Frost has the bite to conquer Everest
Namche bazar
The opportunity to run Everest Marathon is something many an off-road runner would behold. 2009 Commonwealth Mountain Running Champion Anna Frost is no different. The Wrexham-based athlete is well on her way to the ceiling of the world…
Anna Frost
Frosty and her partner Matt Gilbert (also an international mountain runner) are taking things nice and steady in their preparation for the race which is scheduled for the 4th of December. They arrived in Nepal a week or so ago and are spending the best part of 5 weeks in the Himalayan region, acclimatising.
Held every two years the race is interesting in the very fact that it starts at 17,000ft and finishes at 11,300ft, over a full marathon (42km / 26.2 mile) route. Although the course is basically down hill, there are two steep uphill sections and there will be severe exposure in areas.
Like many ‘travellers’ these days Anna and Gil are posting regular updates on sponsors sites and blogs (Gil is sponsored by inov8, and Anna by Saab Salomon), and we are lucky enough to have episode 1 right here:
namche bazar…3340m altitude 10th november
after a 8hour bus trip from kathmandu over three 2500m passes, narrow gravel and elephant sized potholed roads we made it to jiri, where we were to begin our trek to namche bazar.
over 6 days we treked up and down big passes and many ridges sleeping in quiet village lodges and eating great nepalse dinners and massive big bowls of muesli breakfasts. our days began early (6am) by either being woken by the yak trains passing by or the sun beaming in through our little windows.
we would generally trek for the morning until the famous dahl bhat (rice and curry potato and spinach and some pickled things?!) was calling where gil would tuck in the nepalese way with his fingers. we passed through villages of schools, beautiful flowers, yaks and donkeys, huge rivers and a whole lot of sunshine.
Anna and Gil enjoy a cold one!
we are now here in namche bazar..after an amazing treat of apple pie, chocolate cake and fresh coffee we have rested up and are preparing to head out for a 10 day run/walk over the renjo la pass, to gokyo ri, over the cho la pass to kala patar and everest base camp before returing to namche to meet the rest of the athletes of the everest marathon. we will then retrace some steps in preparation and then its all go…42km from base camp back!
nameste, anna
Over the coming weeks expect a few more Frosty installments as we keep you in touch with one of the world’s greatest female mountain runners, running at one of the world’s greatest races! Nameste indeed…
