think it would help if Wes knew and the last thing I want is him getting sick again. Besides, unless you’ve been to Nepal and seen how they operate I think it would be too easy to take wrong conclusions.

Anyway, here I am. I love this City and it’s always great to be back here. However, I’d like to come back and spend time here when I can actually enjoy it!

So, the score is that various ministries now want to send liason officers, at our expense. The home office want to send security, at our expense. They also want a Royalty payment for each team. This amounts to rather a lot of money. Money we don’t have. So my job over the next few days is to negotiate all this down to something we can afford without blowing the permissions all together.

Essentially I am in a bit of a corner as if they don’t give permission in the end, we can’t do it. I also can’t reimburse anyone as we have spent all the money getting this thing this far. No pressure then. This will certainly be an interesting few days!

Bath Half Marathon. In Pads.

It’s with no little disappointment that I admit to how difficult I made this bloody race on myself. Complacency is not a strong enough word. What should have been a fairly pleasant 13 mile run in the sun I categorically ruined.

First of all, the addition of cricket gear. Well, I kind of had to do this. Having already run the Asics London 5km, Nike and Gyro 10Km’s and the Cardiff Half Marathon in pads, it sort of made sense to finish strong and do this race padded up too. Even that might have been ok.

However, with the race on Friday, Cuzza and I decided to go visit Vicks Nichs at her family pile for dinner. This resulted in a 4am wine-drenched bed-time, and a morning after with a stinking hangover. This would be fine. We’re all fit and recover well.

Mistake number 2 came when we decided that we’d go to Cheltenham to watch the rugby, overnight there and head down to Bath the following morning. Stupid.

A couple of beers at Cheltenham Cricket Club watching the rugby soon turned to a few more and a visit to bar and wok for some greasy Chinese food and more beer. Why knock it on the head there? More beers in a pub with a late licence. By midnight I’d spotted that enough is probably enough. Wrong. I hadn’t counted on Victoria ‘I run better with a hangover’ Nicholson. Eventually I crawled into bed at 1.30am, leaving the rest to it.

6am start. Get up. Dead rat in mouth. Get everyone else up. Dead badgers in theirs. Finally we’re on the road heading to Bath for a half marathon. However, it’s also the hottest day of the year and we’re the most dehydrated people north of the Tropic of Cancer. What preparation!

The traffic into Bath is hideous, leaving us little time to pad-up and find the start line, let alone the rest of our bunch or indeed re-hydrate.

However, eventually us Cheltenham piss-heads to eventually find the others and we are soon under way. For the first 10 minutes of the race I am joking around. Kossak dancing for the crowd, just generally having fun. Then it dawns on me. I’m knackered and I have at least another hour and a half to go. Oh dear.

I’m pleased to say we all made it round. My time wasn’t great, but all things considered we did well. However, never ever am I going to make something that difficult again. If ever there was a lesson in why complacency is bad, consider it learnt!

Nets

One thing I’ve really loved about this expedition is the nets sessions with Hillary. Getting uber fit is brilliant too, but for me just to have coaching on my cricket is an amazing thing. Kiwi and Glen are great coaches. Essentially if you just listen to what Kiwi says and just do it, he’ll make you a better cricketer!

Cuzza has got me bowling leggies. Now I’m starting to surprise myself with the turn I’m getting. With Kiwi’s input on line and length and some help from Glen too, I’m starting to feel quite confident. Had an awesome session up at St Pauls last Sunday and was giving Glen all sorts of problems. Tom Sharland wasn’t enjoying them either.

The batting is coming along nicely too. Whilst my bowling is still prone to infuriating ‘yips’, the batting is much more consistent. Again, this is all Kiwi’s work. However, the net effect of all this is that I’ve started really looking forward to nets and can’t wait to play for the Drovers this season, and hopefully contribute more than just awesome tunes!

Back with a Bump!

Coming back from Nepal to redundancy took a while to sink in. It’s been a tough month but am finally finished with Nice Group. Am now doing some work with Captive Minds. They have been great to offer me some work. Wes was concerned, and rightly so, that this might form a conflict of interests and potentially he might be right. However, this is no strings stuff as I see it. The key is to find sponsorship for the event so that we can afford to pay CM more money. However, CM obviously have other work for me which is great.

It is bloody tough out there sponsorship-wise. Every lead eventually leads down a dead end. I don’t get it. This is a great property and to be honest I’m getting to the stage where any offer in the region of £25K would do it! £25K for this, what an unbelievable bargain.

Every company just seems the same though. They’re all so anxious about the next few years that they’ve all frozen spend. We seem to have alright leads still in with Vodafone, McCain Frozen Foods, Bremont Watches, but nothing firm. I’ve spent the last 3 weeks cold calling any company I can think of. It’s all the same story: ‘We love it, and in any other market we’d snap it up, but orders are no uneccesary spending. Sorry’. So disheartening. I’m sure we’ll get there though! Got to keep the faith!