The Path to Everest Base Camp, Travel and Insights with Sarah Beatrice

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

Transcript

Josh Meeder: 0:00

Welcome to the great things LLC podcast, the show that celebrates people who are making an impact on the world, people creating conscious businesses that are in alignment with their own personal values. Each episode shares the wisdom, experience and the intentions of those that are following their dreams. visionaries who have chosen a different path, found their purpose, and create join abundance while helping others. Whether you're already a trailblazer, or still searching for your path, the stories will inspire you towards being the best version of yourself. Welcome listeners. Today I am super excited to introduce you to my friend Sarah Beatrice. Sarah has just done a lot. But she is an avid traveler and hiker. And just outdoor enthusiast. Sarah has done the Appalachian Trail. She's visited 23 countries. And she's climbed to the base camp of Everest, which we're going to be talking about today. And Sara is also establishing a tourism in a guided adventure business. So just want to welcome you on the program here today. Sarah, welcome to the Great Things podcast. Hey, Josh, thanks for having me tonight. Yeah, so I think we should start how we met. We were introduced by a mutual friend, because we both love hiking in the nature and we were both in western Pennsylvania. So Sarah, and I said, Yeah, let's meet up, I was going for my morning walk. And we agreed to meet along the stream on on a walking path. And she said, look for the white band. And when I pulled off, there were no windows in the van. And I thought, well, this is getting kind of sketchy. If she offers me a puppy or a candy. I gotta run away. But that is how I met Sarah. And you know, we've really enjoyed getting to know her. But Sarah, you just like, your travel is amazing. And the thing I love about it with you is it's just who 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'm really passionate about in life, besides family and, and friends, but travel is number one passion on my list. And let's talk about how you first got that travel bug because you came there was kind of a an event and there was a person there that kind of encouraged you to do some this and especially the solo traveling.

Sarah Beatrice: 2:20

Yeah. So I always like going places like Colorado and Florida growing up as a kid. But um, I did the Appalachian Trail. And I hiked from Georgia to Maine. And I met a girl on there named Sarah Duma. Her trail name was Carmen Sandiego. Because she has been to so many different countries. And after the trail, I went to Ireland with her and her husband, and we didn't go away in the Wicklow way. And she asked her that I wanted to continue 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 go to for your first solo trip. And once I went there, I just lit the match. And it just, it just took off. And I wanted to go to more countries and I wasn't afraid to go alone anymore. They just took that first step is sometimes the first step is the scariest step. It is often the first step is the scariest step. And you mentioned the Appalachian Trail you just like oh yeah, I did the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. But for people who don't understand what that is, how long did that take? Yep. That took me five months in 19 days to hike. Yeah, that that's an amazing trail. And

Josh Meeder: 3:45

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 points through the whole thing.

Sarah Beatrice: 3:52

So the highlights are definitely reaching certain destinations. Let's say, for example, the trail is from Georgia to Maine. And if you look at a map that is like holy crap, that's really long. But if you make it into mini goal goals, like hey, we're gonna go to Hot Springs, North Carolina. That was our first goal. And that was a cute town. And then the next town was the next town that we hyped up was Damascus, Virginia where they had trail days. They had that every year and it's a big hiker festival. So the highlights were the festivals, the meeting other hikers, the camaraderie that go into town, freshening up grabbing a couple of beers at a local bar. So the highlights were mostly in town and seeing the amazing views in Vermont, and Maine and in New Hampshire. Most of the trails are green tunnel. 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 were when you're hiking for days in the rain and you're putting on wet socks for three days. Suppose you get these funny blisters that look like indentions, maybe it's trench foot, I don't know what it is. And then sleeping in my tent was terrifying during a thunderstorm. I wake up at like, three in the morning to like a severe thunderstorm of nonstop lightning. And I would just be huddled in the back of my tent, just freaking out. And someone sent me a little Bible and I'm not a religious person, but like, I started reading this Bible. And I'm like, Oh, my gosh, this is so scary. And there's lightning and thunder constantly. And that is what made me almost quit like once a week, I wanted to quit because of these thunderstorms.

Josh Meeder: 5:51

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 is it just purely being stubborn and determined?

Sarah Beatrice: 6:03

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 a note. And she put it in New Hampshire and she told me the location, it was before the lights, and she's like, I put it, I forget the exact logistics, but I put it in this location in this stump underneath a rock in a Ziploc bag. So I knew where it was like from what she told me, and I'm looking around, and then I see the stump. Once I got to New Hampshire, and then I moved the rock and there's a Ziploc bag, and it said something like dear Sarah Beatrice, welcome to New Hampshire love Joanne McBride from New Brighton. I think she's tried, actually, I think it's about don't quote me on the locations. But that really kept me going. Because I'm like, I need to get this note that Joanne put there. And it was stubbornness. And it was also like, I have to see what she wrote. And I'm not gonna drive up there to get that.

