January 4, 2024 • 56 mins
Sarah Beatrice is an avid traveler and has started a curated travel business. She has explored 26 countries, through hiked the Appalachian Trail, and most recently hiked to the Mt Everest Base Camp in Nepal. Sarah shares her inspirational story of how Everest base camp came to be, and it is not how you would expect.
In under 7 months, with no guide, and less than $3,000, she accomplished something most only dream of. Beginning from Pittsburgh, the first layover was in Qatar. It was an unreal experience with air-conditioned streets and local markets. Arriving in Kathmandu, Nepal, the trip begins. Just her and her friend, no guide but a direction. Over an 11-day trek, she met a few locals that would be instrumental along the way. Altitude sickness and other physical issues made the trip arduous. The return hike involved a horse and a helicopter.
Along the way, Sarah and her friend experience life high in the Himalayas, the friend people, and views that very few see. The challenge was more than the Appalachian Trail.
One of the memories from the trip is a tattoo from the highest-elevation tattoo shop on the planet. Sarah gets a new tattoo for each continent she visits. Although she said Antarctica could be a challenge for that practice.
Sarah shares the joys and realities of her extensive travel experience. The lesson of knowing with to push herself and know when not to. Throughout it all, Sarah's excitement and passion for travel is evident.
I hope you enjoy are inspired by her story. If you would like to know more or have Sarah put together a trip for you, find her on Instagram at traveler_sarahb
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Episode Transcript
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Josh Meeder (00:00):
Welcome to the great things LLC podcast, the
show that celebrates people whoare making an impact on the
world, people creating consciousbusinesses that are in alignment
with their own personal values.
Each episode shares the wisdom,experience and the intentions of
those that are following theirdreams. visionaries who have
chosen a different path, foundtheir purpose, and create join
(00:21):
abundance while helping others.
Whether you're already atrailblazer, or still searching
for your path, the stories willinspire you towards being the
best version of yourself.
Welcome listeners. Today I amsuper excited to introduce you
to my friend Sarah Beatrice.
Sarah has just done a lot. Butshe is an avid traveler and
(00:42):
hiker. And just outdoorenthusiast. Sarah has done the
Appalachian Trail. She's visited23 countries. And she's climbed
to the base camp of Everest,which we're going to be talking
about today. And Sara is alsoestablishing a tourism in a
guided adventure business. Sojust want to welcome you on the
(01:03):
program here today. Sarah,welcome to the Great Things
podcast. Hey, Josh, thanks forhaving me tonight. Yeah, so I
think we should start how wemet. We were introduced by a
mutual friend, because we bothlove hiking in the nature and we
were both in westernPennsylvania. So Sarah, and I
said, Yeah, let's meet up, I wasgoing for my morning walk. And
we agreed to meet along thestream on on a walking path. And
(01:25):
she said, look for the whiteband. And when I pulled off,
there were no windows in thevan. And I thought, well, this
is getting kind of sketchy. Ifshe offers me a puppy or a
candy. I gotta run away. Butthat is how I met Sarah. And you
know, we've really enjoyedgetting to know her. But Sarah,
you just like, your travel isamazing. And the thing I love
(01:48):
about it with you is it's justwho you are you just do it
because it's your passion. Yeah,it truly is my passion. I don't
know anything else that I'mreally passionate about in life,
besides family and, and friends,but travel is number one passion
on my list. And let's talk abouthow you first got that travel
(02:08):
bug because you came there waskind of a an event and there was
a person there that kind ofencouraged you to do some this
and especially the solotraveling.
Sarah Beatrice (02:20):
Yeah. So I always like going places like
Colorado and Florida growing upas a kid. But um, I did the
Appalachian Trail. And I hikedfrom Georgia to Maine. And I met
a girl on there named SarahDuma. Her trail name was Carmen
Sandiego. Because she has beento so many different countries.
(02:41):
And after the trail, I went toIreland with her and her
husband, and we didn't go awayin the Wicklow way. And she
asked her that I wanted tocontinue traveling, and I wanted
to go to Iceland or wherever.
And,and I no one would go with me.
And she's like, just go alone,just Iceland's perfectly safe.
People speak English. Well,they're it's a great country to
(03:03):
go to for your first solo trip.
And once I went there, I justlit the match. And it just, it
just took off. And I wanted togo to more countries and I
wasn't afraid to go aloneanymore. They just took that
first step is sometimes thefirst step is the scariest step.
It is often the first step isthe scariest step. And you
(03:27):
mentioned the Appalachian Trailyou just like oh yeah, I did the
Appalachian Trail from Georgiato Maine. But for people who
don't understand what that is,how long did that take? Yep.
That took me five months in 19days to hike. Yeah, that that's
an amazing trail. And
Josh Meeder (03:45):
if you could, what were some of the highlights or
low points or the challenge,like through the trail that were
like high points, low pointsthrough the whole thing.
Sarah Beatrice (03:52):
So the highlights are definitely
reaching certain destinations.
Let's say, for example, thetrail is from Georgia to Maine.
And if you look at a map that islike holy crap, that's really
long. But if you make it intomini goal goals, like hey, we're
gonna go to Hot Springs, NorthCarolina. That was our first
goal. And that was a cute town.
(04:15):
And then the next town was thenext town that we hyped up was
Damascus, Virginia where theyhad trail days. They had that
every year and it's a big hikerfestival. So the highlights were
the festivals, the meeting otherhikers, the camaraderie that go
into town, freshening upgrabbing a couple of beers at a
(04:37):
local bar. So the highlightswere mostly in town and seeing
the amazing views in Vermont,and Maine and in New Hampshire.
Most of the trails are greentunnel. And then once you get to
Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine,it opens up and it's like wow,
like this is really incredible.
and some of the lowlights werewhen you're hiking for days in
(05:02):
the rain and you're putting onwet socks for three days.
Suppose you get these funnyblisters that look like
indentions, maybe it's trenchfoot, I don't know what it is.
And then sleeping in my tent wasterrifying during a
thunderstorm. I wake up at like,three in the morning to like a
(05:24):
severe thunderstorm of nonstoplightning. And I would just be
huddled in the back of my tent,just freaking out. And someone
sent me a little Bible and I'mnot a religious person, but
like, I started reading thisBible. And I'm like, Oh, my
gosh, this is so scary. Andthere's lightning and thunder
constantly. And that is whatmade me almost quit like once a
(05:45):
week, I wanted to quit becauseof these thunderstorms.
Josh Meeder (05:51):
So that place of wanting to quit, like the mental
resiliency and toughness was,was there anything that you did
or that kept you moving? Or isit just purely being stubborn
and determined?
Sarah Beatrice (06:03):
It was a couple of different things. This woman
that I know Joanne McBride.
She's from Newcastle, I believe.
She told me that she wrote me anote. And she put it in New
Hampshire and she told me thelocation, it was before the
lights, and she's like, I putit, I forget the exact
(06:23):
logistics, but I put it in thislocation in this stump
underneath a rock in a Ziplocbag. So I knew where it was like
from what she told me, and I'mlooking around, and then I see
the stump. Once I got to NewHampshire, and then I moved the
rock and there's a Ziploc bag,and it said something like dear
(06:45):
Sarah Beatrice, welcome to NewHampshire love Joanne McBride
from New Brighton. I think she'stried, actually, I think it's
about don't quote me on thelocations. But that really kept
me going. Because I'm like, Ineed to get this note that
Joanne put there. And it wasstubbornness. And it was also
like, I have to see what shewrote. And I'm not gonna drive
(07:07):
up there to get that.
Josh Meeder (07:10):
Well, that's an impressive and what a thoughtful
gift of motivation for someone
Sarah Beatrice (07:15):
to do that. And she probably didn't even know
how motivated that made me toget there. But it did. It really
truly did.
Josh Meeder (07:22):
Good. Well, congratulations on making that
that hike that is truly one ofthe epic ones here in the
country, for sure. All right. Soyou've been all around? There's
no question about that. And I'msure we could spend hours on all
the different countries andEcuador and like all the
different things. But the bigtrip that you've recently made
(07:44):
and actually made the first pagefront page of the newspaper back
home, is your trip to Nepal. Andone of the things that when we
did this pre interview thatreally surprised me as I thought
going to Everest would be yearsof research and planning and
expense. And you manage to dothis, not quite on a whim and a
(08:07):
shoestring but on a women issuestrings. So let's start with the
Genesis or the birth of the ideahow it came together. And how
long was it from that place ofit's an idea to put your boots
on the ground.
Sarah Beatrice (08:21):
So every year since my dad died, I took a trip
for his birthday. He died in2016. And when he was sick, I
was actually in Ireland. And hewasn't like a world traveler.
But he enjoyed going to ColoradoVegas, Florida. Some local
places, he like road trips, buthe wasn't a big traveler. He was
(08:44):
a businessman. And when he died,the first year he went away, I
went to Bermuda. Um, the firstyear that he died, I went to
Bermuda that year for hisbirthday. And we were stuck in
there world's largest hurricane.
There was a category four. Wewere freaking out. But every
every single year. On hisbirthday, we take a trip. And I
(09:07):
was tossing around the idea witha friend of mine that went to
Ecuador with me. And I said,Hey, Ashley, let's go to Spain,
Morocco, Greece or turkey. Andshe's like, sending me ideas,
ideas. And we're just going backand forth. And she's like, You
know what, Nepal is really goodto go to in October. So why
(09:28):
don't we go there? And I'm like,yeah, let's get a base camp. And
she's like, Well, I wasn'treally thinking that but I don't
know. And I'm like, Well, ifwe're gonna go to Nepal, we're
gonna hike to Everest base camp.
And she's like, Let me thinkabout it. And then she's like,
You know what, I'm on board.
Let's just do it. So it was itwas literally a whim. It was
planned like five or six monthsahead of time, and it wasn't a
(09:51):
lifelong dream to go to Everestbase camp. When dad was alive, I
would joke around like Hey, Dad,one day I'm gonna Go to Everest
and die the mountain like it wasjust like a sick joke. And he's
excited don't joke about stufflike that. I'm like, Yeah, but
what Wait, what a cool way todie on a great adventure. And,
you know, I was just messingaround with them and then when
(10:12):
it became reality I'm like, Ohman, like I really hope I don't
die like going to base campbecause I used to joke about
that with him. Yeah,
Josh Meeder (10:21):
that'd be an awful tragic foreshadowing that you've
created for yourself.
Sarah Beatrice (10:25):
Yeah, I believe in manifestation and a link No.
Josh Meeder (10:30):
Oh my goodness. So now that the trip is, you know,
planned any preparations for thetrip, any physical conditioning
planning? What did you do to getready for this, this hike,
Sarah Beatrice (10:45):
I literally ran up hills for months, all summer,
there's a place called RockPoint Park and I just ran up
that hill. And I would go backdown on run up. And again, I
would do like, I would do itabout three times. Probably
every other day, I would do itbecause I didn't want to burn
myself out on that or getinjured running. So I would do
(11:09):
that about every other day and Istarted eating healthy and I
really didn't prep too much forit. Just running, getting my
lungs in shape. I asked a friendif I should use one of those
masks that people use to trainfor oxygen. And he said I
wouldn't do that. I would justgo take Diamox run up hills.
(11:32):
Take your Diamox when you'rethere because Diamox it helps
with altitude sickness, it's adiuretic and you're shedding
water. So it helps shed thewater that can go around your
brain and causes the swelling.
So there was there was littlepreparation really
Josh Meeder (11:52):
well clearly you were prepared enough or as much
as you were going to be and thenthen getting around the world
did a layover so just if youcould share, share the flight
plan and the stop that you havebefore you got to Katmandu.
Sarah Beatrice (12:10):
So I bought my ticket from JFK to Katmandu. And
I had a stopover in Qatar, inDoha, Qatar. And they say that
if you have a longer than aneight hour layover, there's a
tour you can take. There's athree hour tour that you can
take the city of Doha, andpeople are like, Oh, Sarah,
(12:33):
there's a lot of stuff going onin Israel and the Middle East.
You shouldn't go and I'm like,I'm gonna go, it's Qatar, Qatar
safe, everything's fine there.
