Training and preparing for months to play a huge rugby game, training and preparing for months for a boxing match, training for months to climb the highest mountain in the world…
For 99% of the that time the reality of what I have been training for seems too distant to specifically focus on. Until suddenly the time comes when you are standing on the side of that rugby field, trying to block out the sound of 20,000 screaming people while you wait to run on and play or are standing in the shadows of the boxing ring waiting for the announcer to call your name before you step up, or as I am now, preparing to leave tomorrow to head up on the final push to reach the top of the world. The experience becomes lonelier and lonelier as the conclusion draws nearer. The realisation that at the end of the day, with all the support I have had up till now – it is ultimately me and only me who must step up and perform, push myself beyond what I know is possible and put all those months of preparation and training into practice.
I feel incredibly lucky and incredibly humbled to just get to this point. I could not have got here without the wonderful support from so many wonderful people. There are too many individuals to thank personally here now at this time, however I would like to make a special mention to my wonderful sponsors who have believed in me and joined me together in this journey:
Graham and Gregory from John Foord
AJ from thePRelement/XPR
John Hunt (Geeza) from PIAS
The Singapore Cricket Club
Steve, Tom and the team from 1-Altitude
Kevan Mitchell and the team from Sri Trang Group
Dana Heather and the team from Balanced Living
Darren Blakely from UFIT
Sarah See and Anthony Tottenham from Fitness First
Tom from City Osteopathy
And finally a HUGE thank you to all of the people incl. friends/family and those I don’t even know personally, who have followed my progress, sent me encouraging emails and comments and cheered me on from the sidelines. It has been an enormous boost to my moral, especially when things have not been going well.
Whatever happens during the course of the next ten days, I will be giving every last drop of my energy, my commitment and my spirit. If I do or do not make the summit, whatever is meant to be. All I wish for is that Everest will be kind enough to allow me to retreat back down her mighty slopes safely so I can return home.
David Lim, based in Singapore will keep you updated on my progress up the mountain as we move higher and higher. Tomorrow (20th) we will leave for Interim Basecamp, the start of the journey. It will take us around 6 – 7 days before we can reach the highest camp (Camp 2 at 8300m) and be in a position to go for the summit.
In order to help you out, the list of camps we will climb through in order of altitude is as follows:
Basecamp 5150m
Interim Camp 5750m
ABC (Advanced Base Camp) 6350m
North Col (Camp 1) 7050m
Camp 2 7600m
Camp 3 8300m
Attached is a photo of expedition leader Jamie McGuinness discussing the summit plan with our sherpa team here at basecamp this morning. The Sherpa’s are an amazingly loyal, strong and key component of all expedition’s here. We have a very small team of sherpa’s supporting us compared to some expeditions, however they are extremely experienced, hardworking and great company with their cheerful and open personalities.
Over and out from basecamp Everest for my last and final pre-climb blog!
Axe
P.S: I will be able to receive messages of support by email/blog for the next 24 hours.
After this time while heading higher up the mountain small messages of support (I.e less than 120 characters) may be sent for free by SMS to my Thuruya Sat phone. By visiting the website: https://sms.thuraya.com/
Grant 'Axe' Rawlinson 
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