To friends and parents in Grey Bruce, please take note that The Jack Project and 2 Counsellors from Kid’s Help Phone will be coming to your area next week to do presentations on Mental Health First Aid!
Monday Nov 28th 7pm at GHSS Flesherton / Tuesday Nov 29th Knight’s of Columbus Hall Owen Sound 7pm /Wednesday Owen Sound Public Library 7pm. To find out more go to www.TheJackProject.org Your contributions to the EBC Trek helped fund this great initiative! Thanks!

http://www.TheJackProject.org/

TheJackProject.org

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank my family, friends and neighbours, my coworker’s, the local TV and radio stations, the local newspapers, online newspapers and magazines, local journalists, my corporate sponsors, local businesses, and the Canadian Mental Health Association, especially the Volunteer Fundraising Committee and Jackie Ralph, my fundraising partner, for her tireless efforts to help me reach my goal of $29,035, and finally to you, the communities of Grey/Bruce, The Town of Blue Mountains and Simcoe County for all of your support and generous dollars that not only helped me to reach my goal, but to surpass it!!

On April 5th 2011, my trekking partner Mary Tatham and I made it to Mount Everest Base Camp, at an altitude of 17,590 feet above sea level! It was quite a trip!

My journey began in October 2009, when I decided to do the Everest trek in honor of my son Ryan, who I had lost to suicide in 2006! The Trek would take place around the 5th anniversary of his death!
I made the decision then to raise money for the CMHA/GB for programs to help our youth struggling with mental illness, and starting this Fall, thanks to your generosity and support, several schools from Grey/Bruce will be taking part in a pilot project introducing Mental Health First Aid into their schools! To find out more about this wonderful program please visit http://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.ca/

It’s so important to recognize the symptoms of mental illness early, and more important to have the resources available to help! So thank you all once again for making it possible!

The trek was very challenging and I was happy that I had trained so hard! I also took the high altitude medication that was recommended, and as a result didn’t suffer many health problems. However, many people in our group didn’t take the Diamox, and as a result got very ill.
We lost our doctor on 4th day of trekking! He developed Cereberal Edema, which is life threatening, and had to be taken down the mountain, with the aid of 2 Sherpa. Two days later one of the women would have a mini stroke and would be evacuated by helicopter with our team leader! Two others suffering from high altitude sickness had to go to lower altitude, so 24 of 29 made it to base camp, but only 22 made it back down the mountain! Two more would be evacuated by helicopter, including my trekking partner Mary, who was suffering from a chronic lung infection and at that altitude with 50% less oxygen, she was struggling to breath! The other girl was dehydrated, and had lost vision in her right eye! Later we found out that she had to have heart surgery, due to a collapsed ventricle!
Everyone would fully recover and we met up in Katmandu after the trek, for the celebration dinner!

The trek was amazing! The scenery breath taking! The peace and serenity of the mountains, and the beautiful Yak’s are something I’ll never forget!

Reaching Base Camp was emotional for us all! We were there as a group of people fundraising for various causes including cancer, juvenile diabetes, and mental illness! I made a small memorial site for Ryan and scattered some of his ashes! Then made the long walk home!

The Nepalese people are the kindest most welcoming people I have ever met! Their children, the most beautiful!

Presently, I’m back in training for my next trip to the Himalayas, which will hopefully take place March 2013 and will be the summit of “Island Peak” or the Annapurna Ridge!!
Thank you all once again for making a difference and helping our youth!
Regards
Maggie Holmes

Today would have been Ryan’s 26th birthday!
Ryan was the reason that I climbed up to Everest Base Camp. I did it because I love him, and his memory will now live on as the funds raised, which exceeded $29,035 ( the height of Everest ) will be used to fund programs for local youth suffering from mental illness.
Both school boards and Georgian College have committed to having Mental Health First Aid, available to their staff and students. Grey/Bruce will be the pilot project for MHFA!
More programs on mental health will be available in our local schools!
So it’s appropriate that today, May 7th 2011, would be “Child and Youth Mental Health Awareness Day.” All of this Ryan, because you came into the world on a beautiful Spring morning 26 years ago!
We love and miss you every day Ryan. X

The Alpine Chough’s breeding site, is usually a cave or crevice in a cliff face at high altitude. It feeds, usually in flocks, on short grazed grassland, taking mainly invertebrate prey in summer and fruit in winter but it will readily approach tourist sites to find supplementary food. There was a huge flock of them at Everest Base Camp. One in particular stood less than 5 feet from me when I was building Ryan’s memorial.

Gorak Shep is located at 5140m above sea level and is the highest camp on this trek. It often gets quite cold at night at around -23. It certainly felt like that in our bedroom.
Everything froze that night! Our toothpaste, water and even our wet wipes.
It was also a scary process going to the washroom. It was a drop toilet, and the ground around it was frozen and very slippy!
The thought of going there in the middle of the night, using my headlamp, was enough to make me stop drinking liquids at 5:30pm!!
I survived the night!

Woke up to snow at Dingboche, so the journey to Lobuche was a bit slippy! At one point we were walking through a snow storm, and found it difficult to see the oncoming train of Yaks! Thankfully you could hear their Yak Bells!! We passed many memorials that day, including Scott Fischer’s! It was a very special moment!
Later that evening at the Tea house in Lobuche, one of our group would have a mini stroke, and would be evacuated by helicopter the next day to Katmandu!

Dingboche sits at approximately 14,300 feet above sea level. It would be the destination of our 2nd rest day! It’s also home to “Kawa” the 23 year old retired Yak!
We awoke in the morning to find out that our doctor, Peter was suffering from cerebral edema, which is life threatening, and that he had to descend with one of our guides to Namche.
That evening there was a huge thunder and lightening storm. When we woke up there was snow on the ground. It would be a very slippy walk to Lobuche.

If you would like to see the trek photographs, please look under the photo page and scroll to Maggie’s Everest Trek! Hope you enjoy them.

We climb the ridge above Namche and descend to the Dudh Koshi River before climbing again to Tengboche.
This village is 3867 meters above sea level and is encircled by snow capped mountains and surrounded by forests, and is home to the Tengboche Monestary.

The Tengboche monastery was first built in 1923, but has been destroyed twice by natural disasters. In 1934 part of the monastery was destroyed by an earthquake, then in 1989 burnt down by a fire. The rebuilt monastery is now home to over 60 monks.

Tengboche Monastery

View of Everest from Tengboche

One of the most famous and popular stops on the way to Everest is a village called Namche Bazaar, which is located at 11,286 feet (3440 meters). Most trekkers reach Namche on their second day of hiking, but to get there they must first conquer a very long, and challenging hill that is a test of stamina for just about anyone. In fact, that day on the trail is one of the most challenging of the entire trek, as you gain more than 2600 feet (800 meters) in altitude.
With a population of roughly 1500 people, Namche is the largest town in the Khumbu Valley, and as such, has a number of amenities that you won’t find as you go higher, like hot shower’s!!!

Yaks in Namche

Namche at Dusk