And it was beautiful. It's alldesert. And me thinking desert
is a dry heat. I landed I leftthe airport. I walk into this
desert and it's humid, it'stotally humid. And I'm like,
(12:57):
What is this? And I guess sinceit's on the water, it's a humid
heat in the summer. They don'treally leave their houses and
they try to find stuff to doindoors. But there's air
conditioning on the streets.
You're walking on the streets ofDoha, Qatar. It looks like the
movie scene of Aladdin. It'sbeautiful, elegant, and there's
(13:18):
air conditioning vents comingout of the street on the ground.
And like this is crazy. I'm likethis had to be a billion dollars
to air conditioned your streetsoutside. It just was so neat. I
just loved Qatar I wish I hadmore time to spend there. We
went through one of theirmarkets they have like a market
(13:40):
with a labyrinth of a rose andin stores but our tour guides
like don't go through just stayon the main street because if
you start going through thedifferent labyrinth labyrinth
she called them she says you'llget lost and we will live here
in 35 minutes with your withoutyou and she has she said we have
before
Josh Meeder (14:01):
good warning very clear clear message on that one.
So let's fast forward so afterQatar you jump back on the plane
and all of a sudden you are inNepal you landed in Katmandu. So
this is kind of the start ofyour adventure and love to hear
just what is it like going upyou know landing getting any
permits and just moving on up toBasecamp
Sarah Beatrice (14:24):
so I landed and I got a taxi to my my hostel or
Airbnb. No, it was a hostel Ibelieve. Yeah, got it on hostel
world. So landed I got to myhostel, waited for my friend to
arrive. We spent a few days inKatmandu just acclimating to
(14:44):
like the time zones because wewere 10 hours and 45 minutes
ahead. So we wanted to justchill out for a few days so
people will land and go straightto Luke law where you start the
trial the next day and I'm like,we need a few days to adjust. So
We adjusted for a few days. Andour hostel was so loud we had a
(15:04):
private room. But all night longyou heard scooters BB BB, like
234 in the morning it wasnonstop. And we're like, we
can't deal with this. We wentdown to the front desk, we're
gonna have to leave. We can'tdeal with this noise. We cannot
sleep, but we need to sleep. Sohe's like, Well, how about we
bring you to the hotel nextdoor. So he takes us to this
(15:26):
beautiful hotel called theMustang hotel, and charges us
only like 10 more dollars anight apiece. And it was totally
quiet. And then he booked us aflight. We paid them for the
flights. So from Katmandu, theluplow was like a $200 flight.
And it's supposed to be a reallytiny plane. And he messages us
(15:49):
the next night, and it was like,so for an extra $30 a person
would you rather take ahelicopter, they're like, hell
yeah, we'd rather helicopterthere. And that's what we wanted
to do, initially, but it was waymore expensive than we thought
it was going to be. So wesettled on the airplane, but
with an extra $30. We're like,let's do this. So we helicopter
(16:13):
over to Luke law. And that wasjust such an incredible flight
to fly through the Himalayas.
And just I love helicopters,everything about I'm taking off
flying. It's a little bitbouncy. It's just you're right
there. You're right there in themountains, and you see
everything.
Josh Meeder (16:32):
You I can't imagine that that vantage point. Now,
one thing we kind of neglectedto mention here to this point is
the planning for this trip, youare planning at this point with
no guides, no Sherpas, and justdoing it on your own no real
tour companies. You just had anidea in your town in Nepal, and
you're on your way to themountain and you found a
(16:54):
helicopter. So just to set thestage you didn't have, you
didn't have support. This wasall what you put together.
Sarah Beatrice (17:00):
Right? This is all what we put together. And my
friend, Carmen Sandiego. She hastrekked in Nepal twice, and
she's done Everest base camp andGokyo lake that that route, both
taking you to the base camp. Andshe's like, she used her
backpack. She didn't hire aguide. She didn't hire a Sherpa
(17:21):
to carry her stuff. She's like,you got this. If you can do the
Appalachian Trail, you could dothis on your own. So we're
hiking up to Nam chair bizarreof this giant hill. And I'm
like, What the hell was shetalking about? I'm like, my bag
is heavy. I can't breathe, rightwalking up this hill. I'm never
(17:41):
going to make it if I'm carryingmy bag. I'm never gonna make it.
So we met this amazing manimpacting the village before,
which is the first village wehiked to and stayed at. And his
name is Tenzing Sherpa. And he'slike, if you need any help,
here's my number, please callme. And he was so pleasant. Like
every time he talked to us, hejust would laugh and just be so
(18:04):
filled with joy. We just lovedhis vibes. And we're like, we
don't have a lot of money tospend. We're on a budget. So
he's like, I'll send you aporter to carry your bags for
$12 a day total. So that's sixfor me and six for my friend per
day. And we're like, what we'relike, Is this for real? And he's
(18:25):
like, yeah, he's like, this isthis is for real. So for? Yeah,
$12 a day, he carried our bagsup to base camp. And we tipped
him well, because he deservesway more than that, because he
acted as our guide, in a way. Hedidn't speak much English, but
he would say, breakfast dinner,and he would hand us the menus
(18:47):
and he would order for us and hewould run ahead and get us a
room for the next night becausethis trail is so packed. That if
you if you walk there on yourown and take a long time, like
we did, then you're you're gonnarisk not getting a room and
having to sleep on the diningroom floor, which we did not
listening to.
Josh Meeder (19:07):
So let's talk about that. Because that was something
that was interesting to me. Idid not understand that there
was actually accommodationsalong the way. So you you
mentioned tea houses and that'sthat's where you stayed what
what is a tea house and how didthat work out?
Sarah Beatrice (19:22):
A tea house is just basically the first one we
walked into a painted picturethat we walked in. It looks like
a dining hall. There's tableseverywhere. There's a wood
burner and it's actually a yakdung burner. They're they're
drying out yak poop, and they'reputting that in this stove. And
(19:43):
that's how they're heating it.
So you order your food in thisdining hall, and it's really
warm and cozy in there. And thenthere's hallways and it takes
you down to rooms. So there'sprivate rooms or there's group
rooms, but we had we had privaterooms me and my friends
Actually, I think I've two bedsin them. And some of them had a
private bath, but some of themdidn't. And they weren't heated
(20:05):
those weren't heated the diningroom was the only thing that was
heated and we'd have to sleep inour sleeping bags and we would
get our Nalgene water bottlesand get boiling hot water from
the kitchen, put those by ourfeet. And the beds came with
comforter. So we would put thecomforters over us. And once we
got to a higher elevation wewould ask for more comforters
(20:27):
who were cold. And they wouldcharge us like 500 rupees which
was just a few dollars US torent an extra comforter. But we
like chow mein and rice and dalbots and we just had all kinds
of very local food, no meatbecause they say anything past
Namche bazar the yaks arecarrying the meat and it could
(20:50):
spoil so we were strictlyvegetarian on the hike.
Josh Meeder (20:57):
Okay, and did you feel did that provide enough
energy for you? Did you noticenot having the protein as much
Sarah Beatrice (21:06):
as see I had eggs every morning. So eggs were
okay, so I had eggs and frybread every morning. And this
was almost like a fried doughwithout the sugar so good. But I
did have a lot of energy. I wishI had a little, a little more
snacks, like some more Clif barsbecause I am a snacker and I am
a foodie and I'm always wantinglike something to munch on. So I
(21:30):
wish I would have packed metal.
You can buy anything likethere's candy bars, and, and
whatever. There's villages allalong the way. And you can buy
whatever you need, whether it'strekking poles, sleeping bags,
it's all there. So
Josh Meeder (21:46):
interesting that there are resources along the
way. And we're going to actuallyloop back to the resources that
you do have at your disposal onthe way down but all right now
you're you're on the way you'vegotten your your track or your
your assistance with the porter.
Tell me more about like the tripto base camp.
Sarah Beatrice (22:05):
So there's Yaks coming down the mountain
constantly. There's Yaks. Andwhen you see the axe, everyone
yells yak and then they alsohave yak belts. And you hear
these bells. And you have to hugthe mountain side. Because these
Yaks will push you off themountain because they're not
moving. They have the rightaway. And they have pushed
people off and they have killedpeople. So when you see the axe,
(22:29):
you're jumping on the side ofthe mountain. Sometimes it's
scary and they're so close andyou're like freaking out a
little bit. But they produce alot of dust. And it made my nose
run the whole time, which Ithought and by the time I got to
do the budget I didn't go to Ihave a hard time pronouncing
(22:49):
that. I was really sick. And Iended up going to the hospital
and had like a full onrespiratory infection.
bronchitis. I was I thought Ihad altitude sickness, but it
was all kinds of sicknesses. AndI guess a lot of people get sick
on the way up there. But it'sbeautiful hiking in the
(23:09):
Himalayas. It's just I think Iwould have appreciated the
beauty more if I felt better.
But I was sick. Like from thaton up. And maybe 910 days of
being sick. Yeah, it was themost miserable journey of my
life. This miserable.
Josh Meeder (23:27):
Yeah. So day two, three. How close are you getting
to the base camp? How many daysdid it take you from when you
started hiking to reach up tobase camp.
Sarah Beatrice (23:38):
So it took 11 days to get to base camp.
Whenever you hike, there aresome acclimatization days. So
the first day is Luke law, thetwo pack thing. And Luke law is
actually higher than packing. Soyou want to hike high and sleep
low. So every day that you hike,you want to sleep lower than
(23:58):
what you hike. And for every2000 every 2000 feet of
elevation gain, you're supposedto spend two nights to
acclimate. And even thoughyou're not moving on that second
day, you're supposed to hikehigh and sleep low. So we would
hike high to differentdestinations and sleep low. So
(24:21):
an empty and bizarre there was aTenzing Sherpa statue. So we
hiked up to see the TenzingSherpa statue, which was the
first man to summon Everest, andthen we hiked back down. We
actually stayed three nights inNew Hampshire bizarre, instead
of the two recommended justbecause we had the time. We
(24:41):
didn't have a guide. A lot ofthe groups had 2030 people if
you get sick, oh well, yourhikes over they're gonna keep
going. So in Namta bizarre, Idecided to get a tattoo at the
world's highest tattoo place.
And I got the Yak skull becauseThe acts are so much a part of
the journey. You see themeverywhere. They're carrying
(25:03):
goods up and down the mountainalong with the Sherpas, who
carry the goods. I got MountEverest, in Ahmedabad Blum and
the prayer flags. I told thetattoo guy. His place is called
natty tattoo. I told him, Isaid, Hey, I'm like, I just this
is what I want. I want theprayer flag. I want the ohm
(25:25):
symbol. And I want MountEverest, and he designed it on
his own and was like, Do youlike this? And I said,
Absolutely. And actually foundout about it from a local guy.
This this guy named Remy, he'sfrom Brazilian Opal. And I saw
on his Instagram that he wasdoing Everest base camp. And I'm
(25:46):
like, I messaged him, like, areyou doing Everest base camp
right now. And he's like, we, wejust got done with it. We're in
town. So me and Ashley met himand his dad and his friends
there. And his dad got thesetattoos. And that's how I knew
but the tattoo place from alocal guy, a zillion Opal guy is
doing that the same time I wasdoing Everest base camp. That's,
Josh Meeder (26:12):
that's amazing. You know, and actually one of the
things that as you travel, youstart to realize how small the
world is. And especially ifyou're outgoing and social. I
know growing up in college, allmy friends just like they hated
traveling with me, because therewas nowhere I could go that I
didn't know someone in storiesor like we landed in Munich, in
(26:35):
Munich, Germany. And like,within five minutes, I was
talking to a guy that I'd runinto at a party at the
university before, like the weekbefore, and it's really it's a
small world and in the travelcommunity is it's big, but it's
also small. So that's really,you know, that's what, eight
miles from your home that youran into someone that had done
(26:57):
that.
Sarah Beatrice (26:58):
Yeah, I couldn't believe it.
Josh Meeder (27:01):
And for the listeners to you, you have a
practice with tattoos on youvisited a continent you get you
least get one tattoo when youvisit a continent. Yeah,
Sarah Beatrice (27:11):
I have a tattoo for every continent I've been
on. And I'm gonna continue thatwith the rest of the continents.
