The ultimate vacation???

joeparaski

I was at my friends' place for a barbeque a couple of days ago and I had a chance to meet and chat Manuel Pizarro, a Quebecer who has climbed to the top of Mount Everest twice!

Anyway, every couple of years he does an expedition where he takes people up to base camp on Mount Everest...a mere 17,000 ft. altitude! I am considering such a trip for next April. For a cost of $5,000 I could have a once in a lifetime experience (21 days total).

I was wondering what kind of "different" vacations some of you folks may have had in your lifetime.

Joe

wz2p7j

joeparaski wrote: »

I was at my friends' place for a barbeque a couple of days ago and I had a chance to meet and chat Manuel Pizarro, a Quebecer who has climbed to the top of Mount Everest twice!

Anyway, every couple of years he does an expedition where he takes people up to base camp on Mount Everest...a mere 17,000 ft. altitude! I am considering such a trip for next April. For a cost of $5,000 I could have a once in a lifetime experience (21 days total).

I was wondering what kind of "different" vacations some of you folks may have had in your lifetime.

Joe

Been to the Everest area (Lukla, Namchi), not to the summit. Be careful, dude, it's REAL easy to die up there. Although I'd like to go back and take another crack at it.

Kathmandu is cool, a lot of neat stupa's in the area. It's third world all the way.

edit - re-read your post. Base camp? Base camp is easy - you won't die!!

Chris

joeparaski

wz2p7j wrote: »

Been to the Everest area (Lukla, Namchi), not to the summit. Be careful, dude, it's REAL easy to die up there. Although I'd like to go back and take another crack at it.

Kathmandu is cool, a lot of neat stupa's in the area. It's third world all the way.

edit - re-read your post. Base camp? Base camp is easy - you won't die!!

Chris

Yeah, just base camp. It takes something like 12 days to get there and you go through several villages along the way. Anything further than that and you need to be VERY experienced in climbing. Many people have died trying to reach the summit and even a member of Manuels' team died on last years' climb. And when you die on Mount Everest, you STAY on Mount Everest...there is NO bringing back of bodies.

Joe

shack

Funny you mention this. One week from tomorrow my oldest daughter is taking her backpack and heading to SE Asia. She and her friend are meeting in Thailand and will be spending the next two and a half months backpacking across Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. They will be sticking to the major cities and sightseeing venues. For the three weeks at the end of their trip after SE Asia, the last leg tentatively is to hike up to Mt. Everest Base Camp One in Nepal. We have been hiking quite a bit in the Smokies to get her into shape, but 6,500 feet in elevation is way different than 17,000 feet. They are going to play it by ear and see if it is something they can really accomplish. It is the plan but they realize it is a huge undertaking. If not, they will maybe end up in some other place, like Turkey. Oh to be young and footloose again.

To end her trip, she and her friend will part ways and Lauren will fly to Barcelona and meet my wife. They will spend a few days in Spain before jumping on a cruise ship and hitting several Mediterranean ports (Italy, Spain, Monte Carlo and Greece). They will be celebrating their birthdays in Nov. on the cruise.

wz2p7j

My only claim to fame is traveling so here are a few of mine:

Aforementioned backpacking Everest region
Backpacked Cradle mountain area in Tazmania
Barrier reef scuba diving
Backpacked "Inca Trail" (3 days) to Machu Pichu - Peru
Sailing Caribbean islands on small boats - 40 feet - 4 times
Back packing Alaska's old gold mining trail - the Chilkoot trail
Trekked around the pyramids outside of Cairo in Egypt
Visited the "old city" in Jerusalem
Got robbed in Rio de Janeiro
Listened to the Doors in Red Square (Moscow) during the Yeltsin elections
A typhoon chased me out of Seoul, Korea
Rode the shinkansen around Japan
Rode all the ferries around the Greek isles to Mykonos, Nachos, Santorini
The Acropolis in Greece was cool
Watched the bridges "go up" in St. Petersburg (read up on it)
Fijords in Sweden
Scuba dive in the Bermuda triangle area
Sydney opera house - yes!
Castles in Scotland
Climbed Ben Nevis in Scotland
Visited the Taj Mahal
Stayed at a palace in in India
European cities - London, Paris, Rome
Got **** faced in Venice and couldn't find my way back to my hotel!
Got locked in a mall in Hong Kong one night
Climbed the mountain behind Neuschwanstein castle in Germany
Drank copius beer at Octoberfest in Munich!

