I am trying to remember where we first met. I believe it was another dinner party at Doug's house, similar to the one which led me to Royalty in Belgium. During the evening, I was introduced to a fellow named Bob Wilson, who was a college instructor, member of Mazamas Mountaineering Organization and an active mountain climber. Bob told me about the Mazamas sponsored Men's American Annapurna I expedition scheduled for 1979 that he would be leading and heard that I had a locally based trekking company. He was looking for assistance with the climb in the areas of logistics, travel arrangements, luggage/climbing gear cargo as well as a possible fund-raising trek around Annapurna. Would I be interested in joining the team and providing these support services? Of course, I would.
The next morning at home, I searched for a world atlas and found Nepal tucked away in the Himalayas. A short distance to the west of the capital, Kathmandu, at least visually, was the Annapurna massive and Annapurna I. Fortunately, I had more than a year to research airlines flying from the west coast to Kathmandu, cargo requirements, trekking the Himalayas, local weather and any other questions that Bob or the other climbers may have had regarding their destination. The climb was set for fall 1979 and the climbing team met regularly to plan and implement the Annapurna I expedition.
A brief reminder, once more, that we planned and researched without computers and the internet. I "interviewed" local support services in Kathmandu via aerograms, which took between several weeks and a couple months to receive any responses. There weren't a lot of options for local support services, so the "interview" process was short on numbers but long on communication exchanges.
One of the climbers had a friend who was CEO of a company called CornNuts and they became one of the climb sponsors along with the Mazamas. When the Around Annapurna Trek was finalize, the company sent nine of the eighteen hikers to join the trek. This would have been a large trekking group in any situation and it taxed our young Sirdar as well as the Sherpa staff, porters, cooks and the trek leader who had done only one Nepal trek previously.
Susanne (wife, whom I met through Sunset's "Things To Do" column - (another story)) and I arrived in Kathmandu about 2 weeks early to get organized and take a short trek together with our young Sirdar in the Gosaikunda region. Except for my passing out while walking down a dry river bed in the intense heat, all went well. Yes, this was the "one Nepal trek previously." We were ready to greet our members and lead them on the Around Annapurna trek, or so we thought.
Susanne (wife, whom I met through Sunset's "Things To Do" column - (another story)) and I arrived in Kathmandu about 2 weeks early to get organized and take a short trek together with our young Sirdar in the Gosaikunda region. Except for my passing out while walking down a dry river bed in the intense heat, all went well. Yes, this was the "one Nepal trek previously." We were ready to greet our members and lead them on the Around Annapurna trek, or so we thought.
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| Around Annapurna Trek Airport Member Greeting (1979) |
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Walking, ideally, is a state in which the mind, the body and the world are aligned, as though they were three characters finally in conversation together, three notes suddenly making a cord.
Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust
