Getting high in Nepal

Read / lees in : Nederlands

Last year one of my friends wanted to climb the Aconcagua. But for reasons that remain unknown to mankind they wanted him to pass a medical exam. Which he couldn’t, so it was a no-go. Unbelievable, when I wanted to climb a mountain in Peru they never asked for a medical examination. The only thing they were interested in was a bank statement. And here in Nepal it’s the same. After all, idiots that want to climb mountains bring in hard currency, which they need desperately to built hydroelectric power stations. So the prices for climbing are not to laugh at, but then again getting high never comes cheap. For instance, to climb Everest you have to bring at least US$ 50,000 or US$ 5.65 per meter. Fortunately Mera Peak is not that expensive and the good people of my bank, the ABNAMRO, suddenly decided they didn’t want a pay raise this year. Therefore I was able to get the needed bankstatement. So we went on our way to the summit on March the 18th with two guides, three porters, myself, a Christmas tree farmer and a drugdealer (I swear I am not making this shit up). And I have to be honest, it was fucking hard. While there is a nice path and a tea house every half an hour or so on the ABC-trek, this trail most of the time looked like we were walking in a dried up riverbed (which it probably was) and we came across a tea house only once in every five hours, if we were lucky. After three days of walking we finally got to see Mera, and from a distance it didn’t even seem that high. So Christmas Carsten, Tony Montana and I thought to ourselves: ‘Easy peasy’. But as we got closer the mountain quickly became bigger and walking exponentially more difficult. But after seven days CC, Pablo and yours truly finally reached the summit of Mera Central at 6470 meters above the Netherlands. Time for a toast.

Update: This one is going to get a nice place next to my ‘shoelace tying diploma’. Click.