Training For Everest Base Camp: Interview With Yolanda

In this episode, I interview Summit Strength hiker Yolanda, who recently completed the Everest Base Camp Trek. Inside, she shares how she trained for this high altitude hike, and shares some of her experiences on this amazing adventure.

Episode Chapters:

0:11 Introduction to Yolanda's Journey
1:14 
Yolanda's Background and Hiking History
2:37 
Training Before Summit Strength
3:58 
Setting Goals for Everest Base Camp
7:00 
Seeking Help for Preparation
8:44 
Training Program Overview
10:38 
New Training Techniques
12:42 
Overcoming Roadblocks
15:30 
The Challenge of the Trip
20:28 
Reflections on the Trail
22:37 
Celebrating the Achievement
25:42 
Future Hiking Aspirations
27:35 
Advice for Aspiring Everest Camp Camp Hikers 
30:05 
Final Thoughts and Gratitude

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​How Yolanda Used Online Personal Training To Get Fit And Strong For Everest Base Camp

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode, we interview Summit Strength client Yolanda, who has recently come back from

[0:08] a successful hike over to Everest Base Camp. Now inside, she shares a few insights around how she used her training to prepare for this trip and to prepare her knees specifically for the mountains, and also shares some really interesting insights around her journey and her experience on this trip. So really interesting episode for anyone who's aspiring to maybe hike in Nepal one day, anyone who finds their knees are holding them back and they're a little bit worried about that with their hiking, or anyone who just loves a good hiking story. So with that being said, let's get into it. All right. Hello, hello, Yolanda. A big welcome to the show. Hey, Roland. Thanks. It's great to be here. So really, really, really looking forward to having a bit of a chat today. And as I was saying just before we got on, I think this is going to be such an awesome episode, just going to be super inspirational for quite a few people who may be considering a similar adventure. So before we get into it, let's start with the basics and start from the top. Could you just let us know who you are, where you're from, what do you do and what is your background in hiking?

[1:15] Sure. So my name is Yolanda Bannon. I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm not from the San Francisco Bay Area. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. My father was in the U.S. Air Force. So I grew up kind of everywhere. And in my 20s and 30s, I moved and lived quite a few places. But we're settled. I'm settled here with my husband now. I run two small businesses. One of them is a Tibet travel company that I run with Lovsong with my husband that gives people referrals for high-quality Tibetan-owned travel agencies. And I also am a hypnotist, and I create guided meditations for highly sensitive women. And then my background in hiking is just that something I've done and loved since maybe my 30s. I think the first time I, it's interesting. I think the first time I got into hiking was in my 30s, actually, when I lived in Japan. I lived in Kyoto and there were, we were, I lived right next to some small hills. And I just took to hiking around those hills and I think that was the first. And ever since then, it's just been something that I love to do. Maybe one of the things I love best.

[2:37] And before we started working together, what was your typical approach to training in your life? I kind of have never had one, really. I haven't had like a I'm trying to think if I've ever, I don't think I've ever properly trained for anything until our work together I mean I was in drill team in high school and yeah.

[3:09] Maybe various little, like little leagues. I don't know, but I, I just never trained. So, um, maybe six months before, and I'm 63, I'm sorry, I'm 64. So just at the beginning of this year, I got, I kind of started thinking of like, Oh my gosh, I really need to start working on some strength training. And I got into, um, kind of traditional weightlifting and I started doing an online strength training program, but it was, you know, it's just like a, you just do this today or do that today. So that, you know, it was just kind of a general training, I guess I'd say. And then when we were, I guess, before we started working together,

[3:56] what was the big goal that you would set for yourself? And what was the instigator for this particular goal? The goal was to trek to everspace camp in nepal and i also was very interested in going to the viewpoint that goes a little bit higher than everspace camp which is called kalapatar and the instigator was, It goes back, I would say, like almost 40 years that actually in the 90s, I trekked the Annapurna circuit or part of the Annapurna circuit.

[4:36] And I think that got me being in Nepal that time, which was just kind of random journey. I literally spun a globe from my co-op in Berkeley, California. And I was just like, where am I going to go? What is the most weird, fascinating place I could go? I just finished grad school and my finger landed on Kathmandu. So that got me kind of interested, like being there, got me interested in taking that trek, got me interested in those mountains, which were just, I don't know if you've ever, have you ever, have you been to Nepal? I haven't yet, to be honest. I've trained so many people for it. It's been so high on my list, but I haven't been over there myself yet.

