Saturday, November 28, 2009

Adios! on my way to Aconcagua

I am almost ready to board the plane. Just wanted to leave a couple of links to follow my progress. I have decided to climb Aconcagua without any media following my progress ( Except for Trent of the Calgary Herald, he is persistent and I promise to call from the summit) This is a new sport for me and I want to focus on learning and absorbing what's happening around me without having to worry about deadlines, i am sure I will be rushing to blog as soon as I can but there is nothing pretty about having to recover from a hard race or climb and having to find an internet cafe in the middle of nowhere because I have a newspaper deadline.
talking about media CTV did a great interview, it will be online shortly Alberta Primetime Trailblazers

I have been going crazy to make sure bills are paid, freezers have enough food, christmas concerts, band concerts, swim meets and school rides are arranged. The only thing I couldn't do was to buy christmas presents for my kids teachers, run out of cash, it was either that or my Petzl Sum'Tec Mountaineering ax that I need for my trip, all i want to say to my kids teachers is that they all my gratitude and I wish them the best Christmas season.

Things where hectic,(ok Nadia), they where downright out of control for a couple of days, my basement flooded again and it send me on a crazy bizarre journey where I called my realtor Tanya Eklund to sell my house and move to Vancouver, it turns out my house is hard to sell, busy street, can't be subdivided, unless I want to drop the price significantly, which in it means I cant move to Vancouver either, if they ever make a movie about me, they will cast Mr Bean to play me.

Things are fine, my kids are happy to see me go, i am a bit suspicious about this, and my niece is mobile once again after having surgery to repair her birthday party injury, so I can now go and do what have been dreaming about for the last three months, to climb Aconcagua, i feel confident and ready thanks to many people, specially my mentor, and friend Patrick Delaney who has spent countless hours making sure that I am confident about everything related to climbing.

To follow my progress Adventure Consultants will be posting updates on their website about our climb on their dispatches page,not schedule to start climbing until Dec 2 once we have acclimatize properly for a few days before the climb on the town of Penitentes, there are two local guides and five of us climbing, two Australians and two south Africans. If you want to check it out go just go to this page

I am leaving you with a quote from a 7 summit and cancer survivor. The 7 summits seem to be the road that leads to enlightenment for those of us that find that life sometimes throws challenges that seem to be a bit of a maze.

The human body can survive for about thirty days without food. The human condition can sustain itself for about three days without water, but no human alive can survive for more than thirty seconds without HOPE, because without hope we truly have nothing.”
Sean Swarner, Cancer Climber

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck Norma...I hope you have a great experience!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I know you have the determination, the strength and the passion to conquer this new endeavour. Norma, I know between you and I, the key element is "stubbornness" that permits us to achieve whatever we set our minds to. I know you can do it, now just enjoy it.

Dagmar

Anonymous said...

Dear Norma,
I am so proud of you, you are an amaizing woman who have been teaching us the best way to live with hope.
Thank you for let us to follow you, I'm sure you will finish next time, but for me you are a finisher all the time and a "GREAT MOTHER"
Love you,
Maria from Tijuana,B.C.Mexico