Aspen’s Everest

“You have to love it,” Aspen tells me with a serious look on his face, a hint of a brash smile behind his eyes that have seen things that I’ve really only seen on National Geographic. “Everything that goes on, that comes with it,” he continues, “everything that you can foresee and not be ready for, you have to love it–you have to love the preparation, you have to love the anxiety, the unknowns, the idea of un-learning everything you’ve grown accustomed to.”

“It’s all in. You HAVE to love it, everything included.”

Now it kind of sounds like romanticizing an activity that could ultimately kill you, but the “love” that Aspen is talking about leans more towards the accepting kind of love; the “whatever happens will happen” and you have to be in love enough with this “thing” to allow it to take over.

And this “thing” we’re talking about? Climbing mountains, particularly Everest Base Camp.

EVEREST BASE CAMP

Everest Base Camp isn’t just a place for a lot of people—it’s a gateway, a rite of passage for anyone who’s ever dreamed of standing in the shadow of the world’s tallest mountain. Standing still at a lung-busting 5,364 meters above sea level, it’s basically where climbers gather before attempting the full Everest summit. But don’t get it twisted, getting to EBC alone is already the dream for many, making it there is making it.

The journey to EBC takes about 9-14 days, winding through suspension bridges, local villages and communities, and views so unreal they look straight out of a screensaver. It’s not an easy hike—altitude sickness is a real threat, as Aspen reminds me—but every step is packed with the kind of scenery that makes you forget how much your legs hate you.

“But even before getting anywhere on the mountain, just landing into Kathmandu, you already feel it,” Aspen smiles, recalling that “as soon as you land, you feel the energy. Everyone is on, everyone is just as crazy as you. The same tribe, the same damage, it was a first time for me.” Aspen, according to him, is not a competitive kind of guy, “I’ve never been in a situation where I’m surrounded by people who are exactly the same as me.” He tells us that the excitement there is divided into two: the first-timers like them, who are all giddy and “OMG WE’RE HERE”, all ready to get started. And the veterans, who have that Special Forces kind of swagger to them, a “we’ve been here before and we’ve seen it all” confidence that’s unmatched and definitely awe-inspiring, probably here on their 4th time.

“The higher you go, the more potent the vibes get.”

WHY EVEN TRY?

For musicians like me, no matter your place in the universe of the industry–whether you’re a rising artist or a session player who’s played for years, the Grammys are always in the back of your mind. It’s always going to be there, a goal worth working towards, a dream worth dreaming, no matter how far or lofty or even impossible the idea of it may be. That’s the analogy Aspen gave me when I asked him, “why Everest?”

“It’s the inescapable brand that’s within the spectrum of what you do,” is how Aspen put it. “I’m a hiker,” he continues, “and Everest is that, it casts a big shadow. An unavoidable name.”

The pandemic halted a lot of plans for a lot of people, including Aspen. “I bypassed a lot of mountains because the world shut down–Kota Kinabalu, Fuji, Jade Mountain, I just got frustrated. Everest kept getting farther and farther as the pandemic kept getting longer and longer, and so when the world opened up I just said: F it, let’s just go. Everest. Let’s do it.“

In that sense, the pandemic made sure that it was Everest Base Camp or nothing at all.

WHEN YOU’RE READY, YOU’RE READY

Someone asked Aspen, “What’s more important: experience or physical strength?” It’s the kind of question you’d expect a climber to have a clear-cut answer to, but he doesn’t hesitate—he knows it’s not that simple. “You can get away with either, one or the other,” he says. “Strength will get you out of most situations by sheer force, and experience will help you avoid most situations altogether.” It’s a practical, almost philosophical take on survival in the mountains. A strong climber can power through exhaustion, push past obstacles, and muscle their way up steep ascents. But experience? That’s the quiet, calculated advantage—the ability to read the terrain, pace yourself, and know when to push forward or hold back.

Of course, having both is ideal. “Balance is key,” he admits. “I was lucky that, at that moment in my life, I had a good mix of both experience and fitness.” Because when you’re trekking to Everest Base Camp, where every step at high altitude feels like a small battle, that balance isn’t just helpful—it’s everything.

BEFORE YOU GO AND GETTING HOME

“There are ways of doing it safely, doing it right. But if you don’t do it right, you’re going back down in a helicopter—being airlifted to save your life.”

Altitude sickness is as serious as they say, and just as deadly. “It’s climb high, sleep low,” Aspen explains. Picture a saw, its peaks rising and falling—that’s how you hike up a mountain at this kind of altitude. “The idea is to acclimatize as you go up, then climb back down a bit to let your body recover and sleep there. Losing meters is better than losing your life.”

“If you think you’re going slow, go slower.”

Then there was the moment it all hit him. “The second I saw Everest out the airplane window, I just started bawling. we were here.” Fortunately, Aspen didn’t have to do this entire thing alone, he had Gosh Dilay (bassist of popular rock band Sponge Cola), with him. “If I had to choose between hiking with strangers and doing it alone, I’d do it alone. That’s why I’m very lucky to have good friends who are with me.”

The entire experience was filled with moments like that—huge, overwhelming, impossible-to-ignore moments that can be summed up in one word: scale. “There was this part of the trek where the sky was just one shade of blue,” he tells me, “and I realized it’s because we were above everything. It dawns on you—you’re 5,000 meters above sea level, looking down at the world, and yet, when you look up, there are still peaks higher.”

“It just shuts you up because of how big everything is.”

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