Pottering around the Planet

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As you all know my memory isn’t the strongest part of my constitution so it was quite a task to try and recall what all happened significant enough to be brought out, in the last two years. I can’t guarantee the veracity of all that follows but certainly it’s true to the best of my memory. Now read on.

 Traveling – I travelled to 46 countries (including several new ones) across six continents thereby bringing my country tally to 192 technically and 190 officially out of the official UN list of 193 nations. The difference between technical and official being that I have been to two countries physically but not officially. Crossed all the oceans barring the Arctic and Antarctic, by air of course. I am not insane like several of my friends who row or sail across oceans. Must have chalked up enough miles (by air, land and sea using all modes of transportation) to circumnavigate the planet twice at least. And despite all my green activism I must have contributed significantly to global warming. So what’s new! Nothing really, business as usual. My northernmost trip was into Arctic Finland and southernmost could be divided between Puerto Williams in Chile and Slope Point in NZ. Incidentally two of my last birthdays were spent in South America.

Climbing – to be honest I didn’t keep a count of my climbs therefore I really can’t specify the number but I am certain over a score, including several 6000m; the highest being Ojos Del Salado; at 6893m it is the world’s highest volcano. Situated in the Atacama deserts of Chile it’s an easy climb so no sweat. Out of my own choice I stayed away from the Himalayan giants as those lofty summits do not attract me as before. I find more excitement now to explore remote areas rather than spending weeks upon one peak. Also I am not anymore interested in large bodied expeditions. Now I prefer my solo sojourns or only with a friend or two in company. Simple and straightforward. Having been there and done that I am simplifying my climbing life too. Out of all my climbs and hikes in these two years, the one to Ivory Lake in New Zealand stands out for its remoteness, objective dangers and pristine beauty.

 Writing – Published a motivational book ‘Life on Top – Lessons learnt from High Mountains’ in Amazon. It has both kindle and paperback format. With nearly zero marketing or publicity the book seems to be doing well. Started writing an adventure novel which was paused more number of times than I can remember. With so much travelling I barely found a time or place to park myself in order to write, so yes of all my passions, writing took a backseat in the past two years.

Socializing – now obviously I cut down my already minimalistic social life to almost zero. I resigned from all alpine and other mountaineering organizations, stopped delivering talks, stopped all social media interactions, stopped coaching, minimized guiding, and for all purposes lay low. Just time out I suppose. Even then through my travels I kept meeting new people, from all walks of life. Each had a story to tell and I was willing to listen. Remarkable among those were a girl who has a galaxy named after her, a world renowned writer who has always been one of my favourite, an extraordinary airhostess, a girl biking solo around the world, and several others who reaffirmed my faith that I am not the only crazy one out there.

 That’s about all to summarize 2018 and 2019 and 2020 until now. Cheerio friends. Keep your faith in the current pandemic. I am sure that it could have been worst. See you guys on top!


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