Kenyan first-time mountaineer Dr Faith Mwende is already in Nepal, climbing the highest mountain in the world, Everest.
Mwende on Wednesday told the Star on the phone she was on her second day of climbing. She started climbing Mt Everest on Tuesday, April 18. But this is just the beginning.
Mwende will be the first Kenyan woman to climb Mt Everest.
The financial expert at the Capital Markets Authority left Nairobi alone on April 13 and arrived in Nepal on April 15.
“The weather was misty yesterday, but okay. We pray for good weather all through,” Mwende said.
She on Wednesday told the Star she had covered 7.4km trekking from Phakding to Namche where she will spend two days resting and for her body to acclimatise before she continues summiting Mt Everest.
Mwende said she started the trek at 8am. She maintains that no summit is too high, but it has claimed many lives.
“The first several miles after leaving Phakding has had its fair share of ups and downs as you slowly begin to gain net elevation. The distance from Phakding to Namche is approximately 7.4 kilometres,” Mwende told the Star.
Mwende said she hopes to conquer and descend Mt Everest in 60 days. Mt Everest measures 8,848 metres above sea level.
“The weather is cool, we are on the trek now. We have already started, on day two heading to the next stop,” she said.
The woman in her 30s with roots in Makueni county said she was scaling the mountain as part of her campaigns on climate change that has ravaged much of Africa, Kenya included.
Not only the land but the mental health and peace.
She intends to fly the Kenyan flag atop the mountain.
Mwende arrived at Phakding, a small village in the Khumbu region on Tuesday.
Phakding lies in the Dudh Kosi river valley, North of Lukla and South of Monjo, at an altitude of 2, 610metres.
Mwende said she passed the Passang Lhamu gate, the gate to the Everest region which was named after the first Nepaly woman to summit Everest. It has a portrait in her honour. She spent the night at Phakding.
On her way to Phakding, she walked through the streets of Lukla a small town in the Khumbu Pasanglhamu rural municipality of the Solukhumbu District in the Province No. 1 of Northeastern Nepal. She trekked for three hours at an altitude of 2,860 metres.
"It’s a popular place for visitors climbing Everest,” Mwende said.
Mwende had before trekking to Phakding town landed at Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla, Nepal.
Tenzing-Hillary Airport is a steep airport named after Sir Edmund Hillary from New Zealand, the first person in the world to climb Mt Everest and his Nepal Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay.
According the Mwende’s itinerary, she is using the S – COL; SE – RIDGE route to scale it. Nepal is currently experiencing spring season, best for the mission.
She’s walking five to seven hours each day with hotels and lodges for rest. Mwende is accompanied by a group of a many as 15 people. The trip is scheduled to end between June 5 and 9.
(Edited by V.Graham)