Mt Everest, CMT and the night from hell

by Kev Howlett

The moon shines through the half-shaded window like a headtorch. The cold is beyond cold, my shivering is getting worse as I wonder how much longer I can stay here. I keep thinking I’m good to go but then I feel my stomach rumbling and know it’s not over, this is getting ridiculous!

Here I am on a frozen squatty toilet in the back room of a Nepalese guesthouse, its ceramic base has iced over making it impossible to stay balanced and the wall with the support handle is sadly out of reach. The blue plastic barrel of flush water next to me is solid ice and I have six sheets of toilet paper left. This is the fifth time I have met this toilet tonight as my stomach has been off for the last six days and I haven’t eaten much food for the last seven.

I am in the closest village to Mt Everest base camp: Gorakshep. This is meant to be my euphoric night after reaching base camp the afternoon before but celebration is far from my thoughts.

In late 2012 a mate of mine, a fellow photographer, suggested we should do something amazing before we both turn 50. We decided it should have these three elements: 1. Be photographically amazing, 2. Must be physically challenging and 3. Must not cost the earth as we both were on a budget. Not long after that he rang me and suggested the Mt Everest

Base Camp trek. We did initial costings, google research and it just seemed perfect. We were both excited as it ticked all of the boxes. Just by chance my friend had a contact at World Expeditions in Melbourne who are the leaders in trekking in Nepal and they would give us a good discount if we went with them, easy decision, done. Early 2014 seemed best so the countdown was on. We started our training which involved climbing up hills, mountains and lots of stairs, stairs and more stairs.

My wife suggested I should use the trek to raise some money for something worthy. I had never really thought of doing this as I am not great at asking people to donate money but she convinced me people would support me doing something amazing like the EBC trek. We were throwing charity names around and it took a while for us to realise we had the most obvious one sitting right in front of us. Our eldest son Dylan has a disease called CMT, why not raise funds for that? WOW a lightbulb moment, it was perfect. The only hesitation was that none of us, Dylan included, had ever really told people he had CMT so this would be news to even some close friends.

Climbing and climbing

Me and Norm at Norm at Namche Bazaar

The training continued as we did research on online fundraising and finally set up the event. We used a site called Pozible and they suggest you offer rewards to entice people to donate. It was obvious I should do something with the photos I take over there. It was decided that I would create a coffee-table book of the trip. We got pricing and worked out some other offers and came up with the figure of $2,500 to raise to cover costs and still have a decent amount to give to the Australian CMT Association.

We thought of the name Walk With Me for the book and campaign. CMT is a degeneration of peripheral nerves, especially the hands and feet. Although Dylan can walk he would never be able to do the EBC trek with me so this book was to be his version of the trek, from the comfort of his couch.

Through 2013 we stepped up our training, doing countless mornings at the 1000 steps in Dandenong doing not just the steps but also the 7km loop over the mountain 2-3 times in a session. The fitness was getting better.

Read the full story by subscribing free to Supernal Magazine Australia. Go to www.supernalmagazineaustralia.com.au

First view of Mt Everest