Antarctica, I don't know ifAntarctica has any tattoo
places. So I had to bring anartist with me to do my tattoo
there. Or you
Josh Meeder (27:26):
can just find someone to do like a prison
style with a ballpoint pen andyou know, call it done.
Sarah Beatrice (27:31):
Absolutely.
Josh Meeder (27:34):
All right, so you got your you got your rest you
got your tattoo and I do have tosay getting a tattoo at that
elevation just blew my mindbecause your body's probably
already a little odd with thealtitude and then the the
endorphins got to throw you offa little bit as well. So you
crammed all that in and thenkept going. So what's next after
(27:56):
that place?
Sarah Beatrice (27:57):
So after name Tim bizarre is Ting Ting, Bochy,
and that's when I got reallysick, I have a picture and I'm
just like, I look totally wipedout. And that is where the
highest monastery in the worldis. And I wanted I wanted to go
to it's so bad, but I did notfeel good enough. But I woke up
(28:18):
in the morning and I heard themI heard like a vibration sound
or something. were singing andthen I noticed that wow, those
are the monks chanting. Likethis is so amazing to hear that.
And I wasn't sure if I was gonnamove on from that place that day
or not, but but I did. And thenwe got to ding ding Bojay which
was 15,000 feet. And that's thehighest I've ever slept in my
(28:43):
life. And that's that's theplace I had to go to the
hospital. And he we were goingto spend two nights there. But
the doctor recommended stay fora third night before you go on
because you are sick and you canrisk getting out to sickness
with that respiratory infectioneverything he's got the good
news is it's not in your lungs.
It's like up higher but he gaveme three antibiotics to take a
(29:07):
day. cough syrup. He gave memore Diamox electrolytes he gave
me like seven different thingsto take. And my nose ran the
whole time and I was coughingand blowing my nose and I looked
at my friend I'm like you'renever gonna travel with me good
or you're just so gross rightnow. Chick No, no, I Well, she's
(29:29):
you're sick I get it.
Josh Meeder (29:34):
Yeah, and if people haven't been at altitude it is
it's an experience and in theStates, you know your highest is
about 14,000 and you know youcan go to Pikes Peak, a lot of
people will literally drive upto the top and feel the effects.
I've done Pikes Peak two times.
And the first time I was young,I was in shape and I did this
(29:55):
the hike and six and a halfhours and it's I'm about I
think, six 8000 feet to 14,000usually took nine. And I did it
with a candy bar, a sprite andno equipment. And by the time I
got to the top, I was confused.
You know, it was, it was weirdthat you're sluggish and
(30:17):
euphoric at the same time. Andyeah, and you don't realize it
like you're at that level plantsdon't survive. There's the tree
line. So you get to a placewhere it's even too thin of
oxygen for the plants to live.
So you hit that place and yourbody is starting to break down.
So I can't imagine sleepingthere, let alone going. So that
is that they four or five thatyou're at that place
Sarah Beatrice (30:40):
during Bochy, that was stay. So there's
packing to Nam che, we stayedthree nights in the MTA. So that
was day five.
Josh Meeder (30:52):
And then we say now you're halfway, you're halfway
to your destination. Yeah.
Sarah Beatrice (30:57):
Yeah. Halfway there, staying three nights in
big Bojay. And then we stayed inlittle Bucha Bay. And that was a
climb that, you know, it was anice, easy hike, like, you know,
I started feeling better. Andthen we have lunch, and then
it's so straight up. There'sboulders everywhere, it's
(31:20):
straight up. And I'm like, oh mygod, this is a really high climb
right here. And then you get upthere. And there's prayer flags
all over. And there's beautifulmountains, probably the most
beautiful mountains I've everseen in my life. And the yaks
are just walking by they had themost perfect picture ever of the
Yaks walking past this mountainand the peaks in the background.
(31:41):
It just looks it looks fake,almost. It's just so beautiful.
And that's where I got theheadache that never went away. I
just had this terrible headache.
And I'm sitting at Le Buchawhich is 16,200 feet, I believe.
And I'm just sitting there likeat the dining hall like holding
my head. And I'm looking aroundand like why do you feel staring
(32:03):
at me? And then like being homelike, Oh, they're staring at me,
probably because they thought isthat girl dying over there. And
there's constant rescuehelicopters every time you hear
a helicopter takeoff and otherones landing. People are
constantly getting rescued. Noone tells you all this before
you go that you're there's tonsof people getting rescued. A
(32:25):
girl died. And gorakshep whichis the final village. So we're a
little Bucha day and we get wordthat a gorakshep a girl just
died in her sleep of altitudesickness as she was only 30. And
that's at 16,900 feet. And sheshe was fine. She went to sleep
(32:47):
and didn't wake up. And and thatcould happen. You could check
your oxygen and it could itcould drop in the middle of the
night. So I would wake up in themiddle of the night and I'm
checking my oxygen with myoximeter. I'm like, I'm 75 I'm
good. I'm good. So an altitude16,000 feet and beyond 775 is
good.
Josh Meeder (33:09):
Which if you're here in the States, they would
instantly Russia into thehospital. So interesting. All
right, so let's take it up to doto base camp. What's What's that
final push that experience inwhat you find up there.
Sarah Beatrice (33:27):
So from Lovoo J, a lot of people go to gorakshep.
They have lunch, either theycontinue hiking, we got to
gorakshep. And we're like it'snoon. And we had a headache. So
bad. Both of us, my friend couldhardly eat. And we're like,
we're just gonna wait tilltomorrow. Like, I wanted to like
(33:48):
push on in case we were gettingaltitude sickness. And I think
she did too. But we both agreed,like, there's no way like we
feel we just feel like crap. Weneed to spend the night. So I
went to the hospital again. Andas soon as I got to this
hospital, they're like, sit medown. They're checking my blood
pressure. They're putting thething on my finger. I'm like,
No, it's fine. I just have aheadache. But that's that's the
(34:11):
hospital where you see on thedocumentaries where people are
dying. They have the oxygen on.
This is like a tiny little room.
It's dark. There's no lights,there's no heat, and there's
like beds and oxygen tanks. AndI'm like, this is where people
die. This is great. So he's likeyou're at 75 You're good. Just
(34:32):
keep taking your antibiotics andcough stuff. You're good. You're
good to hike to base camptomorrow. So we go to sleep. We
wake up and since since a lot ofpeople do it around noon after
they eat, we left at 6am. So wehad base camp to ourselves.
(34:53):
There were people leaving. Butso so let me backtrack. So we
wake up we have Breakfast, westarted our hike. It's a really
hard hike. There's boulderseverywhere. Sometimes you can't
tell what's trail what's boulderwhich way to go. And it's, it's
not like a crazy high up hike,it's, it's kind of like,
(35:15):
fluctuates, not a lot ofelevation gain, it's you go from
69 to 17, six. And, you know, weround the corner, and we go
down, and there's this bigglacier lake. And we hear the
thumping of the ice going intothe lake. And I just think
that's one of the coolest soundsin the world. And then we round
(35:37):
the corner there. And we see therock that says Everest base
camp. And I'm like, and I juststarted like bawling. And I give
my phone to my friend. And I'mlike, take a picture of me on
this rock, and I just laid onthe rock. And it's the same way
I felt on the Appalachian Trailwhere I just laid on there, it
was just like, I just bought itand just let it all out. Just a
(35:59):
deep, deep cry. And it just, itjust felt really good to release
all that. And then I hugged myfriend, and I said, that was so
hard, and I'm crying, likehugging her. And then I had a
few prayer flags, one for my dogthat died a couple of months
(36:19):
before I went on my hike. Onefor my dad for his birthday. And
one for me, I just wanted toleave the past behind, started a
new chapter. So hung up threemeaningful prayer flags. And I
brought some of my dog Bailey'shair to Basecamp. And I
sprinkled some of her hair and Isaid, run free with the dogs of
(36:41):
the mountain Bailey. And it wasemotional. And then I had a
prayer, I had a rosary that thiswoman named Madhu gave me. She's
Italian lady from Elwood, one ofmy dad's friends. And she's
like, carry this with you this,this will help get you the base
camp. And I have a picture ofthat. And like everyone loves
(37:04):
that picture. And she was so sohappy that I kept those rosaries
and carried them the whole way.
And now she's like, You betterkeep those in your car. And
everywhere you go. And I'm like,I will, I will.
Josh Meeder (37:17):
Wow, what an emotional thing like that, you
know, when you're on those bigtracks, or those destinations,
to actually get there, you know,the ecstasy, the pain, like all
of it come flooding out at once.
That just I can, I can pictureit. But I can't sense what that
would actually feel like foryou. That's amazing. It's
Sarah Beatrice (37:36):
amazing. And I feel like I'm on this journey
Life Where I'm chasing thathigh. And I've only felt that
twice in my life, theAppalachian Trail at Everest.
And unlike now what?
Josh Meeder (37:48):
Yeah, well, so we may have to talk about like
resetting or reevaluating someof these objectives, you know,
because there's a lot ofextremes out there. But it is
when you challenge yourself andyou push yourself past your
limits. But actually not pushingyourself past your limits. I
think better speaking, becausewe talked about this earlier,
it's pushing yourself to yourlimits, but clearly knowing your
(38:11):
limits, because you had thatsense and awareness. So you did
check in on the way up, you didget assistance with the the
porta. And you're going to needthat on on the trail down. So
let's talk a little bit abouthow it heads down and how that
you were monitoring yourself andknowing your limits to keep keep
(38:32):
yourself safe in this process aswell.
Sarah Beatrice (38:35):
Yes, so safety definitely came from we had our
oxygen meters on us, we wouldcheck our oxygen levels. We
would check in with like otherguides that spoke English that
we met there. Hey, do you thinkwe're okay? Like, what's your
oxygen? So we would ask peoplearound us. But on the way down
my friend, she got pretty sick,she couldn't eat. She was really
(38:58):
nauseous. So after base camp,she rented a horse. So this
horse is walking over thesegiant boulders. And she's like,
whoa, and I'm like, I don't carehow sick I was. I'm not getting
on a horse. I'm afraid of horsesanyways like riding them. But
she was riding this horse on theway down and like there's no
(39:20):
there's no like handle. There'sjust like a little tiny like,
ball looking thing. I don't knowwhat you call it? Oh yeah, yeah.
So she's going down with justthat. At she she made it to the
town of what town was it foreach day. She took a horse to
preach a and I hiked down andI'm like going real fast and
(39:43):
thinking I got this like, youknow, we're going down.
Everything's great. That night,I got really sick to my stomach.
I was up all night kept going tothe bathroom. Then in the
morning, I felt like she did thenext day. I have my oatmeal. I'm
like, I can't eat it. it or theday before she felt sick. I got
my oatmeal, so I can't do it. Ican't do it. And she's like, You
(40:06):
can't eat. I said, I cannot eat.
I can't do it. I took a littlebite of oatmeal. I was so
nauseous. I couldn't do it. Sowe had to hike 10 hours that
day. I had no food and no waterfor 10 hours. I was totally
nauseous. Every time I'd hikeuphill. I thought I was gonna
throw up. There was a lot of upsand downs. And then every time I
would drink my water, I hadindigestion so bad. It just
(40:28):
burned. And that's all fromaltitude. And I'm like, I can't,
I can't eat. I can't drink. Ihave indigestion. I'm telling
Gopal our Porter I'm like, Ineed something for indigestion.
And he's like medicine,Medicine. I'm like, Yes. And
he's telling me to take my coughsyrup and this and that, like no
(40:48):
indigestion. He's like, Oh, andhe gives me a lozenger because
he's not understanding that Ihave heartburn and indigestion.
And so then when we hiked allthe way to an empty and bizarre
which took us 10 hours, andwe're like, he kept telling us
an hour and a half an hour agoby an hour 20. I said Gopal how
(41:09):
much further an hour and a half.