Josh Meeder: 7:10

Well, that's an impressive and what a thoughtful gift of motivation for someone

Sarah Beatrice: 7:15

to do that. And she probably didn't even know how motivated that made me to get there. But it did. It really truly did.

Josh Meeder: 7:22

Good. Well, congratulations on making that that hike that is truly one of the epic ones here in the country, for sure. All right. So you've been all around? There's no question about that. And I'm sure we could spend hours on all the different countries and Ecuador and like all the different things. But the big trip that you've recently made and actually made the first page front page of the newspaper back home, is your trip to Nepal. And one of the things that when we did this pre interview that really surprised me as I thought going to Everest would be years of research and planning and expense. And you manage to do this, not quite on a whim and a shoestring but on a women issue strings. So let's start with the Genesis or the birth of the idea how it came together. And how long was it from that place of it's an idea to put your boots on the ground.

Sarah Beatrice: 8:21

So every year since my dad died, I took a trip for his birthday. He died in 2016. And when he was sick, I was actually in Ireland. And he wasn't like a world traveler. But he enjoyed going to Colorado Vegas, Florida. Some local places, he like road trips, but he wasn't a big traveler. He was a businessman. And when he died, the first year he went away, I went to Bermuda. Um, the first year that he died, I went to Bermuda that year for his birthday. And we were stuck in there world's largest hurricane. There was a category four. We were freaking out. But every every single year. On his birthday, we take a trip. And I was tossing around the idea with a friend of mine that went to Ecuador with me. And I said, Hey, Ashley, let's go to Spain, Morocco, Greece or turkey. And she's like, sending me ideas, ideas. And we're just going back and forth. And she's like, You know what, Nepal is really good to go to in October. So why don't we go there? And I'm like, yeah, let's get a base camp. And she's like, Well, I wasn't really thinking that but I don't know. And I'm like, Well, if we're gonna go to Nepal, we're gonna hike to Everest base camp. And she's like, Let me think about it. And then she's like, You know what, I'm on board. Let's just do it. So it was it was literally a whim. It was planned like five or six months ahead of time, and it wasn't a lifelong dream to go to Everest base 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 was just like a sick joke. And he's excited don't joke about stuff like that. I'm like, Yeah, but what Wait, what a cool way to die on a great adventure. And, you know, I was just messing around with them and then when it became reality I'm like, Oh man, like I really hope I don't die like going to base camp because 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 the trip, any physical conditioning planning? What did you do to get ready for this, this hike,

Sarah Beatrice: 10:45

I literally ran up hills for months, all summer, there's a place called Rock Point Park and I just ran up that hill. And I would go back down on run up. And again, I would do like, I would do it about three times. Probably every other day, I would do it because I didn't want to burn myself out on that or get injured running. So I would do that about every other day and I started eating healthy and I really didn't prep too much for it. Just running, getting my lungs in shape. I asked a friend if I should use one of those masks that people use to train for oxygen. And he said I wouldn't do that. I would just go take Diamox run up hills. Take your Diamox when you're there because Diamox it helps with altitude sickness, it's a diuretic and you're shedding water. So it helps shed the water that can go around your brain and causes the swelling. So there was there was little preparation really

Josh Meeder: 11:52

well clearly you were prepared enough or as much as you were going to be and then then getting around the world did a layover so just if you could share, share the flight plan and the stop that you have before you got to Katmandu.

Sarah Beatrice: 12:10

So I bought my ticket from JFK to Katmandu. And I had a stopover in Qatar, in Doha, Qatar. And they say that if you have a longer than an eight hour layover, there's a tour you can take. There's a three hour tour that you can take the city of Doha, and people are like, Oh, Sarah, there's a lot of stuff going on in 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 all desert. And me thinking desert is a dry heat. I landed I left the airport. I walk into this desert and it's humid, it's totally humid. And I'm like, What is this? And I guess since it's on the water, it's a humid heat in the summer. They don't really leave their houses and they try to find stuff to do indoors. But there's air conditioning on the streets. You're walking on the streets of Doha, Qatar. It looks like the movie scene of Aladdin. It's beautiful, elegant, and there's air conditioning vents coming out of the street on the ground. And like this is crazy. I'm like this had to be a billion dollars to air conditioned your streets outside. It just was so neat. I just loved Qatar I wish I had more time to spend there. We went through one of their markets they have like a market with a labyrinth of a rose and in stores but our tour guides like don't go through just stay on the main street because if you start going through the different labyrinth labyrinth she called them she says you'll get lost and we will live here in 35 minutes with your without you 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 after Qatar you jump back on the plane and all of a sudden you are in Nepal you landed in Katmandu. So this is kind of the start of your adventure and love to hear just what is it like going up you know landing getting any permits and just moving on up to Basecamp