There's probably some stuff I've forgotten. But that's the jist of it. 27 countries in about 15 years. I never left the US until I was about 30. I've really slowed down now. Plus now I can't rub 2 nickles together so it felt good to reflect on a little past experience.

Chris

wz2p7j

joeparaski wrote: »

Yeah, just base camp. It takes something like 12 days to get there and you go through several villages along the way. Anything further than that and you need to be VERY experienced in climbing. Many people have died trying to reach the summit and even a member of Manuels' team died on last years' climb. And when you die on Mount Everest, you STAY on Mount Everest...there is NO bringing back of bodies.

Joe

Twelve days sounds like a lot. When I was there we flew into Lukla and I almost made it to Namche, which is 11,000 feet. That was only a 2 day hike. Base camp is about 17,000 feet. I would think that would only be a couple days more.

(I summit'd two 14,000 feet peaks in Peru in 3 days (with a lame ankle). Two marathon runners with me helped me carry my gear. But hey, I made it.)

Are you hiking from Lukla or somewhere in Kathmandu?

Chris

shack

wz2p7j wrote:

My only claim to fame is traveling so here are a few of mine:

Aforementioned backpacking Everest region
Backpacked Cradle mountain area in Tazmania
Barrier reef scuba diving
Backpacked "Inca Trail" (3 days) to Machu Pichu - Peru
Sailing Caribbean islands on small boats - 40 feet - 4 times
Back packing Alaska's old gold mining trail - the Chilkoot trail
Trekked around the pyramids outside of Cairo in Egypt
Visited the "old city" in Jerusalem
Got robbed in Rio de Janeiro
Listened to the Doors in Red Square (Moscow) during the Yeltsin elections
A typhoon chased me out of Seoul, Korea
Rode the shinkansen around Japan
Rode all the ferries around the Greek isles to Mykonos, Nachos, Santorini
The Acropolis in Greece was cool
Watched the bridges "go up" in St. Petersburg (read up on it)
Fijords in Sweden
Scuba dive in the Bermuda triangle area
Sydney opera house - yes!
Castles in Scotland
Climbed Ben Nevis in Scotland
Visited the Taj Mahal
Stayed at a palace in in India
European cities - London, Paris, Rome
Got **** faced in Venice and couldn't find my way back to my hotel!
Got locked in a mall in Hong Kong one night
Climbed the mountain behind Neuschwanstein castle in Germany
Drank copius beer at Octoberfest in Munich!

There's probably some stuff I've forgotten. But that's the jist of it. 27 countries in about 15 years. I never left the US until I was about 30. I've really slowed down now. Plus now I can't rub 2 nickles together so it felt good to reflect on a little past experience.

Chris

Sounds like my daughter...only she will turn 26 on this trip.

So far:

Mexico
El Salvador
Nicaragua
Panama
Costa Rica
Belize
The Bahamas
The US Virgin Islands
Grand Cayman
Poland
Italy
France
Germany
Switzerland
England
Norway
Egypt
Kenya
Tanzania
Zanzibar

There may be a couple more I've forgotten.

She will add at least 7 or 8 more countries (maybe more) on her upcoming trip.

wz2p7j

Shack,

That's an awesome list! Keep her moving! You really slow down when you settle down. I never had kids so I never really settled down.

By the way, I live in Michigan and cross the border to Windsor to see the, ahem, "Windsor ballet" (titty bar). Can I count Canada on my list? LOL

Chris

wz2p7j

For the record, I think I forgot:

Austria
Grenada
Grenadines
Mexico
Monaco
Netherlands
Norway
Switzerland

Now, if I just had enough money to go back to any of those places, it would be cool.

Chris

shack

wz2p7j wrote: »

Shack,

That's an awesome list! Keep her moving!

She's doing it all on her own. She graduated from college with a degree in interior design/architecture at absolutely the worst possible time (2 years ago) . She will work 8 months or so with whatever job she can find (service industry stuff) then go traveling for 4 months. Lots of adventures, trials, troubles and fun. She and I both hope when she gets back the job market will have improved and she can start her career.

sandworms

wz2p7j wrote: »

For the record, I think I forgot:

Austria
Grenada
Grenadines
Mexico
Monaco
Netherlands
Norway
Switzerland

Now, if I just had enough money to go back to any of those places, it would be cool.