It was always an hour and ahalf. And we kept rounding the
bed rounding the bed thinkingthe MTM was always going to be
right there. But it wasn't. Ittook us forever. And I bought I
bought some like anti acid antinauseous medicine. I took it I
drank a lot of water. And myfriend's knee was so swollen
(41:33):
that whole time to she waslimping the whole way. And in
the morning, she's like Sarah,she's like, we got a helicopter
out of here. She's like, My kneeis so bad. And I'm like, I
agree. And I was like, Yeah, Isaid I can't eat or drink. And I
had like a hard boiled egg thatnight. In the morning. I can
hardly eat either. And I'm like,there's there's pushing your
(41:56):
limits and there's knowing yourlimits. And that was knowing my
limits. I'm like, Okay, so now Irisk dehydration to on top of
whatever else. This is altitudesickness, whatever. So it was a
smart idea. But it cost the cost$1,800 to fly out that 30 minute
helicopter ride from Vamp J toKatmandu was an $1,800
(42:20):
helicopter ride.
Josh Meeder (42:23):
And interesting that, you know. So it's really
fascinating. We've been talkingabout the resources there. So
when you were able to get introuble you were able to find
helicopter helicopter accesspretty quickly and pretty easily
and to $1,800. was proved fortwo people. Correct? Yeah.
Sarah Beatrice (42:45):
Yeah.
Josh Meeder (42:47):
So how far so where did that helicopter you back
down to? Was that to thestarting point? Yeah, it
Sarah Beatrice (42:54):
took us to Luke law. So from New Hampshire,
bizarre, we had to hike up toget to this place. It took us 20
minutes to hike up this hill toget to the helicopter Launchpad.
And we're sitting there we'relike, maybe 20 feet away from
the helicopters that areconstantly going up and down
getting rescues. There's thiskid they brought up. He was
(43:17):
like, he looked like a zombie.
They were like, these two guysare helping him up. They had to
helicopter him out because hewas hiking up to Nam J and got
really bad altitude sickness. Soby the time we landed and Lok la
we seen him and he was fine.
He's on his phone and play withhis phone. So the only cure for
altitude is rapid descent and hewas good that but um so from
(43:43):
there so that was like a fiveminute helicopter ride and from
from Luke law to Katmandu isanother like 2025 minutes so it
we got all the way back toKatmandu with that one ticket,
but you had to stop and look LA,wait a little bit, wait a couple
hours for the next helicopter.
And as we were just about tostep onto our helicopter,
(44:04):
they're like, oh, wait, we gottago rescue someone. We'll be
right back. So this guy withthis harness gets in the
helicopter, and there arerescuing someone off a Abloh
Doblo you had altitude sicknesson the side of the mountain. So
if there's a rescue they're likeabandoning everything else and
going like it's such a neatthing to see the process of
that. Like how you know and Iappreciated that they're just
(44:29):
going to drop everything torescue someone to
Josh Meeder (44:34):
Yeah, and getting down to Kathmandu then you said
that rapid elevation change diddid your your sense of feeling
better come back as soon as youyou got down a little bit lower.
What was the feeling like whenyou landed? Yeah,
Sarah Beatrice (44:49):
like the lower I got the better I felt like even
in New Hampshire I felt I didfeel a little bit better. Like I
was able to eat that one egg andI did feel a little bit better
but the lower down I got I feltbetter and better. Like I look
law kept me and do I felt great.
I still had the runny nose likethat took. I swear I had that
for like, two weeks, maybe evenlonger. I didn't think your nose
(45:10):
could produce that much snotlike it was so gross.
Josh Meeder (45:18):
out there doing the instruct. I don't know what's
going on with my mic. So youwere I weren't out there doing
the Instagram models or whatnot.
A lot of selfies on this trip.
It was about the hike. It wasabout
Sarah Beatrice (45:30):
the hike and I have some some selfies that look
pretty bad. I have the onepicture of me like on a bridge I
look at real happy on one of thesuspension bridges. Like yeah,
hiking. In the next picture. Ilook like a corpse. I literally
look like a corpse and look thatbad. My nose is all crusty my
hair. We hadn't showered indays. There's no hot water.
Josh Meeder (45:54):
Well, that's it's an amazing story. And you're in
Katmandu. And you extended thetrip from there, didn't you? You
went on to one more place beforereturning home.
Sarah Beatrice (46:04):
Yeah, the idea was, let's just keep jumping
around that side of the worldbecause we're there. But I just
wasn't feeling it. And there wasa safari. So we took a bus, we
took a bus that took forever. Ittook us like nine hours around
all these tight turns. And itjust was a nightmare of a bus
(46:27):
ride. But we took a bus to thejungle. And we took a safari
where we saw rhinoceroses andelephants and hope we hope to
see a tiger but we didn't seeany tigers. We saw crocodiles.
And it was pretty neat to seehow people lived in the jungle.
It was sad to see the ElephantBreeding center because they do
(46:49):
keep the elephants locked up.
And that just broke my heart tosee that. But I mean, seeing the
rhinos and the wild elephantswas just amazing. And then from
there, my friend, she went overto Thailand. She's like, do you
want to go to Thailand? And Isaid, No. She said, you don't
want to go to Thailand. I said Ido. I said, but I am totally
(47:10):
burnout. I said, I have nothingleft in me to travel. I said, I
want to go back and work forUPS. That's what I do
seasonally. I said, I just wantto go back and work for UPS.
She's like, Oh, you want to goback and work? Yeah, yeah, I
just want to go back to work.
Josh Meeder (47:29):
Well, the concept of travel burnout is real you
and I've talked about this alittle bit, but it's one thing
to experience but doing it, youknow, on an ongoing basis can be
quite a bit, you know. So travelburnout is real. And you and
I've had a little bit ofdiscussion about this. But why
don't you share, like yourperspective on on the realities
(47:52):
of travel and what travelburnout looks like and how
you've adjusted to it to knowingwhen it's there.
Sarah Beatrice (47:58):
So the first time I experienced it, I was in
Europe, I did a four month tripto Europe. I only planned on
being there in Italy for amonth. But you know, sometimes
when I travel, I just keep goingif I have no agenda to get back.
So in Europe, I was having agreat time. But then it was
(48:20):
like, Oh, here's anothercathedral. Here's another city
center. Here's another thishere's another that and I
stopped enjoying it. I startedgetting I felt edgy. I felt like
Okay, here we here we go again.
And it just you do get burnt outon it. So having like little
trips like maybe two, threeweeks, I think that is my max.
Or if you're going to do a longtrip, have some downtime.
(48:44):
Because whenever you aretraveling, you're wanting to go
everywhere, you're wanting tosee everything. So if you're
going to do an extended trip, Iwould definitely recommend like,
hey, take like a week off andjust say to yourself and don't
don't have to see everything anddon't have to do everything. But
travel burnout Israel, and I andI especially when you're on a
(49:07):
big hike and a big journey thatI knew, I knew. I knew I was
complete. When I when I made itto base camp. I knew this is
what I came to see. And now Iwant to go home. So knowing your
goals and knowing what you wantto see is important and not
pushing it because if you keeppushing it, I don't think I
(49:28):
would have enjoyed Thailand if Iwould have went and I want to go
to Thailand when I enjoy it. Notwhen I'm burnt out and just like
like scraping money. Right?
Josh Meeder (49:40):
Right. And that's a good segue because we've talked
you through through this amazingadventure that you put together
on your own unguided andincluding a an emergency
helicopter evac people reallysometimes don't understand that
travel does not have to beexpensive. So in this case like
your home trip the flight acrossand back and everything. What
(50:03):
would you estimate that thistrip would have been about? As
far as just US dollars?
Sarah Beatrice (50:09):
Probably a little under 3000. Say, which
Josh Meeder (50:13):
is amazing like to think about that that's, you
know, some people will spendthat in an entertainment or
coffee over the period of ayear. It's not a lot, lot of
money to have a life experiencelike that.
Sarah Beatrice (50:27):
No, it's not.
And I put a lot of stuff on myon my credit card, and I think I
paid off $2,600. But I think Ispent a little bit more than
that. So it was definitely underthree. Definitely under 3000. So
and you can do it. People saylike, oh my god, like, how do
you afford all this, you must bea multimillionaire bubble blob,
(50:49):
like, listen, I know how totravel cheap, I find the deals,
sometimes I'll do reversetravel, I'll look online, oh,
here's a cheap ticket to Turkey,I guess that's where I'm going.
Like, I won't have an actualdestination. I'll look at the
cheap flights there. Alright,let's do this.
Josh Meeder (51:08):
And there's a place when traveling, you can call it
cheap or frugal orinexpensively, you can avoid the
big major tourist centers,that's where it's costly, if you
you know, in the standardhotels, but when you get out
into the country, not only is itless expensive, but you get to
meet the people, you get to feelthe culture and you get to
actually live the experiencemore. So I actually think you
(51:31):
get a lot more value for yourtravel dollars getting on those
outskirts than the untested orthe unbeaten path, if you will.
You
Sarah Beatrice (51:42):
do because you see the culture and you see the
realness the rawness becauselike you said, you go to a city.
It's touristy. You go to thelittle villages, it's really how
people live. We're watchingpeople. This lady was digging
holes and making these moundsand she was growing potatoes
and, and I thought, does sheknow another world exists? And I
(52:05):
wasn't judging. I'm just like,does this woman know that
there's another world thatexists out here, filled with
technology filled with whateverwe want, like that whenever we
want it. And it's humbling tosee that. And it's humbling to
see these little children, youknow, they might not have a lot,
but they're happy with what theyhave. They're not glued to their
(52:26):
screens. And I'm guilty of beingthat way too at times. Yeah. But
Josh Meeder (52:32):
it is a good reflection and travel off and I
think is one of the best way toexpand your broaden your
horizons. And especially if youhave kids, or you have nieces or
nephews to take someone out ofthe country at an early age just
to give them that exposure. Likeno, there is a lot more and it's
a big world and really differentout there, I think is a real
(52:54):
valuable, real valuable tip todo. So I know you'll have a lot
more adventures and you arecreating a business that will
support not only your travelbug, but introduce people to the
wider world, tell us a littlebit about what you're working
on.
Sarah Beatrice (53:10):
So I've made some pre made trips, where I
researched the area research,some fun things to do. And I put
her all out there. I make anitinerary, from the airport
pickup, to the different foodtours to different fun things to
do like, and having like a hotmess set up was great. But I
(53:36):
kind of stumbled on that. Butuh, so I'm putting it all
together. I researching the foodtours, the sightseeings the
adventures, and I'm making theitinerary. So it takes all the
work out of the trip for for theclient. And all they had to do
is worry about getting theirplane ticket, and I'll have
everything from airport pickupto everything else. Some meals
(53:59):
they'll have to buy on theirown. But um, let's say I have a
trip that I planned a trip toFrankenmuth, Michigan, and I
have the entire itinerary out,and I hope to launch that 120 24
and a Hawaii trip I'm workingon. I want to focus in the
(54:20):
country right now and then takeit out of the country. Maybe in
the following year.
Josh Meeder (54:27):
Okay, what type of people or is it are these tours
geared towards? It's probablynot the Bougie hotels. It's not
It's since you're doing in acountry that you have a lot more
amenities who's your typicalclient in something like this or
what what type of people areattracted to this?
Sarah Beatrice (54:44):
My clients are active adults, I'm gonna say
between. I'm gonna say late 20s,early 40s But I'm not
discriminating like any age cango but I think that is the age
group that I want to attract,because I want to have some
hiking. I want to have someadventure. So active adults is
(55:06):
my niche.
Josh Meeder (55:08):
So Sarah, you're doing pre made trips. But if
someone has an idea or wouldlike to go somewhere, would you
be able to work with someone toputting together kind of a
customized trip?
Sarah Beatrice (55:17):
Yeah, I would absolutely put together
customized trips. I loveresearching trips. I love
planning travel. And I wouldlove to plan a trip for it for
anybody. If they came up to meand said, Hey, will you plan
this trip for me? I wouldabsolutely love to know and be
on board with that.
Josh Meeder (55:36):
All right, so all the listeners out there if
you've had a destination or tripyou've had in mind, but you just
too been too busy or toodistracted to plan it yourself.