Sarah Beatrice: 14:24

so I landed and I got a taxi to my my hostel or Airbnb. No, it was a hostel I believe. Yeah, got it on hostel world. So landed I got to my hostel, waited for my friend to arrive. We spent a few days in Katmandu just acclimating to like the time zones because we were 10 hours and 45 minutes ahead. So we wanted to just chill out for a few days so people will land and go straight to 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. And our hostel was so loud we had a private room. But all night long you heard scooters BB BB, like 234 in the morning it was nonstop. And we're like, we can't deal with this. We went down to the front desk, we're gonna have to leave. We can't deal with this noise. We cannot sleep, but we need to sleep. So he's like, Well, how about we bring you to the hotel next door. So he takes us to this beautiful hotel called the Mustang hotel, and charges us only like 10 more dollars a night apiece. And it was totally quiet. And then he booked us a flight. We paid them for the flights. So from Katmandu, the luplow was like a $200 flight. And it's supposed to be a really tiny plane. And he messages us the next night, and it was like, so for an extra $30 a person would you rather take a helicopter, they're like, hell yeah, we'd rather helicopter there. And that's what we wanted to do, initially, but it was way more expensive than we thought it was going to be. So we settled on the airplane, but with an extra $30. We're like, let's do this. So we helicopter over to Luke law. And that was just 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 bit bouncy. It's just you're right there. You're right there in the mountains, and you see everything.

Josh Meeder: 16:32

You I can't imagine that that vantage point. Now, one thing we kind of neglected to mention here to this point is the planning for this trip, you are planning at this point with no guides, no Sherpas, and just doing it on your own no real tour companies. You just had an idea in your town in Nepal, and you're on your way to the mountain and you found a helicopter. So just to set the stage you didn't have, you didn't have support. This was all what you put together.

Sarah Beatrice: 17:00

Right? This is all what we put together. And my friend, Carmen Sandiego. She has trekked in Nepal twice, and she's done Everest base camp and Gokyo lake that that route, both taking you to the base camp. And she's like, she used her backpack. She didn't hire a guide. She didn't hire a Sherpa to carry her stuff. She's like, you got this. If you can do the Appalachian Trail, you could do this on your own. So we're hiking up to Nam chair bizarre of this giant hill. And I'm like, What the hell was she talking about? I'm like, my bag is heavy. I can't breathe, right walking up this hill. I'm never going to make it if I'm carrying my bag. I'm never gonna make it. So we met this amazing man impacting the village before, which is the first village we hiked to and stayed at. And his name is Tenzing Sherpa. And he's like, if you need any help, here's my number, please call me. And he was so pleasant. Like every time he talked to us, he just would laugh and just be so filled with joy. We just loved his vibes. And we're like, we don't have a lot of money to spend. We're on a budget. So he's like, I'll send you a porter to carry your bags for$12 a day total. So that's six for me and six for my friend per day. And we're like, what we're like, Is this for real? And he's like, yeah, he's like, this is this is for real. So for? Yeah,$12 a day, he carried our bags up to base camp. And we tipped him well, because he deserves way more than that, because he acted as our guide, in a way. He didn't speak much English, but he would say, breakfast dinner, and he would hand us the menus and he would order for us and he would run ahead and get us a room for the next night because this trail is so packed. That if you if you walk there on your own and take a long time, like we did, then you're you're gonna risk not getting a room and having to sleep on the dining room 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. I did not understand that there was actually accommodations along the way. So you you mentioned tea houses and that's that's where you stayed what what is a tea house and how did that work out?

Sarah Beatrice: 19:22

A tea house is just basically the first one we walked into a painted picture that we walked in. It looks like a dining hall. There's tables everywhere. There's a wood burner and it's actually a yak dung burner. They're they're drying out yak poop, and they're putting that in this stove. And that's how they're heating it. So you order your food in this dining hall, and it's really warm and cozy in there. And then there's hallways and it takes you down to rooms. So there's private rooms or there's group rooms, but we had we had private rooms me and my friends Actually, I think I've two beds in them. And some of them had a private bath, but some of them didn't. And they weren't heated those weren't heated the dining room was the only thing that was heated and we'd have to sleep in our sleeping bags and we would get our Nalgene water bottles and get boiling hot water from the kitchen, put those by our feet. And the beds came with comforter. So we would put the comforters over us. And once we got to a higher elevation we would ask for more comforters who were cold. And they would charge us like 500 rupees which was just a few dollars US to rent an extra comforter. But we like chow mein and rice and dal bots and we just had all kinds of very local food, no meat because they say anything past Namche bazar the yaks are carrying the meat and it could spoil so we were strictly vegetarian on the hike.

