A Belle River couple were almost on top of the world after trekking more than 5,000m or 17,000ft above sea-level to Mt. Everest's south-base-camp in Nepal.
An estimated 40,000 people make the trip to base-camp each year, with only an estimated 4,000 people having made their way to the summit of the mountain in recorded history.
Fifty-year-old Gerald Finnerty and his wife Kristin Allen, 45, departed for their 12-day-trek from Lukla, Npl. on Oct. 14. The couple made their way to the base-camp where so many expeditions have begun, and lives have ended heading up the 29,000ft mountain.
"Kristin did Mt. Kilimanjaro back in 2009 and she loved that. She always wanted to do [Mt. Everest] base-camp and I had no interest," Finnerty joked. "About three-years-ago we watched the movie Everest, we started reading up on all the books on it. In a weak moment, I said maybe when I turn 50 we can do it."
They walked up to 80km each week to prepare for the adventure, but Finnerty says nothing would prepare them for the altitude, and the conditions.
"We'd walk approximately six or seven hours each day, sometimes eight or nine depending on the day. Every day, up at 5:30am, trek, have lunch, trek again, wrapped up around 4pm, clean up, have dinner and then do it all over again for almost two-weeks," he says.
There wasn't a hot shower, or a comfortable bed in sight, he added.
"We would stay in small rooms with no heat, no running water, just kind of wipe down and throw on some sweatpants and bundle up to stay warm," says the financial adviser. "We'd throw the same stuff on the next morning in the dark, and head back out. We were living out of a backpack."
He says the trip was gruelling, walking up trails that were sometimes only 1m wide and accross rope-bridges thousands of feet in the air — but the scene was also breath-taking and the comradery grew with their fellow climber’s every-day.
Belle River natives Gerald Finnerty (back-row-centre) and Kristin Allen (back-row-center-right) at the Mt. Everest's south base-camp in Nepal on November 7, 2017. (Photo courtesy of www.facebook.com)
Finnerty tells AM800 News climbing the mountain was only part of the journey, experiencing the culture in towns that dotted the landscape will stick with them forever.
"Anyone who's done Everest's base-camp trek from the Nepal side has to go the exact same way we did, that's pretty special," he says. "We take for granted just having a warm bed, having electricity, there's nothing like that up there. These people are doing their laundry in water that's 40F, the hard working people, that really stuck with us."
Belle River natives Gerald Finnerty and Kristin Allen take in Mt. Everest from base-camp in Nepal. pic.twitter.com/rBICPJOqFW
— Gord Bacon (@baconAM800) November 16, 2017
Finnerty and Allen, who made their way back to Canada Nov 14, are both nursing a lung infection from the cold temperatures and elevation, but he says they're slowly getting back to normal.
The couple also brought a little piece of Canada with them, cracking an ice-cold Old Vienna at base-camp, a photo that garnered a shout out from the company via Twitter.
Finnerty says the beer was the only alcohol the couple consumed on a trip where he shed nearly 15lbs.
A guy by the name @Finnertee crushed a friggin' OV on Mount Everest.
— OV (Old Vienna) Beer (@OVBeer) November 7, 2017
Great job, Finner! #OVEverest https://t.co/JuML3WjgU2
@OVBeer @Finnertee reward for arriving at Everest base camp 5,365 metres!! pic.twitter.com/AZ9qJ7FURk
— Craig McKelvie (@cm3031) November 5, 2017