[5:21] The mountains in Nepal, I mean, I just haven't come back. I knew this, I'd seen them before, but they're just nothing like anywhere else. They're just so magnificent. And so anyway, I'd always wanted to be in those mountains. And then I'd seen documentaries about, you know, climbing Everest and read on John Krakauer's book, like Into Thin Air back then. And I was always just fascinated by these movies and stories I was reading about these places that became kind of like legendary in my mind, like Namche Bazaar and Ting Boche and Everest Base Camp and Kalapatar and Lukla, flying into Lukla, like all that stuff just kind of got lodged in my brain. It was just something that I really wanted to do. So here I am, you know, over the, especially I'd say in the last five years, I just, I'd really wanted to do it. I've been traveling to Tibet over the last maybe 15 years for our Tibet travel business and had been to Everspace Camp on the Tibet side. But I'd never been on the, I'd never been on the, on this, on the Nepal side. So that that was kind of the the the impetus for wanting to go.

[6:39] And then what made you with this big goal in science like what made you decide to reach out for extra help with your preparations you know what were the things that you felt like you needed help with.

[6:52] Well, in those months, let's say, I think we started working together eight

[6:56] weeks before my trip, which was kind of really tight. But in the couple of three months before that, I'd been trying to kind of ramp up my fitness and training, you know, my own little version of training.

[7:12] And I had gotten injured also from the weight training that I was doing. I had gotten kind of an MCL strain. You know, it wasn't like a tear or anything, but it was, you know, it was sore and kind of hurting pretty much without me doing a big trek. So I was, I got really nervous about my ability to do the trek given that, that injury. And I'd seen a physical, two different physical therapists and, you know, I was doing my own thing and I, everything was just getting really confusing. I was getting advice from this one physical therapist, advice from another physical therapist. and I was just feeling, you know, I didn't really know what to do. So me, it was really kind of discombobulated about what's the best thing not to continue to hurt myself or hurt myself worse and still get stronger for the trek. And I was totally befuddled. And lucky for me, my friend Meg, who I was going on the trek with, had found and signed up with you 12 weeks before the trip. And just to be honest, I could have done it at that time, but I was too cheap.

[8:25] And I was just like, oh, no, I'll just do it on my own. So now it's nine weeks, eight weeks before the track, and I'm really worried about being able to do it. And I just said, I got to do it. So I called you up.

[8:44] And then after that call and after you kind of got into things tell us a little bit about the training that you did through summit strength like what did your program look like um it was.

[8:58] And because I had eight weeks, it was something that I had to commit to being very serious about. So it was something that was, it started out being seven days a week. And then I cut it back to six because I needed a mental day. I remember at some point I asked you, let's do six because I need one day to just kind of, you know, do stretching or something. But I was doing strength training a few times a week. I was doing um some stair work uh once a week i was doing stretches once a week i was doing some mobility work once a week i was doing gradually progressively uh longer and harder hikes with more weight and then i was doing some loaded pack walking um i can't remember like i probably also once a week so i mean i'm not gonna lie it was intense you know it was like at least.

[9:57] On the non-hike days it was about it was at least probably it was it was mostly like an at least an hour a day and then on the hike days it would be two three four five six hours and you know a day on those days yeah and it can always be tough on those kind of shorter term things where we're like oh my gosh we've only got eight weeks to kind of get in we kind of got to cram everything we need into this period so it ends up being a little bit of a rush but uh yeah i'm glad you managed to to squeeze it all in so yeah it was absolutely necessary there was no you know there was no getting around you know doing it right yeah.

[10:39] And then in all the stuff that you were doing, was there anything in there that was, I guess, a little bit different that you hadn't really done before? Yeah, there were a few just things that I hadn't done before. I hadn't been doing step-ups or step-downs, which were challenging, you know, with the knee. And what you know i was you know when i was first doing them i was like oh gosh i really don't know if it's gonna work i meant the track because it's like i knew the track would have you know up and down days and that was just gonna be you know if i was having trouble just doing them but anyway the training was so cool that like just very gradually i was able to increase the step up so that you know like increase my weight or the number that i was doing i can't remember and they just got you know they got progressively easier and I was doing more of them I was also.

[11:37] I had never done any kind of calf work or kind of ankle you know strengthening or stretches or any of that I was also for the first time in my life ever stretching before and after hikes you know and before after my training that was good every day and then I think the biggest difference was that i was you know when you're on your own you and you don't you know i'm not a, you know i don't have experience in this area your program was gradually increasing you know so it's like you might do one kind of move and the next week you might do the same move but you would increase the the weight or the resistance and that was um it seems obvious now that i had done it but that was really really helpful in my mind like oh it's actually important that you you know gradually you know pick up the weight or the resistance so that you you know so your muscles can get stronger and.