You need to talk to Sarah andshe will make that happen for
you. So Sarah, thanks again forsharing your story. It is an
amazing story. Great to hear it.
Great to share it and I wish youall the best on your future
adventures.
Sarah Beatrice (55:57):
Awesome. Thank you so much, Josh. It was fun
being on here.
Josh Meeder (56:01):
I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
great things LLC podcast. If youdid, be sure to share the link
with this episode with yourfriends, and share it to your
social media with your biggesttakeaway tagging me a great
things LLC. Make sure tosubscribe so you never miss an
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(56:23):
others to find their purpose,dream, collaborate and create
their own success story. Untilnext time, this is Josh Meeder
your host signing off
Welcome to the great things LLC podcast, the
show that celebrates people whoare making an impact on the
world, people creating consciousbusinesses that are in alignment
with their own personal values.
Each episode shares the wisdom,experience and the intentions of
those that are following theirdreams. visionaries who have
chosen a different path, foundtheir purpose, and create join
(00:21):
abundance while helping others.
Whether you're already atrailblazer, or still searching
for your path, the stories willinspire you towards being the
best version of yourself.
Welcome listeners. Today I amsuper excited to introduce you
to my friend Sarah Beatrice.
Sarah has just done a lot. Butshe is an avid traveler and
(00:42):
hiker. And just outdoorenthusiast. Sarah has done the
Appalachian Trail. She's visited23 countries. And she's climbed
to the base camp of Everest,which we're going to be talking
about today. And Sara is alsoestablishing a tourism in a
guided adventure business. Sojust want to welcome you on the
(01:03):
program here today. Sarah,welcome to the Great Things
podcast. Hey, Josh, thanks forhaving me tonight. Yeah, so I
think we should start how wemet. We were introduced by a
mutual friend, because we bothlove hiking in the nature and we
were both in westernPennsylvania. So Sarah, and I
said, Yeah, let's meet up, I wasgoing for my morning walk. And
we agreed to meet along thestream on on a walking path. And
(01:25):
she said, look for the whiteband. And when I pulled off,
there were no windows in thevan. And I thought, well, this
is getting kind of sketchy. Ifshe offers me a puppy or a
candy. I gotta run away. Butthat is how I met Sarah. And you
know, we've really enjoyedgetting to know her. But Sarah,
you just like, your travel isamazing. And the thing I love
(01:48):
about it with you is it's justwho you are you just do it
because it's your passion. Yeah,it truly is my passion. I don't
know anything else that I'mreally passionate about in life,
besides family and, and friends,but travel is number one passion
on my list. And let's talk abouthow you first got that travel
(02:08):
bug because you came there waskind of a an event and there was
a person there that kind ofencouraged you to do some this
and especially the solotraveling.
Sarah Beatrice (02:20):
Yeah. So I always like going places like
Colorado and Florida growing upas a kid. But um, I did the
Appalachian Trail. And I hikedfrom Georgia to Maine. And I met
a girl on there named SarahDuma. Her trail name was Carmen
Sandiego. Because she has beento so many different countries.
(02:41):
And after the trail, I went toIreland with her and her
husband, and we didn't go awayin the Wicklow way. And she
asked her that I wanted tocontinue traveling, and I wanted
to go to Iceland or wherever.
And,and I no one would go with me.
And she's like, just go alone,just Iceland's perfectly safe.
People speak English. Well,they're it's a great country to
(03:03):
go to for your first solo trip.
And once I went there, I justlit the match. And it just, it
just took off. And I wanted togo to more countries and I
wasn't afraid to go aloneanymore. They just took that
first step is sometimes thefirst step is the scariest step.
It is often the first step isthe scariest step. And you
(03:27):
mentioned the Appalachian Trailyou just like oh yeah, I did the
Appalachian Trail from Georgiato Maine. But for people who
don't understand what that is,how long did that take? Yep.
That took me five months in 19days to hike. Yeah, that that's
an amazing trail. And
Josh Meeder (03:45):
if you could, what were some of the highlights or
low points or the challenge,like through the trail that were
like high points, low pointsthrough the whole thing.
Sarah Beatrice (03:52):
So the highlights are definitely
reaching certain destinations.
Let's say, for example, thetrail is from Georgia to Maine.
And if you look at a map that islike holy crap, that's really
long. But if you make it intomini goal goals, like hey, we're
gonna go to Hot Springs, NorthCarolina. That was our first
goal. And that was a cute town.
(04:15):
And then the next town was thenext town that we hyped up was
Damascus, Virginia where theyhad trail days. They had that
every year and it's a big hikerfestival. So the highlights were
the festivals, the meeting otherhikers, the camaraderie that go
into town, freshening upgrabbing a couple of beers at a
(04:37):
local bar. So the highlightswere mostly in town and seeing
the amazing views in Vermont,and Maine and in New Hampshire.
Most of the trails are greentunnel. And then once you get to
Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine,it opens up and it's like wow,
like this is really incredible.
and some of the lowlights werewhen you're hiking for days in
(05:02):
the rain and you're putting onwet socks for three days.
Suppose you get these funnyblisters that look like
indentions, maybe it's trenchfoot, I don't know what it is.
And then sleeping in my tent wasterrifying during a
thunderstorm. I wake up at like,three in the morning to like a
(05:24):
severe thunderstorm of nonstoplightning. And I would just be
huddled in the back of my tent,just freaking out. And someone
sent me a little Bible and I'mnot a religious person, but
like, I started reading thisBible. And I'm like, Oh, my
gosh, this is so scary. Andthere's lightning and thunder
constantly. And that is whatmade me almost quit like once a
(05:45):
week, I wanted to quit becauseof these thunderstorms.
Josh Meeder (05:51):
So that place of wanting to quit, like the mental
resiliency and toughness was,was there anything that you did
or that kept you moving? Or isit just purely being stubborn
and determined?
Sarah Beatrice (06:03):
It was a couple of different things. This woman
that I know Joanne McBride.
She's from Newcastle, I believe.
She told me that she wrote me anote. And she put it in New
Hampshire and she told me thelocation, it was before the
lights, and she's like, I putit, I forget the exact
(06:23):
logistics, but I put it in thislocation in this stump
underneath a rock in a Ziplocbag. So I knew where it was like
from what she told me, and I'mlooking around, and then I see
the stump. Once I got to NewHampshire, and then I moved the
rock and there's a Ziploc bag,and it said something like dear
(06:45):
Sarah Beatrice, welcome to NewHampshire love Joanne McBride
from New Brighton. I think she'stried, actually, I think it's
about don't quote me on thelocations. But that really kept
me going. Because I'm like, Ineed to get this note that
Joanne put there. And it wasstubbornness. And it was also
like, I have to see what shewrote. And I'm not gonna drive
(07:07):
up there to get that.
Josh Meeder (07:10):
Well, that's an impressive and what a thoughtful
gift of motivation for someone
Sarah Beatrice (07:15):
to do that. And she probably didn't even know
how motivated that made me toget there. But it did. It really
truly did.
Josh Meeder (07:22):
Good. Well, congratulations on making that
that hike that is truly one ofthe epic ones here in the
country, for sure. All right. Soyou've been all around? There's
no question about that. And I'msure we could spend hours on all
the different countries andEcuador and like all the
different things. But the bigtrip that you've recently made
(07:44):
and actually made the first pagefront page of the newspaper back
home, is your trip to Nepal. Andone of the things that when we
did this pre interview thatreally surprised me as I thought
going to Everest would be yearsof research and planning and
expense. And you manage to dothis, not quite on a whim and a
(08:07):
shoestring but on a women issuestrings. So let's start with the
Genesis or the birth of the ideahow it came together. And how
long was it from that place ofit's an idea to put your boots
on the ground.
Sarah Beatrice (08:21):
So every year since my dad died, I took a trip
for his birthday. He died in2016. And when he was sick, I
was actually in Ireland. And hewasn't like a world traveler.
But he enjoyed going to ColoradoVegas, Florida. Some local
places, he like road trips, buthe wasn't a big traveler. He was
(08:44):
a businessman. And when he died,the first year he went away, I
went to Bermuda. Um, the firstyear that he died, I went to
Bermuda that year for hisbirthday. And we were stuck in
there world's largest hurricane.
There was a category four. Wewere freaking out. But every
every single year. On hisbirthday, we take a trip. And I
(09:07):
was tossing around the idea witha friend of mine that went to
Ecuador with me. And I said,Hey, Ashley, let's go to Spain,
Morocco, Greece or turkey. Andshe's like, sending me ideas,
ideas. And we're just going backand forth. And she's like, You
know what, Nepal is really goodto go to in October. So why
(09:28):
don't we go there? And I'm like,yeah, let's get a base camp. And
she's like, Well, I wasn'treally thinking that but I don't
know. And I'm like, Well, ifwe're gonna go to Nepal, we're
gonna hike to Everest base camp.
And she's like, Let me thinkabout it. And then she's like,
You know what, I'm on board.
Let's just do it. So it was itwas literally a whim. It was
planned like five or six monthsahead of time, and it wasn't a
(09:51):
lifelong dream to go to Everestbase camp. When dad was alive, I
would joke around like Hey, Dad,one day I'm gonna Go to Everest
and die the mountain like it wasjust like a sick joke. And he's
excited don't joke about stufflike that. I'm like, Yeah, but
what Wait, what a cool way todie on a great adventure. And,
you know, I was just messingaround with them and then when
(10:12):
it became reality I'm like, Ohman, like I really hope I don't
die like going to base campbecause I used to joke about
that with him. Yeah,
Josh Meeder (10:21):
that'd be an awful tragic foreshadowing that you've
created for yourself.
Sarah Beatrice (10:25):
Yeah, I believe in manifestation and a link No.
Josh Meeder (10:30):
Oh my goodness. So now that the trip is, you know,
planned any preparations for thetrip, any physical conditioning
planning? What did you do to getready for this, this hike,
Sarah Beatrice (10:45):
I literally ran up hills for months, all summer,
there's a place called RockPoint Park and I just ran up
that hill. And I would go backdown on run up. And again, I
would do like, I would do itabout three times. Probably
every other day, I would do itbecause I didn't want to burn
myself out on that or getinjured running. So I would do
(11:09):
that about every other day and Istarted eating healthy and I
really didn't prep too much forit. Just running, getting my
lungs in shape. I asked a friendif I should use one of those
masks that people use to trainfor oxygen. And he said I
wouldn't do that. I would justgo take Diamox run up hills.
(11:32):
Take your Diamox when you'rethere because Diamox it helps
with altitude sickness, it's adiuretic and you're shedding
water. So it helps shed thewater that can go around your
brain and causes the swelling.
So there was there was littlepreparation really
Josh Meeder (11:52):
well clearly you were prepared enough or as much
as you were going to be and thenthen getting around the world
did a layover so just if youcould share, share the flight
plan and the stop that you havebefore you got to Katmandu.
Sarah Beatrice (12:10):
So I bought my ticket from JFK to Katmandu. And
I had a stopover in Qatar, inDoha, Qatar. And they say that
if you have a longer than aneight hour layover, there's a
tour you can take. There's athree hour tour that you can
take the city of Doha, andpeople are like, Oh, Sarah,
(12:33):
there's a lot of stuff going onin Israel and the Middle East.
You shouldn't go and I'm like,I'm gonna go, it's Qatar, Qatar
safe, everything's fine there.
And it was beautiful. It's alldesert. And me thinking desert
is a dry heat. I landed I leftthe airport. I walk into this
desert and it's humid, it'stotally humid. And I'm like,
(12:57):
What is this? And I guess sinceit's on the water, it's a humid
heat in the summer. They don'treally leave their houses and
they try to find stuff to doindoors. But there's air
conditioning on the streets.
You're walking on the streets ofDoha, Qatar. It looks like the
movie scene of Aladdin. It'sbeautiful, elegant, and there's
(13:18):
air conditioning vents comingout of the street on the ground.