Josh Meeder: 20:57

Okay, and did you feel did that provide enough energy for you? Did you notice not 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 fry bread every morning. And this was almost like a fried dough without the sugar so good. But I did have a lot of energy. I wish I had a little, a little more snacks, like some more Clif bars because I am a snacker and I am a foodie and I'm always wanting like something to munch on. So I wish I would have packed metal. You can buy anything like there's candy bars, and, and whatever. There's villages all along the way. And you can buy whatever you need, whether it's trekking 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 actually loop back to the resources that you do have at your disposal on the way down but all right now you're you're on the way you've gotten your your track or your your assistance with the porter. Tell me more about like the trip to base camp.

Sarah Beatrice: 22:05

So there's Yaks coming down the mountain constantly. There's Yaks. And when you see the axe, everyone yells yak and then they also have yak belts. And you hear these bells. And you have to hug the mountain side. Because these Yaks will push you off the mountain because they're not moving. They have the right away. And they have pushed people off and they have killed people. So when you see the axe, you're jumping on the side of the mountain. Sometimes it's scary and they're so close and you're like freaking out a little bit. But they produce a lot of dust. And it made my nose run the whole time, which I thought and by the time I got to do the budget I didn't go to I have a hard time pronouncing that. I was really sick. And I ended up going to the hospital and had like a full on respiratory infection. bronchitis. I was I thought I had altitude sickness, but it was all kinds of sicknesses. And I guess a lot of people get sick on the way up there. But it's beautiful hiking in the Himalayas. It's just I think I would have appreciated the beauty more if I felt better. But I was sick. Like from that on up. And maybe 910 days of being sick. Yeah, it was the most 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 days did it take you from when you started hiking to reach up to base camp.

Sarah Beatrice: 23:38

So it took 11 days to get to base camp. Whenever you hike, there are some acclimatization days. So the first day is Luke law, the two pack thing. And Luke law is actually higher than packing. So you want to hike high and sleep low. So every day that you hike, you want to sleep lower than what you hike. And for every 2000 every 2000 feet of elevation gain, you're supposed to spend two nights to acclimate. And even though you're not moving on that second day, you're supposed to hike high and sleep low. So we would hike high to different destinations and sleep low. So an empty and bizarre there was a Tenzing Sherpa statue. So we hiked up to see the Tenzing Sherpa statue, which was the first man to summon Everest, and then we hiked back down. We actually stayed three nights in New Hampshire bizarre, instead of the two recommended just because we had the time. We didn't have a guide. A lot of the groups had 2030 people if you get sick, oh well, your hikes over they're gonna keep going. So in Namta bizarre, I decided to get a tattoo at the world's highest tattoo place. And I got the Yak skull because The acts are so much a part of the journey. You see them everywhere. They're carrying goods up and down the mountain along with the Sherpas, who carry the goods. I got Mount Everest, in Ahmedabad Blum and the prayer flags. I told the tattoo guy. His place is called natty tattoo. I told him, I said, Hey, I'm like, I just this is what I want. I want the prayer flag. I want the ohm symbol. And I want Mount Everest, and he designed it on his own and was like, Do you like this? And I said, Absolutely. And actually found out about it from a local guy. This this guy named Remy, he's from Brazilian Opal. And I saw on his Instagram that he was doing Everest base camp. And I'm like, I messaged him, like, are you doing Everest base camp right now. And he's like, we, we just got done with it. We're in town. So me and Ashley met him and his dad and his friends there. And his dad got these tattoos. And that's how I knew but the tattoo place from a local guy, a zillion Opal guy is doing that the same time I was doing Everest base camp. That's,

Josh Meeder: 26:12

that's amazing. You know, and actually one of the things that as you travel, you start to realize how small the world is. And especially if you're outgoing and social. I know growing up in college, all my friends just like they hated traveling with me, because there was nowhere I could go that I didn't know someone in stories or like we landed in Munich, in Munich, Germany. And like, within five minutes, I was talking to a guy that I'd run into at a party at the university before, like the week before, and it's really it's a small world and in the travel community is it's big, but it's also small. So that's really, you know, that's what, eight miles from your home that you ran into someone that had done 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 you visited a continent you get you least get one tattoo when you visit a continent. Yeah,

Sarah Beatrice: 27:11

I have a tattoo for every continent I've been on. And I'm gonna continue that with the rest of the continents. Antarctica, I don't know if Antarctica has any tattoo places. So I had to bring an artist 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 and you 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 to say getting a tattoo at that elevation just blew my mind because your body's probably already a little odd with the altitude and then the the endorphins got to throw you off a little bit as well. So you crammed all that in and then kept going. So what's next after that place?