[12:43] And then through the process and through the eight weeks leading into the trip, were there any particular roadblocks which came up along the way? And if so, how did you go about overcoming them? Yeah, you know, there were, you know, there were small little things along the way, like my knee would get sore, more sore than usual. But the biggest one, and that was no big deal, I would just kind of check in with you, which was so valuable, by the way, like just being able to check in. And just say, like, hey, should I be pushing this or should I, you know, like, pull back and just get your advice.

[13:21] But the biggest one of those happened like three weeks before we were leaving. I was doing some stair work and I just got this big old pain in my knee that I had not been experiencing. And I think it was actually even different than the other pains that I had. Had and it just like freaked out I'm like oh my god I do not have time to you know fix this in in three weeks and it was so incredibly valuable I honestly I think it was like one of the most valuable things of the whole experience that like in that moment and I'm sure other people have them I'm sure you know first of all you normalized it it was just like you know I contacted you you were just like this is normal and we're just and you just gave me a plan I don't even remember what we did but you whatever you said I just did exactly and I think it was some combination of if I remember it was just like you know we're not going to totally shut down everything but at the same time we're going to back off a few things and it was great and like within a few days or a week you know I was back on track that that was like really really helpful I remember talking to Meg about that and just saying like thank you for um like you know recommending this guy because that alone was so helpful.

[14:46] Right and that's exactly it like those those situations where you know you're just a few weeks out from a trip and you're kind of ramping things up you're challenging the body and then kind of something gets uncomfortable or goes wrong can be so tough to navigate because there's like the typical solution is who will either sort of say okay this was everyday life and I didn't have a trip in front of me I would just do nothing and I would just completely give myself two or three or four weeks to rest and everything will settle yes that's often what people get recommended but then a lot of people like oh my gosh I got this trip so like you know I've got to be fit for it so what I'll do instead I'll just ignore it and I'll keep on pushing pushing pushing and that in itself is just like obviously not ideal so yeah finding that balance where we can kind of.

[15:30] Just keep on moving forward but respect the recovery and that can be tricky sometimes but I'm glad that it kind of got you you know where you need to be through that period, so yeah with all that being said we talked about the training we talked about the preparations Now let's talk about the trip. Tell us, how did the trip go? How did the trail go? Give us the rundown. So in a word, it was really, really hard, really, really amazing. It was just like, I had actually, you know, read a lot about, you know, the Everspace Camp track on the Nepal side before, but I was not prepared for the number. Like somebody wrote like so period, many periods, steps period. It's just like on the way up, on the way down. Every day you're going up and down like down to the river up to the thing and it's just, a lot of steps so it was honestly physically more I mean I knew it was going to be physically demanding but it was physically more demanding than I thought it would be just because of all those steps like if I'm hiking in California to be honest any other place I've hiked there'll be smooth sections, you know when I say smooth it's like.

[16:50] I don't know, like in Yosemite, there's something called four mile hike and you, you know, it's like very steep with a lot of switchbacks, but you're walking on a pretty smooth path. So these were just rocky, uneven. So you were constantly up and down. You were constantly balancing on, you know, on things. So like on the knee, it was so hard. And my knee just stood up like a champion. because of our training. One of the reasons that I think that happened is because I did another piece of advice that seems so simple that you gave, but was really a saver for me was.

[17:34] In different parts of different videos on your program, you talk about speed and how that can be a factor in injury. And it just never had occurred to me like that. I've never been a fast hiker I'm always pretty slow but I purpose especially on the downs on the downs like on the on the ups it was fine but on the downs I really made a big like a conscious decision to go very slowly even though like psychologically that was hard because I was with you know Meg and my um my guide are both faster than me but I just you know I talked to them about it they were cool and i was just like i need to go slow you know and i think that made um.

[18:22] I think that made, you know, a big difference. But for the most part, I would just say the hardest this trail was, which is like definitely one of the hardest trails I've ever been on. It's the hardest trail I've ever been on. You know, I was, you know, I was able to, I didn't have any pain. I think one day, maybe three days from the end or something, I took a painkiller because another piece of advice, it was like kind of prophylactically. I was like hmm I'm feeling a little you know it's not feeling good so I'm just gonna take painkiller you know early in the day but despite going up up up up down down down down up up up down down down every single day for 16 days my knees were just you know you know I have arthritis on my knees so they were like kind of sore-ish in a normal way like you know but there was no pain to speak up so I was incredibly grateful like I think every single day I was just like Meg I can't believe it my knees are leveling up so well yeah and then let's talk about the challenges and you kind of touched on a few little bits and pieces there but but what were the major challenges you faced along the trip or along the trail yeah.

