Jill Everest

TCN readers will recall that columnist and 2005 Canadian women's champion Jill Officer was headed off to climb to Mount Everest's base camp back in the spring.

As the photo shows, she actually went through with it. :)

Here's an intro to Jill's column appearing in the November issue of The Curling News about her experience. Make sure you sign up today to receive TCN on your doorstep. You won't want to miss a single issue of our 50th anniversary publishing season. Over to the Jillster.

Katmandu, Nepal. Definitely culture shock.

Just getting out of the airport, into a taxi and to our guesthouse was absolutely insane and chaotic. There are people everywhere, literally.

After reviewing some stats on my return home, I determined that for every square kilometre of Nepal, there are 5,120 people. In Canada, for every square kilometre, there are only 3.5 people! That should give you an idea of the insanity in their country. Plus, there is no organization to the traffic, and since cows are sacred, they tend to stand in the middle of the street and you're forced to drive around them.

Once, while walking around, we saw piles of garbage in the street, mangy dogs everywhere and we were almost run over – numerous times – by a taxi or motorbike.

But after spending a month in Nepal, trekking through the beautiful Himalayas and viewing the highest mountain in the world, I learned a lot about the Nepalese people, culture and country. It was an amazing experience.

The trek itself was extremely difficult, beyond what I had imagined. The first few days were the worst until we got over that physical and mental hump where things actually becomes a little more natural, and easier. But the most important thing though is that we made it: the Base Camp of Mt. Everest and the summit of Kala Pattar (photo), a viewpoint for Everest.

Is there a curling angle? You bet there is. Be sure to pick up a copy of TCN this fall and check out my column for more.

Elsewhere:

• National Geographic’s Pulse of the Planet is a two-minute “sound portrait of the planet earth” (like that segue from Everest?) The most recent podcast is on “Curling: A Most Social Game”, and the link offers the show text plus the .mp3 itself...

• Speaking of podcasts (another segue) we will indeed call those guys at The Curling Show crazy, because they've got not one (WCPA prez Paul Boutilier), and not two (2007 Tim Hortons brier honcho Dwayne Pyper) but three (last rock Ferbster and CurlTV guy David Nedohin) podcasts up and running. Click away...

• NEWSFLASH: the opening Grand Slam, The Masters, has moved from Kitchener's venerable Auditorium to RIM Park in Waterloo. It says here that this is a good move, given the imminent event date (late November) and the cool factor of this brand-spanking-new 4,500-seat arena...

• Speaking of Slams, the first of four women's Grand Slam events is under way in Calgary. The Trail Appliances Autumn Gold features 32 teams, a $56,000 purse, reigning champ Jenn Hanna of Ottawa, the national teams of Russia, China and Japan, a whack of big-name western squads, and two games broadcast each day on CurlTV. There are also an additional four events on the Asham World Curling Tour underway this weekend...

• My goodness, such language! The Canadian Curling Association is getting a severe PR slap from Quebec's provincial government over the alleged reason why the 2008 STOH went to Regina instead (original La Soleil story here). The CCA is denying the playing of the language card, and they have received some unlikely support from the Conman. Now we have Anglo and French-Canadian media guys going at it. Fascinating.

• Winnipeg is, not surprisingly, crowing about Kerry Burtnyk's storming return to the sport...

• Just in case you missed it, Vancouver's Brent Pierce and resurgent Kelley Law were the Vernon WCT spiel champs...

• Ontario's Royal Kingston Curling Club is no more... but don't panic. The grand opening of their brand-new facility on Day's Road takes place tomorrow. However, it will be bittersweet as they will also pause for a moment of silence over the recent passing of club dynamo Marv Valensky (cancer at age 57). While we await photos of the new unveiling (attention Kingstonians!) you can view photos of the ancient and historic old barn here...

• Another NEWSFLASH: former Scottish and Brit Olympic curling coach Mike Hay has just been bumped up a notch. Soon after resigning as the chief curling honcho, he's just been appointed Olympic Performance Manager for Winter Sports...

• Finally, we simply don’t understand why zero bids were placed on this classic item. What in tarnation is wrong with you people?