2nd Attempt Mt. Everest Summit 2017
With each step, the magesty of the landscape is spell-binding. The joy and candor of the people is infectious. Yet the challenges and risks are ever-present, and my ambitions at best niaive, audacious and perhaps impossible. I reach Everest Base Camp with all my senses at maximum capasity and I feel confident in my purpose. My ego, superego and id, have some on-site recalibrating to do, but here on the Khumbu Glacier, I have found a state of flow and calm amid tensions. Sleeping for the first time on a glacier, I experience an infinite connection and deep perceptional entwine with the body of water protecting the mountain. As the glacier respires and moves gentle beneath me, I feel safe and welcomed. From deep within, I start a personal dialogue with the mountain, and she replies. I wake burried in snow and heavenly light.
The 2015 Bending Horizons Everest Summit Expedition was aborted due to the Gorkha earthquakes and waves of after-shocks that shook the region. The destruction and trauma was mind-blowing. By fate rather than design, I escaped the carnage on Everest and Thamel when 8800 others were not so lucky. The infrastructure across the region shut down, and the climbing season suspended. I did what I could, then left the country prematurely with survivors guilt, and a gaping hole in my heart. I plan to return in 2017 better prepared to support the Nepelese people, my mission and ultimate goal to use extreme performance art to expand human awareness and connection across time-space.