[19:45] The challenges were the steps, just like, you know, psychologically, it's like, it's pretty rough to go like, you know, let's say it was kind of the shortest day was four hours and that was shorter by far than most. So it's like between six and 12 hours of going, you know, pretty steeply up and down all the time. Very rarely would you be going solid. So just psychologically, that was, that was a challenge. It was a psychological challenge to feel like I was slow. And the, the kind of advice and training that you had given in your videos really helped.

[20:23] Just, I just had that in my mind all the time. Like, it's okay. I need to go slow. It's, it's obviously better if I go slow than if I get injured.

[20:34] Also, you know, we had little bits of like Meg had a pretty bad sinus infection and some pain.

[20:41] Uh some altitude induced uh apnea that was really interfering with her sleep so that that was making she i mean she's a beast that was making it you know she she still kicked my butt like even though she had those problems but you know that was a challenge and then just generally speaking we went in october like late october early november like mid to 16 days like from you know late october and it's everyone will say it never rains it's not going to rain you know bring your raincoat but you won't need it it's like there was a cyclone in india that caused rain for five days during that time and that was that just sucked but fortunately we were um we got the rain out in the early part of our trip and so on the fifth day when we were getting to this place called Dingbushay, which is where the real, just truly magnificent views started to happen. So we were just in clouds and sometimes just the freezing, driving rain, just horrible stuff. It laid down this beautiful layer of snow, like on the mountains. And so on the fifth day, when we woke up or fifth or sixth day, when we woke up in Dingbushay, we had just been in clouds. And then And all of a sudden, they were just these magnificent mountains, just like we were just surrounded by them. So, that was kind of cool.

[22:08] Yeah, fantastic. And then I guess after this hike, you know, obviously, you've been on such a big adventure, you've gone through a lot and like, you know, in such a beautiful part of the world. At the end, how did you feel? Like, what was going through your head? And did you do anything in particular to celebrate?

[22:30] We, I've, I felt, I felt a lot of satisfaction that we had done it. I felt grateful for this experience that I dreamed of for so long.

[22:45] And we kind of, it's funny, we celebrated at, on the mountain, we celebrated, we celebrated at Everspace Camp. I remember Meg and I just like hugged for a long time and just, we sat and I think we recorded a little video, just like, you know, what we were experiencing, like what it felt like to be there after thinking and dreaming of it for so long. And we were actually there and it was just spectacularly beautiful. And then Kabatar, that viewpoint is even, I mean, it's like another world. I've literally never, I've seen some very beautiful places in my life. I've never experienced anything like the Alpenglow and the dawn rising. You start in the dark, walking at 17,000 feet, and you end up at like 18,500 at dawn. And I've never seen any or experienced anything like that. The next day, I remember, and I just cried like a baby, like really ugly crying, like in Calvatar, are because there was just so much um there was so much joy and satisfaction and it was hard so like there was relief and then I'll also just share with you that um.

[24:02] And with my clients and people on my email list, I had the sensitive women I work with, I had written and asked people if they wanted to send me names of people that they wanted to say a prayer for. And I got 300 names and just people having all kinds of experiences, like, you know, new babies, people with cancer.

[24:28] You know, people with challenges in their marriages, all kinds of, you know, world peace. People were praying for all kinds of things. and I had written these I made a list of all these people and as I kept them with me and I reflected on them and like sent them good wishes like the whole way and then a few days before Kalapatar actually at Nantibazar we bought prayer flags and it's a custom in Tibet that I brought in there too you can write people's names on the prayer flag so we bought a bunch of prayer flags wrote these 300 names on these prayer flags and then strung them at the top of Kala Patar. And so that was just honestly, like, made the whole experience, like, so much more meaningful and powerful, just like, and if people don't know, like, Tibetan prayer flags are called wind horses, and the idea is that they have prayers printed on them, as well as the prayers that we were wishing and the ideas that they just blow on the wind all around, you know, the world out into the air. So that was really, really precious moment for me.

[25:42] And then now that you're home and now that you're settled and now that, you know, this amazing trip is, you know, behind you, but not forgotten, what is the plan of attack for your hiking moving forward? Have you got any particular goals or how you're going to approach things or what's ahead?

