{"id":20002,"date":"2014-07-11T03:25:21","date_gmt":"2014-07-11T09:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=20002"},"modified":"2014-07-11T03:25:21","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T09:25:21","slug":"k2-perfect-puja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/11\/k2-perfect-puja\/","title":{"rendered":"K2: A Perfect Puja"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"k2<\/a>We just finished our Puja this morning, <\/a> Friday, July 11, 2014, and will be leaving for Advanced Base Camp this afternoon. It is about a 2 to 3 hour walk.<\/p>\n

I have participated in many Pujas over the years and this one stands out for many reasons. First we have a small team so the bonds are very tight, second we had an absolutely perfect day with clear skies and no winds with K2 serving as an inspiring, motivating and fearsome backdrop.<\/p>\n

The puja is a ceremony where the Sherpas ask the Mountain Gods are asked for permission to climb, safety for the climbers and forgiveness for damaging the mountain. It is a sacred ceremony for the Sherpas, and while optional for the climbers, almost everyone participates. The symbolism is significant such as throwing rice into the air three times to ward off evil spirits, and spreading sampa on one another\u2019s face to represent a long life with a white beard.<\/p>\n

The gentle soft chanting by the monks during the ceremony took me into a quiet place where I reflected on my purpose. I am deeply sincere in saying that while I climb for the love of mountaineering and will do my to summit K2, my driving purpose is around Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

In that spirit, I value each of you reading this post, following me or making a donation. The amount is immaterial, by bringing as many people together as possible we can make a difference in small and large ways. If you cannot make a donation right now, I understand – regardless of your reason – and appreciate your support through following my climb and sending positive thoughts my way.<\/p>\n

So, we are off in a few hours. As I mentioned yesterday I will post audio updates from the high camps using my satellite phone but will have no Internet access. Thus you will need to visit my blog at http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/k2-2014\/ to follow our progress until we get back to base camp. Also you can follow me on the SPOT gps tracker page. There NOT be any updates on Facebook until I get back. You can sign up for notifications of new blog posts using the form on the lower right corner of the blog page. Your email will never be used for anything else and you can unsubscribe at anytime.<\/p>\n

We plan on spending a minimum of three nights and potentially five if the weather and our health holds; perhaps spending two nights at Camp 2. I\u2019m very excited to be climbing Houses Chimney on the way to C2. I feel great here at BC but this rotation will begin the real test.<\/p>\n

Thanks for your continued support, it make a real difference.<\/p>\n

Climb On!
\nAlan
\nMemories are Everything<\/p>\n

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We just finished our Puja this morning, Friday, July 11, 2014, and will be leaving for Advanced Base Camp this afternoon. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[405],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-20002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-k2-2014","tag-k2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}