Had a final session with Simon before departing for Cho Oyu..we discussed about issues such as fears which I had raised to him earlier…on how to cope with them and my intention for this climb.

I told him that at this time, I had learnt to accept that fear is a double-edged sword, it can protect you and also propel you forward..Protect you from the danger arising as well as to motivate you to push forward. Simon shared that fear is a label that we used to codify our experience..that when we break down our experience into tangible steps and analyse it..a potentially negative experience could be due to inexperience or inadequte training..and that the label ‘fear’ that we conveniently put on may not be present at all..

My intention for this climb is also to enjoy myself on this journey..something that I had not been able to experience for all my previous climbs..to be with one with one with Mother Nature and not being distracted by all the physical discomforts that I have to deal with such as the cold, the fatigue and the pain..

Climbing at extreme altitude is a struggle not only against the mountain but with yourself.

As such, I would have to learn to let my mind and body function as one and not against each other..four steps to achieving that:
1. creating an intention for every act that I do
2. tune out (pay attention to the surrondings)
3. awareness of my body (to be aware which part of it is tense and relax it, move it such that it is congruent with my intention)
4. visualisation of the technical aspects of the climb. setting my intention and attention.

Not easy to do all of them at all times, yet every change begins with awareness..once we have the awareness, we have a choice of what to do about it.