[26:01] Well, my first thought is I just want to, like, I just enjoy hiking now because it's so easy. You know, I'm not hiking at like 16, 17, 18,000 feet. So it's just like you can just go up really fast and easy. That's all good. Joking aside, I just remember that people, seeing before I went, that people had done the trek a lot of times, the Everest Base Camp trek multiple times. And I remember thinking, even before I went, I thought like, that was just insane. Why would you, it's like once in a lifetime experience, but I knew it would be hard. Like, why would you ever want to do that again? And especially when we finished, I was like, there is no way I'm doing this again. But like, you know, now that several weeks have passed, I'm already starting to think like, hmm, I've heard about the long time track or we didn't get to do the gokyo part. It's like, oh, maybe we'll do the Gokyo Lake. So it's just like that kind of amnesia, I guess.

[27:06] So that says like, that might be fun to do that. And if I did that, I would certainly call you up before, longer ahead of time. A few more weeks. Yes, yes. How good. And then I guess, yeah, if anyone was listening to this, And as I said before, I think like a lot of people who listen to this podcast definitely have, you know, a trip like this on their one day list or, you know,

[27:33] they're aspiring towards it at some stage. If anyone was considering this particular adventure, is there any specific advice you would give them?

[27:44] Yeah, if they can afford it, hire you for personal training, which is what I did. If they can't get into a community like yours, or if they can find some other one, like, you know, to get the motivation and training, like, you know, so much of your information was available also, like on the videos, there was, honestly, there was nothing like having my personalized, I wish, you know, I wish there were, but there's nothing like having that personalized, program and you know to say like okay week one you're doing this week one day one you're doing this day two having all that was just.

[28:31] Incredibly valuable I'm not sure where I would have been physically and mentally for the trek if I hadn't done that yeah, Yeah, fantastic. And I think this has been an awesome, awesome, awesome episode, just getting the chance to dive into this and, yeah, just hear a little bit more about what you've kind of gone through on this trail, what you've experienced and everything there. So I guess before we finish things up and wrap things up, is there anything else that I guess we haven't had a chance to cover today or anything else you'd like to add before we finish things up? Well just reflecting on this as a training experience the thing that comes to mind is.

[29:19] Even if you you know i'm 64 i have arthritic knees and had you know a not not severe but also not not insignificant injury before i started with you so and i wouldn't have thought that i I could, you know, I think many people would think you can't do an Everest race camp trek in that situation. But it was like, I absolutely could. And I like I did it. My knees did it with flying colors. Like, you know, there was like no problem.

[29:54] So I guess I guess the thing would be like, even if you have an injury,

[29:59] you know, things, it could still be possible, especially if you have more time than I had. You know, it's just like a week mark. so if you know if you had you know 12 weeks or more like i i think you could really do it and the other the other thing is i just um while i contacted you after our trip i was so grateful for your help so grateful for you know the program and it also just made it like um, you know when fun every day to do that training but it generally speaking it was fun it was just like i felt good i felt like i was accomplishing something i knew i was making progress my body felt really good you know like I was getting stronger all the time and um I'm yeah I'm just forever grateful for that for helping me get that dream.

[30:50] Amazing. And from my side of things, it was such a pleasure having you on board, all the training. And I'm so happy that it kind of paid off for you, you know, in the mountains. And I just want to say thank you so much for coming on this podcast today and kind of sharing your journey and sharing your thoughts. Because I think there's been an awesome episode. And I think a lot of people get some really, really good value out of it. So thank you so much for coming on. It's my pleasure, Rowan. Thank you.

[31:17] So there we go, guys. I really do hope you've enjoyed today's episode and I really do hope it's maybe inspirational for a few people who may be dreaming about hiking in the pool one day in the future. Last thing I will say is if you are in a position similar to Yolanda, maybe you've got a big high attitude hike that you want to prepare for. Maybe you've got some knee pain which is holding you back or getting in the way of your preparations or whatever may be. If you were interested in learning a little bit more about the program that Yolanda used to get herself in this type of position for her trip, I would love to chat with you. If you want to find out more, you can go to summitstrength.com.au slash online. Now on that page, there's a big video talks to our program in a bit of detail. And if it does sound like something you want to learn a little bit more about, there's a link on that page. You can book a free call with our team. We can sit down, hear about you, your hiking, your goals, and your needs, and ultimately see if and how we may be able to help you out. So if you want to find out more, go to summitstrength.com.au slash online, and we can take it from there. So with that being said, thank you so much for listening. I really do hope you've enjoyed it, and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.

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