Chris

I'm jealous, except for the robbed in Rio part

Janne

wz2p7j wrote: »

My only claim to fame is traveling so here are a few of mine:

Aforementioned backpacking Everest region
Backpacked Cradle mountain area in Tazmania
Barrier reef scuba diving
Backpacked "Inca Trail" (3 days) to Machu Pichu - Peru
Sailing Caribbean islands on small boats - 40 feet - 4 times
Back packing Alaska's old gold mining trail - the Chilkoot trail
Trekked around the pyramids outside of Cairo in Egypt
Visited the "old city" in Jerusalem
Got robbed in Rio de Janeiro
Listened to the Doors in Red Square (Moscow) during the Yeltsin elections
A typhoon chased me out of Seoul, Korea
Rode the shinkansen around Japan
Rode all the ferries around the Greek isles to Mykonos, Nachos, Santorini
The Acropolis in Greece was cool
Watched the bridges "go up" in St. Petersburg (read up on it)
Fijords in Sweden
Scuba dive in the Bermuda triangle area
Sydney opera house - yes!
Castles in Scotland
Climbed Ben Nevis in Scotland
Visited the Taj Mahal
Stayed at a palace in in India
European cities - London, Paris, Rome
Got **** faced in Venice and couldn't find my way back to my hotel!
Got locked in a mall in Hong Kong one night
Climbed the mountain behind Neuschwanstein castle in Germany
Drank copius beer at Octoberfest in Munich!

There's probably some stuff I've forgotten. But that's the jist of it. 27 countries in about 15 years. I never left the US until I was about 30. I've really slowed down now. Plus now I can't rub 2 nickles together so it felt good to reflect on a little past experience.

Chris

Lier! There are no fjords in Sweden. In Norway maybe

Amherst

Wow, some awesome lists posted here.

Unless I missed it no one has mentioned Alaska yet!

For those wanting to stay stateside:
A cruise up the coast with it's daily ports of call along the way are something to behold. Plan way ahead so while in port you are able to take every excursion possible such as The Yukon railway, a helicopter trip onto a glacier, seaplane ride out to hike the rain forest, whale watching, horseback riding, kyacking, and more. Make sure the cruise you choose goes to Glacier Bay along the route.

After reread see the backpack of the Chilkoot!

wz2p7j

Janne wrote: »

Lier! There are no fjords in Sweden. In Norway maybe

You're right - did Sweden and Norway same trip a long time ago. Got confused.

Chris

joeparaski

wz2p7j wrote: »

Twelve days sounds like a lot. When I was there we flew into Lukla and I almost made it to Namche, which is 11,000 feet. That was only a 2 day hike. Base camp is about 17,000 feet. I would think that would only be a couple days more.

(I summit'd two 14,000 feet peaks in Peru in 3 days (with a lame ankle). Two marathon runners with me helped me carry my gear. But hey, I made it.)

Are you hiking from Lukla or somewhere in Kathmandu?

Chris

I haven't committed to this trip...yet. It will be from Kathmandu, but I think there are stops in several villages, hence the length of the trek. I'm going to get more details soon. (yeah, 12 days does seem long, maybe I missed something in the conversation).

My obstacle right now is money...it's $5,000 plus around another $1500 for some proper gear. I've got to do the damn roof on the house. Need to get a good road bike for a "ride to conquer cancer" event I signed up for. Looks like audio upgrades and the "projector" project are going on the back-burner.


Joe


P.S. WOW WOW WOW .... some of you guys have been on amazing trips!!! I'd like to turn this into a new "hobby". Man I wish that lottery ticket would.......darn!


Joe

thuffman03

For $5,000 I can think of a lot of things I would rather do but that is just me. If you want to do it, go for it.

snow

thuffman03 wrote: »

For $5,000 I can think of a lot of things I would rather do

Yup like one hundred $50.00 hookers :eek::p



REGARDS SNOW

wz2p7j

thuffman03 wrote: »

For $5,000 I can think of a lot of things I would rather do but that is just me. If you want to do it, go for it.

Joe, just go for it. The memories are just worth their weight in gold. ;)

Chris

Janne

How about a round of golf In the Axis of evil.

My first leg was at the Revolution Sports complex in Teheran. It’s a very nice course in the middle of the city. It was a little crowded with Revolutionary guards doing their morning gymnastics on the greens but they were always kind to let you play through. Unfortunately I have heard that it is now a 9 holes course as the guards are using some of the fairways for tank parking

My second leg was a visit to the Pyongyang golf club at Taesong lake. Here you can play the same course where Kim Jong Il shot an amazing 38 under par. While I could not match his 5 hole in ones I still managed to card a birdie. This course also has a feature I have never seen before. A “Pin girl”! The course only have 5-6 flag pins so the “Pin girl” is hiding behind the green and when you have finished the hole she takes the Pin and runs to the next hole with it. Unfortunately on my last day she was not working ……… I blame my bad score on her.

inspiredsports

There are 3 trips at the top of my bucket list, and a trip to the Everest South Base camp in Nepal is the one I am least likely to make. The other two are following the Tour de'France by motorhome to view a majority of the stages, and a trip to Oktoberfest in Munich.

