Monique Long, of Tom Price, loves an inspiring challenge – and her bid to climb Mera Peak, Nepal's highest trekking peak, has proved to be one of her proudest achievements.
Many will remember our story in July, as she busily trained for her epic adventure with partner Eric Stoveld, hiking up Mount Bruce and Mount Nameless.
It definitely wasn't for the faint-hearted, Monique admits. We trained extremely hard and ate well leading up to our trek but once we started to get higher than 4000m, the air was so thin.
This made every action so much harder than if you were at a low altitude. The oxygen level at the summit of Mera Peak was 44 per cent.
Trekking eight to nine hours a day, through sunshine, rain, hail and snow, Monique confessed she only once felt like giving up, asking why she was pushing her body to such limits.
I don't like to be beaten, and neither does Eric, so after that day our determination got stronger, she said. I always thought this was going to be the challenge of a lifetime.
But I didn't realise the cold would affect me as much as it did. It was an average of -6°C at base camp going right down to -24°C at the summit.
Fortunately, Monique avoided frostbite – but one of her friends wasn't so lucky. Her friend discovered her middle finger was black but, upon her return to Melbourne, a plastic surgeon managed to save it. When Monique finally stood on the 6656m summit, she found there was no one word to describe her amazing accomplishment.
It was so exciting and the view was absolutely breathtaking, she said. All our hard work had paid off. I do believe our training helped a lot. To complete this summit, you definitely need a certain degree of fitness.