Today, we celebrated cutting two hours in our climb from Camp I to Camp II at over 20,000 ft. with a hefty dish of vegetables and tortellini smothered with guinea pig sauce! At least it wasn’t chicken stew! My protector, Kent Groninger, has me safely tucked away in a 4″ yellow stuff sack in his coat pocket. We are climbing Mt. Everest together. He carries me and in return, I give him a few grins and imbue the energy of many who are vicariously climbing with him. If we summit, Kent will be the oldest American at age 66 (and moi will be the first chicken)! I’m already drafting the blurb for the Guinness Book of World Records!
Mt. Everest is the top of the world at 29,035 feet high and is known in Nepal as Sagarmatha, “goddess of the sky.” For everyone who is interested in the history and statistics, please click on the link. But being the mascot of Da Vinci Capers ~ A Personal Renaissance Journey, my enthusiasm is in Kent, his team members and the experience of our journey.
Kent has been climbing mountains since he was a young boy living in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. When he moved to Colorado in the 70’s, he joined the Colorado Mountain Club. He will tell you all about this in the video that we’ll soon be uploading onto the blog. For now, let’s just say that over the last three decades, Kent’s climbing resume includes over 100 peaks in the U.S. and he has been on nine international expeditions – most peaks over 20,000 feet and an attempt to summit Mt. Everest in 2005 (he actually made it to Camp III when they were turned back due to bad weather).
On that expedition he had his lovely wife, Cathleen, with him – now, it’s just me – “Chicken Lite” (Kent’s nickname for me). But, I must confess, Kent was in awe when he first laid eyes on me: hand-painted wings with a red leather comb, folded neatly into the size of a half an envelope and weighing no more than 2 ounces! Loosing weight was difficult at best considering that I was fat and happy just a month ago in the Antarctica! (This chick does get around!) Kent’s only concern was that on the summit, the winds may fly me into Tibet and he would not be able to rescue me. I told him that this would be just fine – I would become a monk and meditate the remaining years of my life.
Windy nights in the tents and a flu bug to boot. More to come…
Tags: Alpine Ascents, Chicken, Mt. Everest, Tibet