In dreaming of that base camp trip, I've read/watched almost everything available about Everest over the past decade and there is a lot to consider.

I used to do an extreme amount of backpacking/mountaineering in the Rockies from the Teton and Wind River ranges in Wyoming down to the San Juans in southwestern Colorado and I've summited 17 of the 53 "Fourteeners" in Colorado.

Here's the thing, even in my twenties I was running up to 8 miles 4 or 5 days per week and/or bicycling 200 miles per week in preparation. As I got older (now early 50's), the drive for that kind of preparation left me and I'm not sure I could get my body back in shape to perform at the level required in the rarified air of just 14,000'. And those trips involved just brief encounters with those altitudes as base camps were under 13,000 feet with summit trips of just 6-8 hours. At 17,500, there is less than 60% of the oxygen available as at sea level.

With conditioning or gradual exposure to higher altitudes, the physical shape of the hemoglobin cells in your blood changes to allow for more oxygen bearing surface area per cell. If you are going (to be in base camp by early May when all of the action occurs), you pretty much need to commit and start work to improve your VO2 max (maximum amount of oxygen uptake in your lungs) TODAY. And I sure hope you don't smoke. Also, for some reason the age of 50 seems to be a threshold where it is harder to get your body in shape for higher altitudes.

Even with proper preparation, some folks simply don't do well even as low as 8,000 feet where the first signs of altitude sickness typically display.

Slow acclimation is one key to success so the 21 day profile is a good thing. Other problems that manifest near 18,000 feet are the "Khumbu Cough" and intestinal problems due to so little oxygen/air pressure.

Joe, I would GO FOR IT if you can, but understand it is not a walk in Jaques-Cartier and will take a significant amount of training to be comfortable at that altitude.

shack

inspiredsports wrote:

Even with proper preparation, some folks simply don't do well even as low as 8,000 feet where the first signs of altitude sickness typically display.

Slow acclimation is one key to success so the 21 day profile is a good thing. Other problems that manifest near 18,000 feet are the "Khumbu Cough" and intestinal problems due to so little oxygen/air pressure.

This is the thing that concerns my daughter and her friend the most. They are both in their mid 20s and are in pretty good shape, running marathons and half marathons and doing some hiking here locally (My daughter Lauren) and in the mountainous regions of South Africa (Laura). Neither one has any indication of how they will do in that sort of elevation. Like you said, at 17,000 feet there are serious physical considerations they need to be very aware of. They are considering a 21 day trek to BC1 in October near the end of their trip. Their physical condition after nearly 3 months in SE Asia and money may be the final determinations as to whether they attempt it or not. They may back off and not try to go all the way to BC1 and just spend a week or so hiking in the area.

inspiredsports

A lot of people don't know this (pilots do), but if you are used to living near sea level and suddenly crash a plane in the mountains, somewhere between 17,000 and 20,000 above sea level is where you die within hours if you don't have oxygen or have had gradual acclimation.

Again, the hiking profiles in the Himalaya's are such that normal hiking altitude gain allows most to adjust if they were rigorously training beforehand. Half-marathoners should have few problems.

Last, all bets are off for smokers. A person at sea level who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day, may theoretically be receiving only as much oxygen as a healthy non-smoker at 8,000 feet. If that smoker was hiking at 12,000 feet, the actual altitude experienced could be as much as 19,000 or 20,000 feet.

Ricardo

I've been to Gatlinburg. Twice. Is there anything besides that????

shack

Ricardo wrote:

I've been to Gatlinburg. Twice. Is there anything besides that????

Only if you spent time in Pigeon Forge and went to Dollywood.

inspiredsports

shack wrote: »

Only if you spent time in Pigeon Forge and went to Dollywood.

. . . Or drive just a tad south into the beautiful Great Smoky National Park area for hiking, biking, rafting and some of the best roads on earth for motorcycle and sports car high G-Force driving!

shack

inspiredsports wrote:

. . . Or drive just a tad south into the beautiful Great Smoky National Park area for hiking, biking, rafting and some of the best roads on earth for motorcycle and sports car high G-Force driving!