Sarah Beatrice: 27:57

So after name Tim bizarre is Ting Ting, Bochy, and that's when I got really sick, I have a picture and I'm just like, I look totally wiped out. And that is where the highest monastery in the world is. And I wanted I wanted to go to it's so bad, but I did not feel good enough. But I woke up in the morning and I heard them I heard like a vibration sound or something. were singing and then I noticed that wow, those are the monks chanting. Like this is so amazing to hear that. And I wasn't sure if I was gonna move on from that place that day or not, but but I did. And then we got to ding ding Bojay which was 15,000 feet. And that's the highest I've ever slept in my life. And that's that's the place I had to go to the hospital. And he we were going to spend two nights there. But the doctor recommended stay for a third night before you go on because you are sick and you can risk getting out to sickness with that respiratory infection everything he's got the good news is it's not in your lungs. It's like up higher but he gave me three antibiotics to take a day. cough syrup. He gave me more Diamox electrolytes he gave me like seven different things to take. And my nose ran the whole time and I was coughing and blowing my nose and I looked at my friend I'm like you're never gonna travel with me good or you're just so gross right now. Chick No, no, I Well, she's 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 the States, you know your highest is about 14,000 and you know you can go to Pikes Peak, a lot of people will literally drive up to 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 the hike and six and a half hours and it's I'm about I think, six 8000 feet to 14,000 usually took nine. And I did it with a candy bar, a sprite and no equipment. And by the time I got to the top, I was confused. You know, it was, it was weird that you're sluggish and euphoric at the same time. And yeah, and you don't realize it like you're at that level plants don't survive. There's the tree line. So you get to a place where it's even too thin of oxygen for the plants to live. So you hit that place and your body is starting to break down. So I can't imagine sleeping there, let alone going. So that is that they four or five that you're at that place

Sarah Beatrice: 30:40

during Bochy, that was stay. So there's packing to Nam che, we stayed three 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 in little Bucha Bay. And that was a climb that, you know, it was a nice, easy hike, like, you know, I started feeling better. And then we have lunch, and then it's so straight up. There's boulders everywhere, it's straight up. And I'm like, oh my god, this is a really high climb right here. And then you get up there. And there's prayer flags all over. And there's beautiful mountains, probably the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen in my life. And the yaks are just walking by they had the most perfect picture ever of the Yaks walking past this mountain and the peaks in the background. It just looks it looks fake, almost. It's just so beautiful. And that's where I got the headache that never went away. I just had this terrible headache. And I'm sitting at Le Bucha which is 16,200 feet, I believe. And I'm just sitting there like at the dining hall like holding my head. And I'm looking around and like why do you feel staring at me? And then like being home like, Oh, they're staring at me, probably because they thought is that girl dying over there. And there's constant rescue helicopters every time you hear a helicopter takeoff and other ones landing. People are constantly getting rescued. No one tells you all this before you go that you're there's tons of people getting rescued. A girl died. And gorakshep which is the final village. So we're a little Bucha day and we get word that a gorakshep a girl just died in her sleep of altitude sickness as she was only 30. And that's at 16,900 feet. And she she was fine. She went to sleep and didn't wake up. And and that could happen. You could check your oxygen and it could it could drop in the middle of the night. So I would wake up in the middle of the night and I'm checking my oxygen with my oximeter. I'm like, I'm 75 I'm good. I'm good. So an altitude 16,000 feet and beyond 775 is good.

Josh Meeder: 33:09

Which if you're here in the States, they would instantly Russia into the hospital. So interesting. All right, so let's take it up to do to base camp. What's What's that final push that experience in what you find up there.

