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“I had always wanted to go to the ‘Roof of the World’ – the Himalayas. The human spirit is driven to conquer mountains; we want to push our limits, we want to know what lies on the other side, and, sometimes, we want to climb mountains just because they’re there…”
Mark Randall
After trekking his way into history in 2016 to become the first person ever recorded to walk and cycle 7,400 km from Gibraltar to Jerusalem, retired Royal Gibraltar Regiment Colonel, Mark Randall swapped his trusty walking sandals for insulated boots in 2018 to meet the Himalayan Mountains face-to-face.
Spurred on to join in the journey was renowned local travel photographer Stephen Hermida, under Mark’s condition that they walked, and after some strategic planning and hours of long-haul flights, the two arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal to catch a 10-hour jeep ride to Shivalaya where their trekking adventure began.
“Our plan was to walk the ‘Three Passes Trek’, which is harder and more complicated than the most popular route, to Everest Basecamp in Lukla and back, complete the Annapurna Circuit and then hike through the Mustang Trail.”
By their third day they had ascended 3,530 metres over the Lamajura Pass, 52 metres higher than El Mulhacen, the tallest peak in Mainland Spain. Traversing through rocky terrain, stopping in remote settlements, sacred temples and terraced hill farms where they would recuperate at tea houses, it took them a week’s worth of walking to arrive at Namche Bazaar – a 2 day walk from Everest Base camp where 90% of mountaineers would normally begin their climb.
At the Everest Basecamp, they underwent a couple of ‘acclimatisation’ days to prepare their bodies for the extreme high altitudes and low levels of oxygen. Despite having walked, non-stop, for over a week… the hard part of their journey was only beginning, with heights of up to 5,600 metres waiting for them, as they made their way to Cho La Pass, 5,330 metres high.
“There was no motorised transportation either, you could only go by mule or yak. Water also became more expensive the higher you climbed, so we began drinking boiled water.”
Spending the night at high altitudes is taxing on the human body, and Mark recalls attempting to sleep in Gorkashep: “it was the most uncomfortable evening; it felt like my chest was being crushed. I couldn’t sleep and was shivering throughout the night…”
The hardest night came at Namche Bazaar, when the altitude began to take its toll, “I knew something was wrong, the headaches, tight chest, sneezing blood and general tiredness… but I am not used to giving up. It was my will to succeed, good physical condition and not wanting to let Stephen down that got me through the hard times.”
The hike took a turn for the worst when the altitude sickness began to take effect on Mark, and Stephen made the decision to evacuate him from the mountains; “I couldn’t stand on my own; my speech was slurred, my eye sight blurred, my breathing heavy. I was cold, thirsty, trembling and coughing blood.”
With that, Mark was evacuated on an emergency helicopter and admitted to a hospital where the doctor diagnosed him with severe dehydration, pulmonary and cerebral edema and a mystery infection.
Mark, now fully recovered and planning his next adventure, is not one to focus on the down side – his journey was one of self-discovery, friendship, breath-taking views, brutal landscapes, a test of one’s limits and an escape from the ordinary.
Now Mark Randall is writing a book, with the working title ‘HIMALAYA’ which combines 4 epic stories of Gibraltarians, including his own, on the experience of climbing the Himalayan Mountains: “It’s a story told by four retired, middle aged friends from Gibraltar who travel to the roof of the world to find something different – a new challenge. An ambition to test the limits of their passions and see how far they can go.”
