Welcome to Episode 42 of our podcast, Courageous Conversations, hosted by Leanne Pilkington.
In this episode, our guests are Penelope Valentine, Director of Property Alchemy and Marie Doyle, Co-Founder and Development Director of Fiducia Property Group. They talk about their trip to Everest Base Camp last year in October 2019, the challenges they faced during the climb, why this experience was so important in teaching them how to embrace vulnerability, their experience with facing altitude sickness and what they learned from the overall experience.
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00:25 – Penelope’s and Marie’s journey to Everest Base Camp; how Marie motivated Penelope and fellow girlfriends to commit
03:30 – How the Base Camp chose was about clarifying your intention instead of simply doing it for someone’s birthday
05:00 – How Maria found the initiative to do the climb; what motivated her personally
06:30 – The beginning of training in February 2019 until the climb happening during October 2019.
07:40 – From the airport to Nepal, including the helicopter up to the base of Everest.
11:15 – The 10-day journey and the experience of altitude changes (the lowest temperature was around -14 degrees!)
13:45 – The accommodation experience and handling hygiene
16:30 – How the trip taught the ladies to leave their inhibitions at the door and be comfortable being vulnerable
17:30 – Penelope contracts the near-fatal altitude sickness
19:45 – Marie’s perspective on witnessing Penelope with the illness
21:55 – Close encounters with a distance healer from India
23:30 – The journey back down from Everest
25:00 – Penelope’s experience in the hospital, getting sick again and being allowed to fly back home
26:20 – Why Penelope doesn’t have any regrets, despite getting as ill as she did