Sarah Beatrice: 33:27

So from Lovoo J, a lot of people go to gorakshep. They have lunch, either they continue hiking, we got to gorakshep. And we're like it's noon. And we had a headache. So bad. Both of us, my friend could hardly eat. And we're like, we're just gonna wait till tomorrow. Like, I wanted to like push on in case we were getting altitude sickness. And I think she did too. But we both agreed, like, there's no way like we feel we just feel like crap. We need to spend the night. So I went to the hospital again. And as soon as I got to this hospital, they're like, sit me down. They're checking my blood pressure. They're putting the thing on my finger. I'm like, No, it's fine. I just have a headache. But that's that's the hospital where you see on the documentaries 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. And I'm like, this is where people die. This is great. So he's like you're at 75 You're good. Just keep taking your antibiotics and cough stuff. You're good. You're good to hike to base camp tomorrow. So we go to sleep. We wake up and since since a lot of people do it around noon after they eat, we left at 6am. So we had base camp to ourselves. There were people leaving. But so so let me backtrack. So we wake up we have Breakfast, we started our hike. It's a really hard hike. There's boulders everywhere. Sometimes you can't tell what's trail what's boulder which way to go. And it's, it's not like a crazy high up hike, it's, it's kind of like, fluctuates, not a lot of elevation gain, it's you go from 69 to 17, six. And, you know, we round the corner, and we go down, and there's this big glacier lake. And we hear the thumping of the ice going into the lake. And I just think that's one of the coolest sounds in the world. And then we round the corner there. And we see the rock that says Everest base camp. And I'm like, and I just started like bawling. And I give my phone to my friend. And I'm like, take a picture of me on this rock, and I just laid on the rock. And it's the same way I felt on the Appalachian Trail where I just laid on there, it was just like, I just bought it and just let it all out. Just a deep, deep cry. And it just, it just felt really good to release all that. And then I hugged my friend, and I said, that was so hard, and I'm crying, like hugging her. And then I had a few prayer flags, one for my dog that died a couple of months before I went on my hike. One for my dad for his birthday. And one for me, I just wanted to leave the past behind, started a new chapter. So hung up three meaningful prayer flags. And I brought some of my dog Bailey's hair to Basecamp. And I sprinkled some of her hair and I said, run free with the dogs of the mountain Bailey. And it was emotional. And then I had a prayer, I had a rosary that this woman named Madhu gave me. She's Italian lady from Elwood, one of my 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 of that. And like everyone loves that picture. And she was so so happy that I kept those rosaries and carried them the whole way. And now she's like, You better keep 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 big tracks, 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 picture it. But I can't sense what that would actually feel like for you. That's amazing. It's

Sarah Beatrice: 37:36

amazing. And I feel like I'm on this journey Life Where I'm chasing that high. And I've only felt that twice in my life, the Appalachian Trail at Everest. And unlike now what?

Josh Meeder: 37:48

Yeah, well, so we may have to talk about like resetting or reevaluating some of these objectives, you know, because there's a lot of extremes out there. But it is when you challenge yourself and you push yourself past your limits. But actually not pushing yourself past your limits. I think better speaking, because we talked about this earlier, it's pushing yourself to your limits, but clearly knowing your limits, because you had that sense and awareness. So you did check in on the way up, you did get assistance with the the porta. And you're going to need that on on the trail down. So let's talk a little bit about how it heads down and how that you were monitoring yourself and knowing your limits to keep keep yourself safe in this process as well.

Sarah Beatrice: 38:35

Yes, so safety definitely came from we had our oxygen meters on us, we would check our oxygen levels. We would check in with like other guides that spoke English that we met there. Hey, do you think we're okay? Like, what's your oxygen? So we would ask people around us. But on the way down my friend, she got pretty sick, she couldn't eat. She was really nauseous. So after base camp, she rented a horse. So this horse is walking over these giant boulders. And she's like, whoa, and I'm like, I don't care how sick I was. I'm not getting on a horse. I'm afraid of horses anyways like riding them. But she was riding this horse on the way down and like there's no there's no like handle. There's just like a little tiny like, ball looking thing. I don't know what you call it? Oh yeah, yeah. So she's going down with just that. At she she made it to the town of what town was it for each day. She took a horse to preach a and I hiked down and I'm like going real fast and thinking I got this like, you know, we're going down. Everything's great. That night, I got really sick to my stomach. I was up all night kept going to the bathroom. Then in the morning, I felt like she did the next day. I have my oatmeal. I'm like, I can't eat it. it or the day before she felt sick. I got my oatmeal, so I can't do it. I can't do it. And she's like, You can't eat. I said, I cannot eat. I can't do it. I took a little bite of oatmeal. I was so nauseous. I couldn't do it. So we had to hike 10 hours that day. I had no food and no water for 10 hours. I was totally nauseous. Every time I'd hike uphill. I thought I was gonna throw up. There was a lot of ups and downs. And then every time I would drink my water, I had indigestion so bad. It just burned. And that's all from altitude. And I'm like, I can't, I can't eat. I can't drink. I have indigestion. I'm telling Gopal our Porter I'm like, I need something for indigestion. And he's like medicine, Medicine. I'm like, Yes. And he's telling me to take my cough syrup and this and that, like no indigestion. He's like, Oh, and he gives me a lozenger because he's not understanding that I have heartburn and indigestion. And so then when we hiked all the way to an empty and bizarre which took us 10 hours, and we're like, he kept telling us an hour and a half an hour ago by an hour 20. I said Gopal how much further an hour and a half. It was always an hour and a half. And we kept rounding the bed rounding the bed thinking the MTM was always going to be right there. But it wasn't. It took us forever. And I bought I bought some like anti acid anti nauseous medicine. I took it I drank a lot of water. And my friend's knee was so swollen that whole time to she was limping 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 knee is so bad. And I'm like, I agree. And I was like, Yeah, I said I can't eat or drink. And I had like a hard boiled egg that night. In the morning. I can hardly eat either. And I'm like, there's there's pushing your limits and there's knowing your limits. And that was knowing my limits. I'm like, Okay, so now I risk dehydration to on top of whatever else. This is altitude sickness, 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 to Katmandu was an $1,800 helicopter ride.