Kinda hard to do that behind a RV going 15 mph or having to stop every 1,000 feet or so when people in the car in front of you "think" they see a bear. :rolleyes:

wz2p7j

I summit'd two 14,000 foot peaks in Peru with no training. Plus was smoking a joint a day before the trip (shouldn't admit that). Plus wasted my ankle in a fall the first day and was hobbling along. We did the trail in3 days while all the guide books said it should take 5. This was in my younger days. :p

Wimps! :eek::eek:

But, yeah, 14,000 is not 17,000 feet, the air just keeps getting thinner the higher you go.

Chris

joeparaski

inspiredsports wrote: »

There are 3 trips at the top of my bucket list, and a trip to the Everest South Base camp in Nepal is the one I am least likely to make. The other two are following the Tour de'France by motorhome to view a majority of the stages, and a trip to Oktoberfest in Munich.

In dreaming of that base camp trip, I've read/watched almost everything available about Everest over the past decade and there is a lot to consider.

I used to do an extreme amount of backpacking/mountaineering in the Rockies from the Teton and Wind River ranges in Wyoming down to the San Juans in southwestern Colorado and I've summited 17 of the 53 "Fourteeners" in Colorado.

Here's the thing, even in my twenties I was running up to 8 miles 4 or 5 days per week and/or bicycling 200 miles per week in preparation. As I got older (now early 50's), the drive for that kind of preparation left me and I'm not sure I could get my body back in shape to perform at the level required in the rarified air of just 14,000'. And those trips involved just brief encounters with those altitudes as base camps were under 13,000 feet with summit trips of just 6-8 hours. At 17,500, there is less than 60% of the oxygen available as at sea level.

With conditioning or gradual exposure to higher altitudes, the physical shape of the hemoglobin cells in your blood changes to allow for more oxygen bearing surface area per cell. If you are going (to be in base camp by early May when all of the action occurs), you pretty much need to commit and start work to improve your VO2 max (maximum amount of oxygen uptake in your lungs) TODAY. And I sure hope you don't smoke. Also, for some reason the age of 50 seems to be a threshold where it is harder to get your body in shape for higher altitudes.

Even with proper preparation, some folks simply don't do well even as low as 8,000 feet where the first signs of altitude sickness typically display.

Slow acclimation is one key to success so the 21 day profile is a good thing. Other problems that manifest near 18,000 feet are the "Khumbu Cough" and intestinal problems due to so little oxygen/air pressure.

Joe, I would GO FOR IT if you can, but understand it is not a walk in Jaques-Cartier and will take a significant amount of training to be comfortable at that altitude.

Very interesting! Well, I don't smoke, so that's a good thing. I am not overweight (155 lbs. @ 5'6" and 19% body fat at the moment). I've been training every day and eating healthy for the past 3 weeks and I'm feeling stronger every day (reminds me of the song from Chicago). The trip is scheduled for the first 3 weeks in April. I think I will be physically ready...the question is, can I come up with the money?

Joe

Ric5811

Hmmm, let's see..

England, Scotland, Mexico, Seychelles, Hong Kong, Kenya, Singapore, Japan, Somalia, i think that's it...Somalia was of course courtesy of the USMC..

inspiredsports

joeparaski wrote: »

Very interesting! Well, I don't smoke, so that's a good thing. I am not overweight (155 lbs. @ 5'6" and 19% body fat at the moment). I've been training every day and eating healthy for the past 3 weeks and I'm feeling stronger every day (reminds me of the song from Chicago). The trip is scheduled for the first 3 weeks in April. I think I will be physically ready...the question is, can I come up with the money?

Joe

Joe, your profile sounds perfect.

The answer to the money question is, "Yes."

I remember stories in sales training about the people who won't commit to $50 dollars a month for an excercise program stating, "I can't afford it." Coincidentally, the next they discover they have a life-threatening heart condition that will cost $50,000 to correct. Money suddenly becomes no issue. They want the surgery and find a way to finance it.

Once you decide you can't live without the trip, you will find a way to fund it. It's about $800 a month if you start today.

P.S.: I don't know if you are in advertising/marketing/PR/etc., but sometimes you can get a few small sponsorships for using/mentioning/carrying/photographing various products during the hike or in Base. You might also ask your employer unless there is a conflict or don't really want them involved. And consider if there is a way for friends/family to help.



Oh, to be young again . . .

inspiredsports

Hi Joe,

I'm was watching the current Discovery Channel broadcast of the "Everest; Beyond The Limit" series and remembered this thread.

Every time I watch anything about Everest, I wish I'd been more interested in the mountain when I was younger and stood a chance of at least reaching base camp.

What did you ever decide?

Greg