Bear Climbs Everest for Peace by Lance Trumbull '97

The Everest Peace Project - Overview:

The Everest Peace Project is a multi-faith, multi-cultural, multi-national Climb for Peace on Mt. Everest which will take place in the spring of 2005. Our mission is to show that men and women from different faiths and cultural backgrounds and beliefs can unite in a peaceful way and set an example to the world that we can work together, live together, and depend upon each other while doing something extraordinary: Climb Mt. Everest.

Our Climb for Peace will include experienced mountain climbers from many different faiths: Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Judaism, Muslim, and Taoism. Our climb will also include an Atheist, for our belief is that part of religious tolerance and freedom is the freedom not to believe in religion. Although we will celebrate our diversity and our differences, this is an event that will focus on our commonality. We will climb together not as individuals who belong only to this or that nation or religion, but as a team–as brothers and sisters who all share a common home: the earth. This climb will not just be one of physical strength and endurance, but will also be a humanitarian endeavor, for we will be raising money for the following charities.

Porters' Progress is a dynamic new organization in Nepal that is tackling the issues of injustice and exploitation that mountain porters face while carrying loads for foreign trekking and climbing expeditions. See www.portersprogress.org

Facing History and Ourselves is a nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. See www.facinghistory.org

YUMA: Youth Unesco Mobilization Association (Nepal) is an independent non-profit NGO which was established in 1998 with the goal to reinforce UNESCO's commitment and goals related to literacy and education. It is an organization whose mission is to educate and help kids in need. More information can be found here.

Getting Involved:
If you have an interest in joining our efforts by volunteering, becoming a sponsor, or making a donation of your time or money, please see www.everestpeaceproject.com.

The Story:
I never planned on moving to Nepal.
I never planned on attempting to climb Mt. Everest.
I never planned on organizing an International Climb for Peace.
… A lot can happen when you do not plan things!

Growing up I always despised school; I was a straight C student, never really excelling at anything. When I graduated high school I immediately went on to a junior college…that lasted about 2 months. I hated it! So I took a job at a pharmaceutical company and stayed for 5 years. During this time my internal voice continued to remind me that I wanted more out of life and that I needed to try something different; it was saying: “go back to school you idiot!” And so I did.

College:
I went back to the junior college that I had left 6 years earlier. However, I was now older, more mature and I was taking classes because I wanted to and not because I felt I had to! This made all the difference in the world. I completely surprised myself—achieved straight A’s and got into UC Berkeley. In the meantime, I also married a wonderful woman. I met my wife while attending junior college and we both went on to graduate from Cal; my wife with a degree in business and mine in religious studies.

Originally I wanted to be a professor, a distinguished scholar. But I soon recognized that academia was not for me. I happily retired from the world of education and became a used and rare book dealer. I did this for many years and felt my life was content. Unfortunately, my wife was not. The resulting divorce was completely unexpected to me and was by far one of the most painful and difficult things I have ever experienced. In the process I learned that life is about attitude and our attitude helps determine the degree of our happiness.

Nepal
A few months into the beginning of the divorce, I made the decision to start living a different kind of life. I had always wanted to go to Nepal and see Mt. Everest. Well, I thought (as the Buddhist’s say) no better moment than the present! So, in October 2001 I left for Nepal.

As I was trekking back from the base camp area of Mt. Everest I had an accident. I was 15,000 feet high in a remote mountainous area when I broke one hand and dislocated the thumb of my other. I was of course, in a great deal of pain. I hiked most of the night and finally reached an outpost where they bandaged both hands and put one arm in a splint. I was incredibly upset for I still wanted to continue on and it appeared my journey was now over.