Josh Meeder: 42:23

And interesting that, you know. So it's really fascinating. We've been talking about the resources there. So when you were able to get in trouble you were able to find helicopter helicopter access pretty quickly and pretty easily and to $1,800. was proved for two 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 the starting point? Yeah, it

Sarah Beatrice: 42:54

took us to Luke law. So from New Hampshire, bizarre, we had to hike up to get to this place. It took us 20 minutes to hike up this hill to get to the helicopter Launchpad. And we're sitting there we're like, maybe 20 feet away from the helicopters that are constantly going up and down getting rescues. There's this kid they brought up. He was like, he looked like a zombie. They were like, these two guys are helping him up. They had to helicopter him out because he was hiking up to Nam J and got really bad altitude sickness. So by the time we landed and Lok la we seen him and he was fine. He's on his phone and play with his phone. So the only cure for altitude is rapid descent and he was good that but um so from there so that was like a five minute helicopter ride and from from Luke law to Katmandu is another like 2025 minutes so it we got all the way back to Katmandu 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 to step onto our helicopter, they're like, oh, wait, we gotta go rescue someone. We'll be right back. So this guy with this harness gets in the helicopter, and there are rescuing someone off a Abloh Doblo you had altitude sickness on the side of the mountain. So if there's a rescue they're like abandoning everything else and going like it's such a neat thing to see the process of that. Like how you know and I appreciated that they're just going to drop everything to rescue someone to

Josh Meeder: 44:34

Yeah, and getting down to Kathmandu then you said that rapid elevation change did did your your sense of feeling better come back as soon as you you got down a little bit lower. What was the feeling like when you landed? Yeah,

Sarah Beatrice: 44:49

like the lower I got the better I felt like even in New Hampshire I felt I did feel a little bit better. Like I was able to eat that one egg and I did feel a little bit better but the lower down I got I felt better and better. Like I look law kept me and do I felt great. I still had the runny nose like that took. I swear I had that for like, two weeks, maybe even longer. I didn't think your nose could produce that much snot like 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 you were I weren't out there doing the Instagram models or whatnot. A lot of selfies on this trip. It was about the hike. It was about

Sarah Beatrice: 45:30

the hike and I have some some selfies that look pretty bad. I have the one picture of me like on a bridge I look at real happy on one of the suspension bridges. Like yeah, hiking. In the next picture. I look like a corpse. I literally look like a corpse and look that bad. My nose is all crusty my hair. We hadn't showered in days. 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 the trip from there, didn't you? You went on to one more place before returning home.

Sarah Beatrice: 46:04

Yeah, the idea was, let's just keep jumping around that side of the world because we're there. But I just wasn't feeling it. And there was a safari. So we took a bus, we took a bus that took forever. It took us like nine hours around all these tight turns. And it just was a nightmare of a bus ride. But we took a bus to the jungle. And we took a safari where we saw rhinoceroses and elephants and hope we hope to see a tiger but we didn't see any tigers. We saw crocodiles. And it was pretty neat to see how people lived in the jungle. It was sad to see the Elephant Breeding center because they do keep the elephants locked up. And that just broke my heart to see that. But I mean, seeing the rhinos and the wild elephants was just amazing. And then from there, my friend, she went over to Thailand. She's like, do you want to go to Thailand? And I said, No. She said, you don't want to go to Thailand. I said I do. I said, but I am totally burnout. I said, I have nothing left in me to travel. I said, I want to go back and work for UPS. That's what I do seasonally. I said, I just want to go back and work for UPS. She's like, Oh, you want to go back 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 a little bit, but it's one thing to experience but doing it, you know, on an ongoing basis can be quite a bit, you know. So travel burnout is real. And you and I've had a little bit of discussion about this. But why don't you share, like your perspective on on the realities of travel and what travel burnout looks like and how you've adjusted to it to knowing when it's there.

