Garland friends celebrate 5th anniversary of Mount Everest Trek

Featured Photo: Success!! Texas Trekkers (left to right) Debra Eckel, Pam Mayberry, and Scott Mayberry at Everest Base Camp Oct 5, 2015. Photo by Rajendra Bhandari

In 2015, ‘Texas Trekkers’ Scott Mayberry, Pam Mayberry, and Debra Eckel, longtime friends and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, set out on a remarkable journey to Mount Everest Base Camp. Five years later, they share what they learned along the way.   

Scott Mayberry was the driving force behind our life-changing Mount Everest expedition. He had read about trekking to Everest Base Camp and thought about doing it since he was a boy. As an experienced climber, Scott still marvels at being so lucky to see the “majestic mountain ranges” with his own eyes and appreciate the Lord’s creations. He also acknowledges how blessed our trio was to complete our trek up and back together. A couple of weeks after we returned, I remember telling Scott that I was only just realizing the enormity of what we all did, and his response was, “Oh, yes. There were so many things that could have gone wrong!”

We all have sedentary jobs. Scott and Pam are co-owners of a group of assisted-living facilities in North Texas – Mayberry Gardens.  As a horticultural sales rep working with customers like the Dallas Arboretum and Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, I got clearance to be gone three weeks during the busy fall season. Scott made sure we all understood the importance of being physically prepared. Our ages factored into our preparation – Scott was 56, Pam was 53, and I was 62 when we set our plan in motion. Our trio trained for six months before embarking on our epic challenge by walking long distances breaking in our boots and getting comfortable with our packs. Because of the Texas summer heat, we used indoor exercise bikes to build endurance. We also made two weekend trips to Colorado and, on the second trip, climbed to 14,000 ft altitude on Mt. Cameron with the prescribed medication to check our tolerance.

Upon arriving in Nepal, we spent a few days in the Thamel district of Kathmandu, making final preparations for the trek and taking in the exotic and strange elements of the Nepalese culture. As we spent time observing the death rituals surrounding the deceased’s preparation and cremation by their family members on the river banks, Pam recalls being weighed down amid this unique people, feeling the complete absence of any visible evidence of Christianity. One of the lessons she learned was that each of us carries the Spirit of the Lord within. Visual reminders can be beautiful and welcome, but this powerful realization has stayed with her.  And we were reminded that the gospel message can reach almost anywhere when we streamed the Women’s Session of General Conference on an iPad in Nepal from our hotel room.

Even though a major earthquake rocked Nepal just months before our scheduled trek, we all felt like we could safely continue with our plans while monitoring conditions. Earthquake damage to historic buildings and neighborhoods of Kathmandu was still evident. Even the trail to Base Camp was affected and required detours from the usual path in certain areas. The earthquake did not reassure our grown children as we set out, leaving them and grandchildren in Texas and Utah to mark our progress.

“I had trust that [they] could do it physically,” said  Debra’s eldest daughter Jessica Blad of Flower Mound. “It was the uncertainty of other dangerous variables and the fact we couldn’t communicate directly for three weeks was terrifying.”

Scott sent messages regularly via his satellite phone to two of our daughters to relay info on to our respective family groups as we had little access to Wi-Fi the further up the trail we got.

Jessica recalled. “I was really grateful for that (the SAT phone), at least. It felt a little like they were behind enemy lines sending us short cryptic messages with their coordinates each day. I would anxiously wait for updates and find them on my map to see how they were progressing and cheered when they finally made it to base camp! I was so relieved when they were heading back.”

We felt and benefited from the prayers of many family members and friends. Our, then, Stake President Tom Ward was a bit more direct when he cautioned me, “Make sure you come back.”

People often ask, “Did you go on that trip as a spiritual pilgrimage or to seek enlightenment?” After suffering a profound personal loss with the death of my eldest son the previous year, my journey was not to go and find God, but rather to ask and hope that He would be with me and allow me to see some of His other children and some of His great wonders. He did not disappoint on so many levels – including the spectacular suspension bridges over the mountain passes. One of my greatest fears became an unforgettable and exhilarating experience.

“It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”

Sir Edmund Hillary

Some travelers we met after two days on the trail in Namche offered some simple but profound advice. They were on their way back after a successful summit. Their invaluable advice was, “You can do it – just go slow.” That basic instruction played in our heads time and time again as the altitude thinned, and progress was slow. We regret we did not get the names of these young men from the southern US. They deserve a huge thanks for that observation. Even now, that advice is comforting as we realize that we are making progress when we just keep going. Sometimes going slow is all we can manage, and it is enough.

Stephanie Hewitt of Sachse, the Mayberrys’ eldest daughter, shared her thoughts, “I just remember being really proud that they all tried something so different and outside their comfort zone. I was worried about them getting sick and not being able to get down. I’d get up in the middle of the night to check my phone because of the time difference. I was worried that one or more of them wouldn’t make it and that they’d be disappointed in themselves. One night I remember specifically praying they would be blessed with extra strength to finish, but that if they couldn’t, they would still feel accomplished and strong.”

One life lesson well-learned is the crucial role of a guide in our lives. We had the blessing of meeting Rajendra Bhandari, who became not only our guide but our teacher, protector, and friend. When the ‘Texas Trekkers’ met recently, we were able to FaceTime with Rajendra for a few minutes and reminded him how much we love and appreciate him. Rajendra kept us on the right path, even when there was not an actual path to follow. He explained customs to us so that we could show proper respect and courtesy to our hosts and the people we encountered on the trail. He laughed with us and not at us, as we had our struggles along the way.

The highlight of summiting Everest Base Camp was placing Texas flags inscribed with our families’ names at the Base Camp marker. We felt our separation from our families keenly, so it was a very sweet moment to see those names posted. That moment is such a distinct reminder of what matters most.  As parents and grandparents, our message of “climb as high as you can” has little to do with scaling a mountain path but pushing on through to achieve any worthy goal.

Scott, Pam, and I all agree that a lasting lesson for each of us is that “we can do really hard things.” Pam reminded us that even though we encouraged each other and traveled together, each one of us took every single step of that trip on our own. We have faced all kinds of challenges in the last five years, but a measure of inner strength gained from the trek experience contributes to our ability to cope and keep moving. Pam and Scott recently served 18 months in the Madrid Spain Mission then returned to their work with Mayberry Gardens. I returned home with a renewed determination to complete my BYU degree and walked in the graduating class of 2018.

I would add that I also gained a greater understanding of what ‘enduring to the end’ looks like. After over a week of travel on the trail to reach the Everest Base Camp, you must get yourself back out with over five days or more of equally strenuous trekking to return to the starting point at Lukla to take the return flight to Kathmandu.

The trek to Everest Base Camp ranks as a life-changing experience, not just because of what happened in the moment or along the trail. The journey is a touchstone for Scott, Pam, and me and often comes to mind as an on-going reference point with everyday events, decisions, and teaching opportunities. Most of all, it’s a constant reminder that God really does know where we are, no matter how far away we may journey.

There is a plaque at the Lukla Airport with a quote by Sir Edmund Hillary, “It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” We could not agree more.