'Dirty’ Donny Tagliotelli's tall tale.
Name: Anthony Watt
Age: 26
Hometown: Meeker, CO
Area of study: Bioengineering
Year in school: Senior
I joined the Everest Base Camp Expedition because... I really enjoy hiking and the outdoors, and the allure of Everest strikes everyone who has summited a mountain. I saw the opportunity and decided that I would not have the time or the ability to schedule my own private trip, and would not be even close to matching the cost that SU abroad can provide.
I'm involved with the SU collaborative research studies by... I am a participant in the studies. Although I am a bit of a joker and like to be a little belligerent, I do my best to provide accurate results for the research tests.
I'm most looking forward to... Seeing the peak of Everest. I want to get a scale of just how large it is and compare my mountaineering achievements to the world’s tallest mountain.
My favorite part of the trip so far has been... Hiking through the crisp Himalayan morning mountain air when there is a crystal blue sky and stone giants are towering overhead
The worst part of the trip so far... Overcrowding and disrespectful tourists
One thing most people don't know about me... Even though I really enjoy the outdoors and being challenged by mother nature, I also play videogames (League of Legends) competitively for Syracuse University.
Daily Recap
My roommate and I have a morning routine that some absolutely cherish, and some absolutely loathe. The paper thin walls of the lodges allow you to nearly hear the hypoxia accelerated heartbeat of your neighboring rooms, and you will absolutely hear any sort of normal conversation. With the early morning breakfasts, difficulty sleeping, and long days, everyone is cherishing every moment of sleep they get. The last thing anyone wants to wake up to is two college boys singing “Say It Ain’t So”, “Whats Up?”, and “Unwritten”. That is precisely what me and Nathan McCarthy do every morning and while it has received some mixed reviews, we will continue to sing for our early bird fans.
Following the breakfast of simple carbohydrates and eggs cooked to your liking, we set off on the roughly 800 meter elevation gain trek. Leaving the village of Pheriche was very cathartic as we had been cooped up there for a few days living in a purgatory of scheduled meals, physiological testing, and more chess and card games than anyone can bear. Everyone had a bit of a stir-crazy skip in their step, but with the upcoming task it was important to keep a steady pace and not exert ourselves too much.
The hiking started off as a slow incline and during this time, a large portion of the group near the front fully embraced the oxygen deprived mindset and we created our own mini Italian crime drama series in our heads. Everyone had a character with ever deepening backstories and more and more convoluted plotlines with backstabbing and betrayals. In our Himalayan Soprano’s knockoff, I played the role of “ ‘Dirty’ Donny Tagliotelli” and was the guy who got things done. There was also Nathan as “Razza Tagliotelli” the head of the family with ambition to rule the entire world crime syndicate. Kim starred as “Bianca Tagliotelli”, Razza’s cousin and Donny’s Wife, and she has a quick temper and is always looking for more power. There were also other characters that were made up to fill in exceedingly more ridiculous plot ideas. Some of these included “Big Ben”, “Connie Cornflake”, “Bennie Cornflake”, and “Mike ‘Muesli’ Jones”. To compliment all of our extravagant characters, we developed very poor accents of a New Jersey Italian crime family. While we were enjoying our hypoxic induced imaginary Italian family, time flew by and we ascended a large majority of the hike with no complaint or stress.
While the ascent was brutal and steep in areas, it was accented with stunning vistas and enchanting memorial sites. During the times when we were not conversing in our separate reality, we took time to take in the scenes and to reflect. At one memorial site, there are stone memorials and prayer flags for the mountaineers that perished on the mountain. It was a somber moment to see the names of the people in books we have read, and just to see the ages of some of the dead. A majority of them were thrill seekers in their mid-twenties or experienced climbers and Sherpa that got caught in horrible situations. Reflecting on the journey we were taking during these sections was absolutely necessary.
Upon reaching the Pyramid lab, we were met again with hot tea and a comforting lodge. It was located in the bottom of a valley, tucked away from the main trail. The large glass and solar panel pyramid on top of the lodge was where the Italian laboratory was housed. After a short tea break and waiting for the second group to get their tea, we got a tour of the lab. It was impressive to see the level of instrumentation this high in the mountains.
We got assigned our rooms and to our luck, and the misfortune of everyone else, all four Syracuse male students were assigned to the same room. The beds were all aligned facing the same way and took up 90% of the room. Nathan and I soon decided that our singing group needed an expansion. We added “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys to the next morning’s setlist, as well as two new members to the boy band. We went to bed eager and excited for the next day’s adventure: trekking to Gorak Shep and the infamous Everest base camp!
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