And like this is crazy. I'm likethis had to be a billion dollars
to air conditioned your streetsoutside. It just was so neat. I
just loved Qatar I wish I hadmore time to spend there. We
went through one of theirmarkets they have like a market
(13:40):
with a labyrinth of a rose andin stores but our tour guides
like don't go through just stayon the main street because if
you start going through thedifferent labyrinth labyrinth
she called them she says you'llget lost and we will live here
in 35 minutes with your withoutyou and she has she said we have
before
Josh Meeder (14:01):
good warning very clear clear message on that one.
So let's fast forward so afterQatar you jump back on the plane
and all of a sudden you are inNepal you landed in Katmandu. So
this is kind of the start ofyour adventure and love to hear
just what is it like going upyou know landing getting any
permits and just moving on up toBasecamp
Sarah Beatrice (14:24):
so I landed and I got a taxi to my my hostel or
Airbnb. No, it was a hostel Ibelieve. Yeah, got it on hostel
world. So landed I got to myhostel, waited for my friend to
arrive. We spent a few days inKatmandu just acclimating to
(14:44):
like the time zones because wewere 10 hours and 45 minutes
ahead. So we wanted to justchill out for a few days so
people will land and go straightto Luke law where you start the
trial the next day and I'm like,we need a few days to adjust. So
We adjusted for a few days. Andour hostel was so loud we had a
(15:04):
private room. But all night longyou heard scooters BB BB, like
234 in the morning it wasnonstop. And we're like, we
can't deal with this. We wentdown to the front desk, we're
gonna have to leave. We can'tdeal with this noise. We cannot
sleep, but we need to sleep. Sohe's like, Well, how about we
bring you to the hotel nextdoor. So he takes us to this
(15:26):
beautiful hotel called theMustang hotel, and charges us
only like 10 more dollars anight apiece. And it was totally
quiet. And then he booked us aflight. We paid them for the
flights. So from Katmandu, theluplow was like a $200 flight.
And it's supposed to be a reallytiny plane. And he messages us
(15:49):
the next night, and it was like,so for an extra $30 a person
would you rather take ahelicopter, they're like, hell
yeah, we'd rather helicopterthere. And that's what we wanted
to do, initially, but it was waymore expensive than we thought
it was going to be. So wesettled on the airplane, but
with an extra $30. We're like,let's do this. So we helicopter
(16:13):
over to Luke law. And that wasjust such an incredible flight
to fly through the Himalayas.
And just I love helicopters,everything about I'm taking off
flying. It's a little bitbouncy. It's just you're right
there. You're right there in themountains, and you see
everything.
Josh Meeder (16:32):
You I can't imagine that that vantage point. Now,
one thing we kind of neglectedto mention here to this point is
the planning for this trip, youare planning at this point with
no guides, no Sherpas, and justdoing it on your own no real
tour companies. You just had anidea in your town in Nepal, and
you're on your way to themountain and you found a
(16:54):
helicopter. So just to set thestage you didn't have, you
didn't have support. This wasall what you put together.
Sarah Beatrice (17:00):
Right? This is all what we put together. And my
friend, Carmen Sandiego. She hastrekked in Nepal twice, and
she's done Everest base camp andGokyo lake that that route, both
taking you to the base camp. Andshe's like, she used her
backpack. She didn't hire aguide. She didn't hire a Sherpa
(17:21):
to carry her stuff. She's like,you got this. If you can do the
Appalachian Trail, you could dothis on your own. So we're
hiking up to Nam chair bizarreof this giant hill. And I'm
like, What the hell was shetalking about? I'm like, my bag
is heavy. I can't breathe, rightwalking up this hill. I'm never
(17:41):
going to make it if I'm carryingmy bag. I'm never gonna make it.
So we met this amazing manimpacting the village before,
which is the first village wehiked to and stayed at. And his
name is Tenzing Sherpa. And he'slike, if you need any help,
here's my number, please callme. And he was so pleasant. Like
every time he talked to us, hejust would laugh and just be so
(18:04):
filled with joy. We just lovedhis vibes. And we're like, we
don't have a lot of money tospend. We're on a budget. So
he's like, I'll send you aporter to carry your bags for
$12 a day total. So that's sixfor me and six for my friend per
day. And we're like, what we'relike, Is this for real? And he's
(18:25):
like, yeah, he's like, this isthis is for real. So for? Yeah,
$12 a day, he carried our bagsup to base camp. And we tipped
him well, because he deservesway more than that, because he
acted as our guide, in a way. Hedidn't speak much English, but
he would say, breakfast dinner,and he would hand us the menus
(18:47):
and he would order for us and hewould run ahead and get us a
room for the next night becausethis trail is so packed. That if
you if you walk there on yourown and take a long time, like
we did, then you're you're gonnarisk not getting a room and
having to sleep on the diningroom floor, which we did not
listening to.
Josh Meeder (19:07):
So let's talk about that. Because that was something
that was interesting to me. Idid not understand that there
was actually accommodationsalong the way. So you you
mentioned tea houses and that'sthat's where you stayed what
what is a tea house and how didthat work out?
Sarah Beatrice (19:22):
A tea house is just basically the first one we
walked into a painted picturethat we walked in. It looks like
a dining hall. There's tableseverywhere. There's a wood
burner and it's actually a yakdung burner. They're they're
drying out yak poop, and they'reputting that in this stove. And
(19:43):
that's how they're heating it.
So you order your food in thisdining hall, and it's really
warm and cozy in there. And thenthere's hallways and it takes
you down to rooms. So there'sprivate rooms or there's group
rooms, but we had we had privaterooms me and my friends
Actually, I think I've two bedsin them. And some of them had a
private bath, but some of themdidn't. And they weren't heated
(20:05):
those weren't heated the diningroom was the only thing that was
heated and we'd have to sleep inour sleeping bags and we would
get our Nalgene water bottlesand get boiling hot water from
the kitchen, put those by ourfeet. And the beds came with
comforter. So we would put thecomforters over us. And once we
got to a higher elevation wewould ask for more comforters
(20:27):
who were cold. And they wouldcharge us like 500 rupees which
was just a few dollars US torent an extra comforter. But we
like chow mein and rice and dalbots and we just had all kinds
of very local food, no meatbecause they say anything past
Namche bazar the yaks arecarrying the meat and it could
(20:50):
spoil so we were strictlyvegetarian on the hike.
Josh Meeder (20:57):
Okay, and did you feel did that provide enough
energy for you? Did you noticenot having the protein as much
Sarah Beatrice (21:06):
as see I had eggs every morning. So eggs were
okay, so I had eggs and frybread every morning. And this
was almost like a fried doughwithout the sugar so good. But I
did have a lot of energy. I wishI had a little, a little more
snacks, like some more Clif barsbecause I am a snacker and I am
a foodie and I'm always wantinglike something to munch on. So I
(21:30):
wish I would have packed metal.
You can buy anything likethere's candy bars, and, and
whatever. There's villages allalong the way. And you can buy
whatever you need, whether it'strekking poles, sleeping bags,
it's all there. So
Josh Meeder (21:46):
interesting that there are resources along the
way. And we're going to actuallyloop back to the resources that
you do have at your disposal onthe way down but all right now
you're you're on the way you'vegotten your your track or your
your assistance with the porter.
Tell me more about like the tripto base camp.
Sarah Beatrice (22:05):
So there's Yaks coming down the mountain
constantly. There's Yaks. Andwhen you see the axe, everyone
yells yak and then they alsohave yak belts. And you hear
these bells. And you have to hugthe mountain side. Because these
Yaks will push you off themountain because they're not
moving. They have the rightaway. And they have pushed
people off and they have killedpeople. So when you see the axe,
(22:29):
you're jumping on the side ofthe mountain. Sometimes it's
scary and they're so close andyou're like freaking out a
little bit. But they produce alot of dust. And it made my nose
run the whole time, which Ithought and by the time I got to
do the budget I didn't go to Ihave a hard time pronouncing
(22:49):
that. I was really sick. And Iended up going to the hospital
and had like a full onrespiratory infection.
bronchitis. I was I thought Ihad altitude sickness, but it
was all kinds of sicknesses. AndI guess a lot of people get sick
on the way up there. But it'sbeautiful hiking in the
(23:09):
Himalayas. It's just I think Iwould have appreciated the
beauty more if I felt better.
But I was sick. Like from thaton up. And maybe 910 days of
being sick. Yeah, it was themost miserable journey of my
life. This miserable.
Josh Meeder (23:27):
Yeah. So day two, three. How close are you getting
to the base camp? How many daysdid it take you from when you
started hiking to reach up tobase camp.
Sarah Beatrice (23:38):
So it took 11 days to get to base camp.
Whenever you hike, there aresome acclimatization days. So
the first day is Luke law, thetwo pack thing. And Luke law is
actually higher than packing. Soyou want to hike high and sleep
low. So every day that you hike,you want to sleep lower than
(23:58):
what you hike. And for every2000 every 2000 feet of
elevation gain, you're supposedto spend two nights to
acclimate. And even thoughyou're not moving on that second
day, you're supposed to hikehigh and sleep low. So we would
hike high to differentdestinations and sleep low. So
(24:21):
an empty and bizarre there was aTenzing Sherpa statue. So we
hiked up to see the TenzingSherpa statue, which was the
first man to summon Everest, andthen we hiked back down. We
actually stayed three nights inNew Hampshire bizarre, instead
of the two recommended justbecause we had the time. We
(24:41):
didn't have a guide. A lot ofthe groups had 2030 people if
you get sick, oh well, yourhikes over they're gonna keep
going. So in Namta bizarre, Idecided to get a tattoo at the
world's highest tattoo place.
And I got the Yak skull becauseThe acts are so much a part of
the journey. You see themeverywhere. They're carrying
(25:03):
goods up and down the mountainalong with the Sherpas, who
carry the goods. I got MountEverest, in Ahmedabad Blum and
the prayer flags. I told thetattoo guy. His place is called
natty tattoo. I told him, Isaid, Hey, I'm like, I just this
is what I want. I want theprayer flag. I want the ohm
(25:25):
symbol. And I want MountEverest, and he designed it on
his own and was like, Do youlike this? And I said,
Absolutely. And actually foundout about it from a local guy.
This this guy named Remy, he'sfrom Brazilian Opal. And I saw
on his Instagram that he wasdoing Everest base camp. And I'm
(25:46):
like, I messaged him, like, areyou doing Everest base camp
right now. And he's like, we, wejust got done with it. We're in
town. So me and Ashley met himand his dad and his friends
there. And his dad got thesetattoos. And that's how I knew
but the tattoo place from alocal guy, a zillion Opal guy is
doing that the same time I wasdoing Everest base camp. That's,
Josh Meeder (26:12):
that's amazing. You know, and actually one of the
things that as you travel, youstart to realize how small the
world is. And especially ifyou're outgoing and social. I
know growing up in college, allmy friends just like they hated
traveling with me, because therewas nowhere I could go that I
didn't know someone in storiesor like we landed in Munich, in
(26:35):
Munich, Germany. And like,within five minutes, I was
talking to a guy that I'd runinto at a party at the
university before, like the weekbefore, and it's really it's a
small world and in the travelcommunity is it's big, but it's
also small. So that's really,you know, that's what, eight
miles from your home that youran into someone that had done
(26:57):
that.
Sarah Beatrice (26:58):
Yeah, I couldn't believe it.
Josh Meeder (27:01):
And for the listeners to you, you have a
practice with tattoos on youvisited a continent you get you
least get one tattoo when youvisit a continent. Yeah,
Sarah Beatrice (27:11):
I have a tattoo for every continent I've been
on. And I'm gonna continue thatwith the rest of the continents.
Antarctica, I don't know ifAntarctica has any tattoo
places. So I had to bring anartist with me to do my tattoo
there. Or you
Josh Meeder (27:26):
can just find someone to do like a prison
style with a ballpoint pen andyou know, call it done.
Sarah Beatrice (27:31):
Absolutely.
Josh Meeder (27:34):
All right, so you got your you got your rest you
got your tattoo and I do have tosay getting a tattoo at that
elevation just blew my mindbecause your body's probably
already a little odd with thealtitude and then the the
endorphins got to throw you offa little bit as well. So you
crammed all that in and thenkept going. So what's next after
(27:56):
that place?
