This is a follow-up to the post I wrote last year with a lot of new information I learned from my last two climbs. Be sure to read the original post first to get a good overview about the mountain and the route.
My plan was to attempt to climb Shasta twice in one week in May, with a few days in between to recover. It didn’t go entirely as well as I had planned, but I did learn a lot. Here’s how both trips went.
Continue reading Climbing Mount Shasta — Part 2
UPDATE: I’ve written a follow-up post which contains a lot of new information and how my two 2009 trips went.
As 2009 rolled around I decided that this would be a great year to go backpacking up Mount Shasta again. I have attempted the mountain twice in the past and topped out (i.e. reached the summit) once. This year I’m organizing a group trip, which is why I’ve started planning so early and the reason for this post. Here I will outline my experience with the mountain and what to expect.
My trip to India was a huge success!
It was great to finally meet all the people who I had been exchanging emails with over the past 14 months at PayPal. There is something very human and refreshing when you put a face to the name. The training went very well and both weeks were very interactive with lots of great questions and discussions. We were able to get through beginning JavaScript and ended on intermediate OO JavaScript techniques. Everyone was really friendly and always made sure Kimberly and I were comfortable and having a good time.
While I was there I also received a comment on my blog asking me to do a talk at a local webcamp in Chennai. Even though I wasn’t able to make it out to that, it was very flattering to receive a request out of the blue like that. Thanks Prabhu!
Over the weekend we flew up to Delhi and Agra to see the Taj Mahal and a few forts. There aren’t words to explain how amazing of an experience it was. From seeing the amazing architecture and history to watching people putting the time, heart and pride into making a marble inlaid dinner table which takes a full year and a half to complete.
After the 2 weeks were complete I realized that it truly wasn’t about the training; it was about the people. There’s not enough room on my blog to thank everyone who affected my journey, but I want to say a special thanks to Guru Prasath and Reena Bansal. Guru made sure Kimberly and I were always comfortable and not getting ourselves into too much trouble and Reena became our tour guide through Delhi and helped us negotiate good prices for things in the market and let me borrow he camera when mine ran out of battery.
After I returned to California I had 6 days to readjust before jumped back on a plane to head down to Austin, Texas for 5 days at the SXSW Interactive conference. More on that later…
In a few hours (5.5 to be exact) I’m jumping on a plane to travel from San Francisco to Chennai, India. PayPal is sending me to do the JavaScript training for the Web Development team there.
My plane leaves tonight at 12:05a and lands in Singapore for an 8 hour layover. I expect to leave the airport of a few hours of sight seeing and sampling the local food. Then I jump back on the plain to hop over to India.
I’ll be in India for 2 weeks and doing the “Intro to JavaScript and DOM Scripting” class for half the team each week. Over the weekend my boss, Kimberly Blessing, and I will be traveling up to Agra to see the amazing Taj Mahal. I’ll be taking lots of pictures and posting them on Flickr along the way. I love how every time I tell someone I’m going to India their eyes light up and they instantly have stories and advice for places to go and things to do — it’s fantastic! (and yes I’ve had my shots, pills and will avoid the water)
OK, off to finish packing now. Wish me luck!