Not sure how to start this post. I’m not a natural writer and my ‘waffling’ days are nearly 35 years behind me…it did me well for my ‘O’ Levels but failed me in my ‘A’ Levels (seems they wanted something more substantial than ‘waffling’). Not long now until I travel back to the Himalaya to climb Mera Peak and Baruntse. Training is going well, with the exception of not getting out walking often enough. Since August I’ve exercised as often as work has allowed…I’ve run the furthest and fastest I’ve ever run and sweated gallons while working out to Shaun T’s T 25 and Insanity Max 30. It’s made me leaner and fitter, but has it given me the one thing I need most, ‘the will to succeed’ and is that what I was missing on Cho Oyu two years ago? I thought that I was in the right state of mind, but was I missing that extra drive required to go beyond my comfort zone. One thing that I’ve found disappointing is that I’ve not been able to take up Darren’s offer of taking me ice climbing. It’s the one thing that I’ve wanted to improve on before going back to the Himalaya and as luck would have it, I found a willing teacher in Darren. BUT the fickle British winter has once again scuppered any attempt to do any winter climbing in North Wales. There’s still time, hopefully, to get out at least once before the middle of February. At the beginning of August four of us went to the Dolomites to do the Alte Via II with a Ann Foulkes, who runs a trekking company called Trekmountain ( http://trekmountains.com/ ). I was, of course,  with Uncle Les and two friends of Uncle Les’, Mike and Steve. It turned out that Steve is also attempting Mera Peak this year, later in the Spring and has been to the Himalaya a number of times. Mike, I’ve known for a few years and walked with him a couple of times in North Wales. He’s now retired and is happy for any excuse to get out onto the mountains.

I took my Nephew, Andrew, who’s only eight years old, up Snowdon on Saturday. A bitterly cold day but the weather forecast was for a mixture of sunshine and cloud with a summit temperature of -3 degrees but with wind-chill, making it feel like -12!! Snowdon’s summit, however, didn’t break through the cloud all day.

The path above the Miners/Pyg Track intersection was treacherous and covered with hard packed ice, as the number of unexperienced ‘day trippers’ proved, with many turning back but those that carried on reminded me somewhat of Disney’s cartoon Bambi, but with crampons on it wasn’t a problem for Andrew and me.

This isn’t, however, a blog about idiots on the mountains. Andrew not long after this point turned to me and said ‘I think I’d like to go back down now’ my reply was that I thought he’d regret not carrying on as he was so close to the summit and that this was the most interesting part of the walk, so let’s hear no more about turning around and let’s carry on. To his credit Andrew did exactly that and I hope my words helped. I have often wondered that if someone had said the same to me on Cho Oyu, would I have carried on……but as I said at the time the decision felt right and that’s the important thing and you have to ask was I right in making Andrew persevere? There’s a fine line between the decision to motivate yourself to carry on regardless or retreat safely…the question is are we capable of deciding where that line lies???

I’ve just read this back and thought ‘I don’t sound very excited’. Well, just to dispel any doubt, I am most definitely excited…only three and a half weeks to go before I take that long flight via Muscat in Oman and land in that wonderful city Kathmandu. And to once again climb and walk, with my friend Tshering in what I believe to be some of the most stunning mountains and friendly people in the world. “No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.” Ansel Adams