Sarah Beatrice (27:57):
So after name Tim bizarre is Ting Ting, Bochy,
and that's when I got reallysick, I have a picture and I'm
just like, I look totally wipedout. And that is where the
highest monastery in the worldis. And I wanted I wanted to go
to it's so bad, but I did notfeel good enough. But I woke up
(28:18):
in the morning and I heard themI heard like a vibration sound
or something. were singing andthen I noticed that wow, those
are the monks chanting. Likethis is so amazing to hear that.
And I wasn't sure if I was gonnamove on from that place that day
or not, but but I did. And thenwe got to ding ding Bojay which
was 15,000 feet. And that's thehighest I've ever slept in my
(28:43):
life. And that's that's theplace I had to go to the
hospital. And he we were goingto spend two nights there. But
the doctor recommended stay fora third night before you go on
because you are sick and you canrisk getting out to sickness
with that respiratory infectioneverything he's got the good
news is it's not in your lungs.
It's like up higher but he gaveme three antibiotics to take a
(29:07):
day. cough syrup. He gave memore Diamox electrolytes he gave
me like seven different thingsto take. And my nose ran the
whole time and I was coughingand blowing my nose and I looked
at my friend I'm like you'renever gonna travel with me good
or you're just so gross rightnow. Chick No, no, I Well, she's
(29:29):
you're sick I get it.
Josh Meeder (29:34):
Yeah, and if people haven't been at altitude it is
it's an experience and in theStates, you know your highest is
about 14,000 and you know youcan go to Pikes Peak, a lot of
people will literally drive upto the top and feel the effects.
I've done Pikes Peak two times.
And the first time I was young,I was in shape and I did this
(29:55):
the hike and six and a halfhours and it's I'm about I
think, six 8000 feet to 14,000usually took nine. And I did it
with a candy bar, a sprite andno equipment. And by the time I
got to the top, I was confused.
You know, it was, it was weirdthat you're sluggish and
(30:17):
euphoric at the same time. Andyeah, and you don't realize it
like you're at that level plantsdon't survive. There's the tree
line. So you get to a placewhere it's even too thin of
oxygen for the plants to live.
So you hit that place and yourbody is starting to break down.
So I can't imagine sleepingthere, let alone going. So that
is that they four or five thatyou're at that place
Sarah Beatrice (30:40):
during Bochy, that was stay. So there's
packing to Nam che, we stayedthree nights in the MTA. So that
was day five.
Josh Meeder (30:52):
And then we say now you're halfway, you're halfway
to your destination. Yeah.
Sarah Beatrice (30:57):
Yeah. Halfway there, staying three nights in
big Bojay. And then we stayed inlittle Bucha Bay. And that was a
climb that, you know, it was anice, easy hike, like, you know,
I started feeling better. Andthen we have lunch, and then
it's so straight up. There'sboulders everywhere, it's
(31:20):
straight up. And I'm like, oh mygod, this is a really high climb
right here. And then you get upthere. And there's prayer flags
all over. And there's beautifulmountains, probably the most
beautiful mountains I've everseen in my life. And the yaks
are just walking by they had themost perfect picture ever of the
Yaks walking past this mountainand the peaks in the background.
(31:41):
It just looks it looks fake,almost. It's just so beautiful.
And that's where I got theheadache that never went away. I
just had this terrible headache.
And I'm sitting at Le Buchawhich is 16,200 feet, I believe.
And I'm just sitting there likeat the dining hall like holding
my head. And I'm looking aroundand like why do you feel staring
(32:03):
at me? And then like being homelike, Oh, they're staring at me,
probably because they thought isthat girl dying over there. And
there's constant rescuehelicopters every time you hear
a helicopter takeoff and otherones landing. People are
constantly getting rescued. Noone tells you all this before
you go that you're there's tonsof people getting rescued. A
(32:25):
girl died. And gorakshep whichis the final village. So we're a
little Bucha day and we get wordthat a gorakshep a girl just
died in her sleep of altitudesickness as she was only 30. And
that's at 16,900 feet. And sheshe was fine. She went to sleep
(32:47):
and didn't wake up. And and thatcould happen. You could check
your oxygen and it could itcould drop in the middle of the
night. So I would wake up in themiddle of the night and I'm
checking my oxygen with myoximeter. I'm like, I'm 75 I'm
good. I'm good. So an altitude16,000 feet and beyond 775 is
good.
Josh Meeder (33:09):
Which if you're here in the States, they would
instantly Russia into thehospital. So interesting. All
right, so let's take it up to doto base camp. What's What's that
final push that experience inwhat you find up there.
Sarah Beatrice (33:27):
So from Lovoo J, a lot of people go to gorakshep.
They have lunch, either theycontinue hiking, we got to
gorakshep. And we're like it'snoon. And we had a headache. So
bad. Both of us, my friend couldhardly eat. And we're like,
we're just gonna wait tilltomorrow. Like, I wanted to like
(33:48):
push on in case we were gettingaltitude sickness. And I think
she did too. But we both agreed,like, there's no way like we
feel we just feel like crap. Weneed to spend the night. So I
went to the hospital again. Andas soon as I got to this
hospital, they're like, sit medown. They're checking my blood
pressure. They're putting thething on my finger. I'm like,
No, it's fine. I just have aheadache. But that's that's the
(34:11):
hospital where you see on thedocumentaries where people are
dying. They have the oxygen on.
This is like a tiny little room.
It's dark. There's no lights,there's no heat, and there's
like beds and oxygen tanks. AndI'm like, this is where people
die. This is great. So he's likeyou're at 75 You're good. Just
(34:32):
keep taking your antibiotics andcough stuff. You're good. You're
good to hike to base camptomorrow. So we go to sleep. We
wake up and since since a lot ofpeople do it around noon after
they eat, we left at 6am. So wehad base camp to ourselves.
(34:53):
There were people leaving. Butso so let me backtrack. So we
wake up we have Breakfast, westarted our hike. It's a really
hard hike. There's boulderseverywhere. Sometimes you can't
tell what's trail what's boulderwhich way to go. And it's, it's
not like a crazy high up hike,it's, it's kind of like,
(35:15):
fluctuates, not a lot ofelevation gain, it's you go from
69 to 17, six. And, you know, weround the corner, and we go
down, and there's this bigglacier lake. And we hear the
thumping of the ice going intothe lake. And I just think
that's one of the coolest soundsin the world. And then we round
(35:37):
the corner there. And we see therock that says Everest base
camp. And I'm like, and I juststarted like bawling. And I give
my phone to my friend. And I'mlike, take a picture of me on
this rock, and I just laid onthe rock. And it's the same way
I felt on the Appalachian Trailwhere I just laid on there, it
was just like, I just bought itand just let it all out. Just a
(35:59):
deep, deep cry. And it just, itjust felt really good to release
all that. And then I hugged myfriend, and I said, that was so
hard, and I'm crying, likehugging her. And then I had a
few prayer flags, one for my dogthat died a couple of months
(36:19):
before I went on my hike. Onefor my dad for his birthday. And
one for me, I just wanted toleave the past behind, started a
new chapter. So hung up threemeaningful prayer flags. And I
brought some of my dog Bailey'shair to Basecamp. And I
sprinkled some of her hair and Isaid, run free with the dogs of
(36:41):
the mountain Bailey. And it wasemotional. And then I had a
prayer, I had a rosary that thiswoman named Madhu gave me. She's
Italian lady from Elwood, one ofmy dad's friends. And she's
like, carry this with you this,this will help get you the base
camp. And I have a picture ofthat. And like everyone loves
(37:04):
that picture. And she was so sohappy that I kept those rosaries
and carried them the whole way.
And now she's like, You betterkeep those in your car. And
everywhere you go. And I'm like,I will, I will.
Josh Meeder (37:17):
Wow, what an emotional thing like that, you
know, when you're on those bigtracks, or those destinations,
to actually get there, you know,the ecstasy, the pain, like all
of it come flooding out at once.
That just I can, I can pictureit. But I can't sense what that
would actually feel like foryou. That's amazing. It's
Sarah Beatrice (37:36):
amazing. And I feel like I'm on this journey
Life Where I'm chasing thathigh. And I've only felt that
twice in my life, theAppalachian Trail at Everest.
And unlike now what?
Josh Meeder (37:48):
Yeah, well, so we may have to talk about like
resetting or reevaluating someof these objectives, you know,
because there's a lot ofextremes out there. But it is
when you challenge yourself andyou push yourself past your
limits. But actually not pushingyourself past your limits. I
think better speaking, becausewe talked about this earlier,
it's pushing yourself to yourlimits, but clearly knowing your
(38:11):
limits, because you had thatsense and awareness. So you did
check in on the way up, you didget assistance with the the
porta. And you're going to needthat on on the trail down. So
let's talk a little bit abouthow it heads down and how that
you were monitoring yourself andknowing your limits to keep keep
(38:32):
yourself safe in this process aswell.
Sarah Beatrice (38:35):
Yes, so safety definitely came from we had our
oxygen meters on us, we wouldcheck our oxygen levels. We
would check in with like otherguides that spoke English that
we met there. Hey, do you thinkwe're okay? Like, what's your
oxygen? So we would ask peoplearound us. But on the way down
my friend, she got pretty sick,she couldn't eat. She was really
(38:58):
nauseous. So after base camp,she rented a horse. So this
horse is walking over thesegiant boulders. And she's like,
whoa, and I'm like, I don't carehow sick I was. I'm not getting
on a horse. I'm afraid of horsesanyways like riding them. But
she was riding this horse on theway down and like there's no
(39:20):
there's no like handle. There'sjust like a little tiny like,
ball looking thing. I don't knowwhat you call it? Oh yeah, yeah.
So she's going down with justthat. At she she made it to the
town of what town was it foreach day. She took a horse to
preach a and I hiked down andI'm like going real fast and
(39:43):
thinking I got this like, youknow, we're going down.
Everything's great. That night,I got really sick to my stomach.
I was up all night kept going tothe bathroom. Then in the
morning, I felt like she did thenext day. I have my oatmeal. I'm
like, I can't eat it. it or theday before she felt sick. I got
my oatmeal, so I can't do it. Ican't do it. And she's like, You
(40:06):
can't eat. I said, I cannot eat.
I can't do it. I took a littlebite of oatmeal. I was so
nauseous. I couldn't do it. Sowe had to hike 10 hours that
day. I had no food and no waterfor 10 hours. I was totally
nauseous. Every time I'd hikeuphill. I thought I was gonna
throw up. There was a lot of upsand downs. And then every time I
would drink my water, I hadindigestion so bad. It just
(40:28):
burned. And that's all fromaltitude. And I'm like, I can't,
I can't eat. I can't drink. Ihave indigestion. I'm telling
Gopal our Porter I'm like, Ineed something for indigestion.
And he's like medicine,Medicine. I'm like, Yes. And
he's telling me to take my coughsyrup and this and that, like no
(40:48):
indigestion. He's like, Oh, andhe gives me a lozenger because
he's not understanding that Ihave heartburn and indigestion.
And so then when we hiked allthe way to an empty and bizarre
which took us 10 hours, andwe're like, he kept telling us
an hour and a half an hour agoby an hour 20. I said Gopal how
(41:09):
much further an hour and a half.
It was always an hour and ahalf. And we kept rounding the
bed rounding the bed thinkingthe MTM was always going to be
right there. But it wasn't. Ittook us forever. And I bought I
bought some like anti acid antinauseous medicine. I took it I
drank a lot of water. And myfriend's knee was so swollen
(41:33):
that whole time to she waslimping the whole way. And in
the morning, she's like Sarah,she's like, we got a helicopter
out of here. She's like, My kneeis so bad. And I'm like, I
agree. And I was like, Yeah, Isaid I can't eat or drink. And I
had like a hard boiled egg thatnight. In the morning. I can
hardly eat either. And I'm like,there's there's pushing your
(41:56):
limits and there's knowing yourlimits. And that was knowing my
limits. I'm like, Okay, so now Irisk dehydration to on top of
whatever else. This is altitudesickness, whatever. So it was a
smart idea. But it cost the cost$1,800 to fly out that 30 minute
helicopter ride from Vamp J toKatmandu was an $1,800
(42:20):
helicopter ride.