After a very bad night’s sleep, I woke up the next morning still in a great deal of pain. Nature was calling so I went to the outhouse in the back of the teahouse where I was staying. It was an awful place; literally a whole in the ground covered by a primitive door. After taking care of business it then dawned on me: I had two very large bandages on my hands, which meant I had a problem! Just then, I noticed through a tiny crack in the door of the outhouse that I could faintly see Mt. Everest in all of its glory in the distance; it was a beautiful image. There I was in this filthy outhouse, yet here before my very eyes was one of the most remarkable, beautiful vistas in the world – a scene that most people would give anything to see...I did not know what to do.

I waited a moment in shocked silence and then it happened: an enormous burst of laughter came from within me and I started to uncontrollably laugh at the absurdity of the whole situation! It was at that moment that I clearly realized more than ever before in my life that life really is about attitude. I could have just said to myself—“Why did this have to happen to me?" and gone home upset and bitter. But instead, I thought, wow, what a great opportunity to see what I am really made of! What a wonderful gift to really learn some things about myself. So I continued my trip for another two weeks, trekking all around the Everest region meeting wonderful people and turning a potentially negative experience into a life-changing event!

An Excellent Life:
When I returned to the United States from Nepal in November 2001, I was immediately depressed. I just had this amazing, life affirming adventure and now I was back to the reality of being alone and doing a job that no longer interested me. I knew I wanted to live an “excellent life”, a life filled with depth, adventure, and experience. I didn’t want to continue to lead the same life I had been living. I yearned for a change—but what? One day shortly after my return, I was talking with my best friend Dave who jokingly said to me “why don’t you just move to Nepal”?! I laughed at his comment. But later the thought occurred to me “Well, why don’t I move to Nepal?!” The answers came in abundance: I have no money, it’s irresponsible, it’s irrational—and your typical American male in his 30’s doesn’t decide one day to just sell everything and move to Nepal…it is a stupid idea. After weeks of internal debate I realized that, for me at this moment in time, living an excellent life meant doing just that; selling everything and moving to Asia. I had always listened to that internal voice and, this time, the voice was saying, “Go for it-Lance!” And so I did.

I needed to pay off all of my bills and somehow also have enough money on which to live while I was there. It was now Jan 2002, and I decided to buy myself a one way-non-refundable ticket for Nepal, departing in just 5 months. The purchase of the ticket made it more real; it was now my task to do everything in my power to make sure that I would be leaving on that plane. The process of letting go was a difficult one--letting go of all of those things that I once thought of as being so important: my big TV, my computer, my comfortable leather couch, my nice car, my business. I sold everything.

I arrived in Nepal on May 4th, 2002. I made Nepal my base camp and traveled all over Asia; I become a “mountain trekking/climbing Pilgrim", a traveler seeking a deeper life purpose. The first thing I did upon reaching Kathmandu was to journey to Tibet and travel to the sacred mountain—Mt. Kailash. From there I hitchhiked, rented horses, and journeyed to the Tibetan side of Mt. Everest basically alone. My travels continued for months as I made my way up to Lhasa and into China, and then to Mongolia and to Russia and then finally back to Nepal.

Ladakh and The Everest Peace Project:
In October 2002, after spending several months hiking and climbing around Asia and Russia, I returned to Nepal. While sitting in an outdoor café in Kathmandu one day, I had a “chance” meeting with a guy who runs a trekking agency. Turns out he was going to Ladakh (a beautiful area in the Himalayas of India) and he asked me if I wanted to come along. I thought about it for a moment and said, sure! It turns out that this chance meeting would change my life.

Ladakh is an incredible place—it is like condensing all that is beautiful in Tibet into a small space. On the second day of the trek something incredible happened. We had just climbed up near the summit of this mountain, at an elevation of about 15,000 feet, and were looking over one of the most incredible valleys I had ever seen. As I gazed across the beauty beneath me, I suddenly had a burst of inspiration. It was so clear; I would organize a climb of Mt. Everest. The expedition would consist of men and women from different faiths and nations and, together, our climb would promote religious and cultural tolerance and understanding. This was the birth of the “Everest Peace Project”. I returned to Kathmandu to create this project of peace, and I have spent every day of my life since then making this Climb for Peace become a reality.