Emails from an Everest Mountaineer. (The adventures of Jaco Ottink)

20 Apr Emails from an Everest Mountaineer. (The adventures of Jaco Ottink)

These are the unabridged updates from Daan, wife of Jaco Ottink. As I write this Jaco is currently at Everest Basecamp, waiting to make a summit attempt on Everest via the South Col with New Zealand outfit Himalayan Experience run by Kiwi mountaineer Russell Brice.
This is the last of Jaco’s 7 summits, the highest peaks on each continent.

Originally we were going to edit these and compile them into one post, but I think they actually are much more effective in their real and unadulterated form.
This trip is the culmination of years of effort, serious training at Joe’s Basecamp, sheer determination and the overcoming of adversity and debilitating injury.
After developing Jaco’s overall program he has been training with my senior coach, Matt Reid and working with our physio Mike Brace from North Curl Curl Physio and our sports doctor Jane Taylor to deal with some underlying biomechanical issues.
Here is the first email:
31st March 2016

Dear all,

 I wanted to give you a quick update on how Jaco is doing. He arrived safely in Kathmandu last Monday and had a few days there to relax, wind down and meet up with a friend from his Antarctica expedition. Of course he also met his fellow expedition team members. It seems to be a strong and experienced team with members from USA, Kenya, Japan, Germany and New Zealand. They have an expedition doctor actually climbing with them, which is reassuring! There is also a big camera crew from Discovery Channel who will be joining them for part of the expedition. They will video rescue operations … Russell told Jaco he won’t make it on TV as he is not interesting enough for them (young, strong, healthy, fit, social, balanced guy – not sensational enough for television. I guess we take that as a compliment!).  

This morning they departed very early from Kathmandu to Lukla by helicopter and started their tracking. They will take ten days to get to Everest Base Camp (2 days walking, 1 day rest, etc.). Tonight, they are staying overnight in a place called Monkey. He says he feels very strong and seems to be in good spirit.  

That’s it for now. I will keep you all posted.

Regards,

Daan