Josh Meeder (42:23):
And interesting that, you know. So it's really
fascinating. We've been talkingabout the resources there. So
when you were able to get introuble you were able to find
helicopter helicopter accesspretty quickly and pretty easily
and to $1,800. was proved fortwo people. Correct? Yeah.
Sarah Beatrice (42:45):
Yeah.
Josh Meeder (42:47):
So how far so where did that helicopter you back
down to? Was that to thestarting point? Yeah, it
Sarah Beatrice (42:54):
took us to Luke law. So from New Hampshire,
bizarre, we had to hike up toget to this place. It took us 20
minutes to hike up this hill toget to the helicopter Launchpad.
And we're sitting there we'relike, maybe 20 feet away from
the helicopters that areconstantly going up and down
getting rescues. There's thiskid they brought up. He was
(43:17):
like, he looked like a zombie.
They were like, these two guysare helping him up. They had to
helicopter him out because hewas hiking up to Nam J and got
really bad altitude sickness. Soby the time we landed and Lok la
we seen him and he was fine.
He's on his phone and play withhis phone. So the only cure for
altitude is rapid descent and hewas good that but um so from
(43:43):
there so that was like a fiveminute helicopter ride and from
from Luke law to Katmandu isanother like 2025 minutes so it
we got all the way back toKatmandu with that one ticket,
but you had to stop and look LA,wait a little bit, wait a couple
hours for the next helicopter.
And as we were just about tostep onto our helicopter,
(44:04):
they're like, oh, wait, we gottago rescue someone. We'll be
right back. So this guy withthis harness gets in the
helicopter, and there arerescuing someone off a Abloh
Doblo you had altitude sicknesson the side of the mountain. So
if there's a rescue they're likeabandoning everything else and
going like it's such a neatthing to see the process of
that. Like how you know and Iappreciated that they're just
(44:29):
going to drop everything torescue someone to
Josh Meeder (44:34):
Yeah, and getting down to Kathmandu then you said
that rapid elevation change diddid your your sense of feeling
better come back as soon as youyou got down a little bit lower.
What was the feeling like whenyou landed? Yeah,
Sarah Beatrice (44:49):
like the lower I got the better I felt like even
in New Hampshire I felt I didfeel a little bit better. Like I
was able to eat that one egg andI did feel a little bit better
but the lower down I got I feltbetter and better. Like I look
law kept me and do I felt great.
I still had the runny nose likethat took. I swear I had that
for like, two weeks, maybe evenlonger. I didn't think your nose
(45:10):
could produce that much snotlike it was so gross.
Josh Meeder (45:18):
out there doing the instruct. I don't know what's
going on with my mic. So youwere I weren't out there doing
the Instagram models or whatnot.
A lot of selfies on this trip.
It was about the hike. It wasabout
Sarah Beatrice (45:30):
the hike and I have some some selfies that look
pretty bad. I have the onepicture of me like on a bridge I
look at real happy on one of thesuspension bridges. Like yeah,
hiking. In the next picture. Ilook like a corpse. I literally
look like a corpse and look thatbad. My nose is all crusty my
hair. We hadn't showered indays. There's no hot water.
Josh Meeder (45:54):
Well, that's it's an amazing story. And you're in
Katmandu. And you extended thetrip from there, didn't you? You
went on to one more place beforereturning home.
Sarah Beatrice (46:04):
Yeah, the idea was, let's just keep jumping
around that side of the worldbecause we're there. But I just
wasn't feeling it. And there wasa safari. So we took a bus, we
took a bus that took forever. Ittook us like nine hours around
all these tight turns. And itjust was a nightmare of a bus
(46:27):
ride. But we took a bus to thejungle. And we took a safari
where we saw rhinoceroses andelephants and hope we hope to
see a tiger but we didn't seeany tigers. We saw crocodiles.
And it was pretty neat to seehow people lived in the jungle.
It was sad to see the ElephantBreeding center because they do
(46:49):
keep the elephants locked up.
And that just broke my heart tosee that. But I mean, seeing the
rhinos and the wild elephantswas just amazing. And then from
there, my friend, she went overto Thailand. She's like, do you
want to go to Thailand? And Isaid, No. She said, you don't
want to go to Thailand. I said Ido. I said, but I am totally
(47:10):
burnout. I said, I have nothingleft in me to travel. I said, I
want to go back and work forUPS. That's what I do
seasonally. I said, I just wantto go back and work for UPS.
She's like, Oh, you want to goback and work? Yeah, yeah, I
just want to go back to work.
Josh Meeder (47:29):
Well, the concept of travel burnout is real you
and I've talked about this alittle bit, but it's one thing
to experience but doing it, youknow, on an ongoing basis can be
quite a bit, you know. So travelburnout is real. And you and
I've had a little bit ofdiscussion about this. But why
don't you share, like yourperspective on on the realities
(47:52):
of travel and what travelburnout looks like and how
you've adjusted to it to knowingwhen it's there.
Sarah Beatrice (47:58):
So the first time I experienced it, I was in
Europe, I did a four month tripto Europe. I only planned on
being there in Italy for amonth. But you know, sometimes
when I travel, I just keep goingif I have no agenda to get back.
So in Europe, I was having agreat time. But then it was
(48:20):
like, Oh, here's anothercathedral. Here's another city
center. Here's another thishere's another that and I
stopped enjoying it. I startedgetting I felt edgy. I felt like
Okay, here we here we go again.
And it just you do get burnt outon it. So having like little
trips like maybe two, threeweeks, I think that is my max.
Or if you're going to do a longtrip, have some downtime.
(48:44):
Because whenever you aretraveling, you're wanting to go
everywhere, you're wanting tosee everything. So if you're
going to do an extended trip, Iwould definitely recommend like,
hey, take like a week off andjust say to yourself and don't
don't have to see everything anddon't have to do everything. But
travel burnout Israel, and I andI especially when you're on a
(49:07):
big hike and a big journey thatI knew, I knew. I knew I was
complete. When I when I made itto base camp. I knew this is
what I came to see. And now Iwant to go home. So knowing your
goals and knowing what you wantto see is important and not
pushing it because if you keeppushing it, I don't think I
(49:28):
would have enjoyed Thailand if Iwould have went and I want to go
to Thailand when I enjoy it. Notwhen I'm burnt out and just like
like scraping money. Right?
Josh Meeder (49:40):
Right. And that's a good segue because we've talked
you through through this amazingadventure that you put together
on your own unguided andincluding a an emergency
helicopter evac people reallysometimes don't understand that
travel does not have to beexpensive. So in this case like
your home trip the flight acrossand back and everything. What
(50:03):
would you estimate that thistrip would have been about? As
far as just US dollars?
Sarah Beatrice (50:09):
Probably a little under 3000. Say, which
Josh Meeder (50:13):
is amazing like to think about that that's, you
know, some people will spendthat in an entertainment or
coffee over the period of ayear. It's not a lot, lot of
money to have a life experiencelike that.
Sarah Beatrice (50:27):
No, it's not.
And I put a lot of stuff on myon my credit card, and I think I
paid off $2,600. But I think Ispent a little bit more than
that. So it was definitely underthree. Definitely under 3000. So
and you can do it. People saylike, oh my god, like, how do
you afford all this, you must bea multimillionaire bubble blob,
(50:49):
like, listen, I know how totravel cheap, I find the deals,
sometimes I'll do reversetravel, I'll look online, oh,
here's a cheap ticket to Turkey,I guess that's where I'm going.
Like, I won't have an actualdestination. I'll look at the
cheap flights there. Alright,let's do this.
Josh Meeder (51:08):
And there's a place when traveling, you can call it
cheap or frugal orinexpensively, you can avoid the
big major tourist centers,that's where it's costly, if you
you know, in the standardhotels, but when you get out
into the country, not only is itless expensive, but you get to
meet the people, you get to feelthe culture and you get to
actually live the experiencemore. So I actually think you
(51:31):
get a lot more value for yourtravel dollars getting on those
outskirts than the untested orthe unbeaten path, if you will.
You
Sarah Beatrice (51:42):
do because you see the culture and you see the
realness the rawness becauselike you said, you go to a city.
It's touristy. You go to thelittle villages, it's really how
people live. We're watchingpeople. This lady was digging
holes and making these moundsand she was growing potatoes
and, and I thought, does sheknow another world exists? And I
(52:05):
wasn't judging. I'm just like,does this woman know that
there's another world thatexists out here, filled with
technology filled with whateverwe want, like that whenever we
want it. And it's humbling tosee that. And it's humbling to
see these little children, youknow, they might not have a lot,
but they're happy with what theyhave. They're not glued to their
(52:26):
screens. And I'm guilty of beingthat way too at times. Yeah. But
Josh Meeder (52:32):
it is a good reflection and travel off and I
think is one of the best way toexpand your broaden your
horizons. And especially if youhave kids, or you have nieces or
nephews to take someone out ofthe country at an early age just
to give them that exposure. Likeno, there is a lot more and it's
a big world and really differentout there, I think is a real
(52:54):
valuable, real valuable tip todo. So I know you'll have a lot
more adventures and you arecreating a business that will
support not only your travelbug, but introduce people to the
wider world, tell us a littlebit about what you're working
on.
Sarah Beatrice (53:10):
So I've made some pre made trips, where I
researched the area research,some fun things to do. And I put
her all out there. I make anitinerary, from the airport
pickup, to the different foodtours to different fun things to
do like, and having like a hotmess set up was great. But I
(53:36):
kind of stumbled on that. Butuh, so I'm putting it all
together. I researching the foodtours, the sightseeings the
adventures, and I'm making theitinerary. So it takes all the
work out of the trip for for theclient. And all they had to do
is worry about getting theirplane ticket, and I'll have
everything from airport pickupto everything else. Some meals
(53:59):
they'll have to buy on theirown. But um, let's say I have a
trip that I planned a trip toFrankenmuth, Michigan, and I
have the entire itinerary out,and I hope to launch that 120 24
and a Hawaii trip I'm workingon. I want to focus in the
(54:20):
country right now and then takeit out of the country. Maybe in
the following year.
Josh Meeder (54:27):
Okay, what type of people or is it are these tours
geared towards? It's probablynot the Bougie hotels. It's not
It's since you're doing in acountry that you have a lot more
amenities who's your typicalclient in something like this or
what what type of people areattracted to this?
Sarah Beatrice (54:44):
My clients are active adults, I'm gonna say
between. I'm gonna say late 20s,early 40s But I'm not
discriminating like any age cango but I think that is the age
group that I want to attract,because I want to have some
hiking. I want to have someadventure. So active adults is
(55:06):
my niche.
Josh Meeder (55:08):
So Sarah, you're doing pre made trips. But if
someone has an idea or wouldlike to go somewhere, would you
be able to work with someone toputting together kind of a
customized trip?
Sarah Beatrice (55:17):
Yeah, I would absolutely put together
customized trips. I loveresearching trips. I love
planning travel. And I wouldlove to plan a trip for it for
anybody. If they came up to meand said, Hey, will you plan
this trip for me? I wouldabsolutely love to know and be
on board with that.
Josh Meeder (55:36):
All right, so all the listeners out there if
you've had a destination or tripyou've had in mind, but you just
too been too busy or toodistracted to plan it yourself.
You need to talk to Sarah andshe will make that happen for
you. So Sarah, thanks again forsharing your story. It is an
amazing story. Great to hear it.
Great to share it and I wish youall the best on your future
adventures.
Sarah Beatrice (55:57):
Awesome. Thank you so much, Josh. It was fun
being on here.
Josh Meeder (56:01):
I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
great things LLC podcast. If youdid, be sure to share the link
with this episode with yourfriends, and share it to your
social media with your biggesttakeaway tagging me a great
things LLC. Make sure tosubscribe so you never miss an
episode. There's so much more tocome. You can support me by
leaving a rating and a review ofthe show and that will help
(56:23):
others to find their purpose,dream, collaborate and create
their own success story. Untilnext time, this is Josh Meeder
your host signing off
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