Lucky Pick

"Tanging pag-asa upang makapag-Nepal muli"

Mounting a climbing expedition to Nepal is expensive (comparable to a trip to Europe). This is one of the reasons why we haven't seen more Filipino mountaineers in the Himalayas, despite the Pinoy race to Mt. Everest nearly eight years ago. For most of us, to even afford just to go to the Everest Base Camp takes 6 months to a year's saving of hard-earned cash.

Romi invited me to join his Expedition in October, a 33-day trek to the Annapurna region to visit the village of Phu (recently-opened to outsiders), and to climb a 6,000 and 7,000 meter peak. As you will see in his blog, this trip will cost a high 4-digit number in US dollars. Tempting as it is to just say "yes" and worry about money later, the fact remains my chance of joining the team is higher if I can secure the funding now rather than later.

One way of going about this is getting corporate sponsorship. Khoo Swee Chiow's climbing career has been successful because of his ability to get funding from these sponsors (and by delivering his end of the deal, of course). Romi also became successful in this regard, but he had to work more for it. This is largely because most of the corporate money is funneled more into "traditional" (i.e. popular) sports like basketball or boxing. Even athletes for Olympic events like swimming, track and field, or football rarely get enough support to further their abilities and compete outside the country (though arguably, football is gaining ground, thanks to the Azkals). Adventure athletes have to work two or four times harder to convince potential sponsors that their support is a good investment, while also disclosing to them that the chance of success (for example, reaching the peak of Everest) depends on dozens of factors that could go wrong at any moment (even Swee Chiow--strong as he is--had to abort from one expedition because of health issues). 

Another is to live an ascetic lifestyle until you get enough money to fund your trip. A lot of climbers in western countries work like crazy for six months, saving most of their salary, so that they can embark on a 6-month expedition in some remote mountain that nobody else knows exists. This disciplined approach works. I've seen in first-hand with people close to me; people with half my salary but with twice my savings in a year. If the adventure is worthy, you'll be willing to give up your normal way of life to get it.

And then there's the Lotto. It's a dumb idea to hedge your chance of going to your dream trip in a ticket with 1 in 28,989,675 chance of winning (for the 6/55 draw). If I learned one thing from the books I've read, it's that you have a better chance of getting what you really want if you work hard for it. But for a mere P20 from which you can be a multi-millionaire in an instant, it's a relatively cheap back-up. It wouldn't hurt to take a chance.

So with the time remaining, the best strategy for me is to do all three: talk to possible corporate sponsors (dear reader: wink wink); spend less; and buy a lotto ticket at least once a week. Crossing my fingers that at least one of these will work wonders.

"Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances: It was somebody's name, or he happened to be there at the time, or, it was so then, and another day it would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect." - Ralph Waldo Emerson, in The Conduct of Life (1860)