Sarah Beatrice: 47:58

So the first time I experienced it, I was in Europe, I did a four month trip to Europe. I only planned on being there in Italy for a month. But you know, sometimes when I travel, I just keep going if I have no agenda to get back. So in Europe, I was having a great time. But then it was like, Oh, here's another cathedral. Here's another city center. Here's another this here's another that and I stopped enjoying it. I started getting I felt edgy. I felt like Okay, here we here we go again. And it just you do get burnt out on it. So having like little trips like maybe two, three weeks, I think that is my max. Or if you're going to do a long trip, have some downtime. Because whenever you are traveling, you're wanting to go everywhere, you're wanting to see everything. So if you're going to do an extended trip, I would definitely recommend like, hey, take like a week off and just say to yourself and don't don't have to see everything and don't have to do everything. But travel burnout Israel, and I and I especially when you're on a big hike and a big journey that I knew, I knew. I knew I was complete. When I when I made it to base camp. I knew this is what I came to see. And now I want to go home. So knowing your goals and knowing what you want to see is important and not pushing it because if you keep pushing it, I don't think I would have enjoyed Thailand if I would have went and I want to go to Thailand when I enjoy it. Not when 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 amazing adventure that you put together on your own unguided and including a an emergency helicopter evac people really sometimes don't understand that travel does not have to be expensive. So in this case like your home trip the flight across and back and everything. What would you estimate that this trip 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 spend that in an entertainment or coffee over the period of a year. It's not a lot, lot of money to have a life experience like that.

Sarah Beatrice: 50:27

No, it's not. And I put a lot of stuff on my on my credit card, and I think I paid off $2,600. But I think I spent a little bit more than that. So it was definitely under three. Definitely under 3000. So and you can do it. People say like, oh my god, like, how do you afford all this, you must be a multimillionaire bubble blob, like, listen, I know how to travel cheap, I find the deals, sometimes I'll do reverse travel, 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 actual destination. 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 or inexpensively, you can avoid the big major tourist centers, that's where it's costly, if you you know, in the standard hotels, but when you get out into the country, not only is it less expensive, but you get to meet the people, you get to feel the culture and you get to actually live the experience more. So I actually think you get a lot more value for your travel dollars getting on those outskirts than the untested or the unbeaten path, if you will. You

Sarah Beatrice: 51:42

do because you see the culture and you see the realness the rawness because like you said, you go to a city. It's touristy. You go to the little villages, it's really how people live. We're watching people. This lady was digging holes and making these mounds and she was growing potatoes and, and I thought, does she know another world exists? And I wasn't judging. I'm just like, does this woman know that there's another world that exists out here, filled with technology filled with whatever we want, like that whenever we want it. And it's humbling to see that. And it's humbling to see these little children, you know, they might not have a lot, but they're happy with what they have. They're not glued to their screens. And I'm guilty of being that 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 to expand your broaden your horizons. And especially if you have kids, or you have nieces or nephews to take someone out of the country at an early age just to give them that exposure. Like no, there is a lot more and it's a big world and really different out there, I think is a real valuable, real valuable tip to do. So I know you'll have a lot more adventures and you are creating a business that will support not only your travel bug, but introduce people to the wider world, tell us a little bit 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 an itinerary, from the airport pickup, to the different food tours to different fun things to do like, and having like a hot mess set up was great. But I kind of stumbled on that. But uh, so I'm putting it all together. I researching the food tours, the sightseeings the adventures, and I'm making the itinerary. So it takes all the work out of the trip for for the client. And all they had to do is worry about getting their plane ticket, and I'll have everything from airport pickup to everything else. Some meals they'll have to buy on their own. But um, let's say I have a trip that I planned a trip to Frankenmuth, Michigan, and I have the entire itinerary out, and I hope to launch that 120 24 and a Hawaii trip I'm working on. I want to focus in the country right now and then take it 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 probably not the Bougie hotels. It's not It's since you're doing in a country that you have a lot more amenities who's your typical client in something like this or what what type of people are attracted 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 can go but I think that is the age group that I want to attract, because I want to have some hiking. I want to have some adventure. So active adults is my niche.

Josh Meeder: 55:08

So Sarah, you're doing pre made trips. But if someone has an idea or would like to go somewhere, would you be able to work with someone to putting together kind of a customized trip?

Sarah Beatrice: 55:17

Yeah, I would absolutely put together customized trips. I love researching trips. I love planning travel. And I would love to plan a trip for it for anybody. If they came up to me and said, Hey, will you plan this trip for me? I would absolutely 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 trip you've had in mind, but you just too been too busy or too distracted to plan it yourself. You need to talk to Sarah and she will make that happen for you. So Sarah, thanks again for sharing your story. It is an amazing story. Great to hear it. Great to share it and I wish you all 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 you did, be sure to share the link with this episode with your friends, and share it to your social media with your biggest takeaway tagging me a great things LLC. Make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. There's so much more to come. You can support me by leaving a rating and a review of the show and that will help others to find their purpose, dream, collaborate and create their own success story. Until next time, this is Josh Meeder your host signing off