The first

"Mountaineering /n./ slow walking uphill while not feeling very well." - Unknown

I should probably start off my blog by stating that although I aspire to be a competent mountaineer I do not yet suffer from the delusion that I am anything beyond a hill walker.
That being said I suppose its difficult to determine at what point one becomes a mountaineer (perhaps akin to determining when a boy becomes a man; in the case of many climbers, never). In many ways this trip is the puberty phase of what I hope to be a long mountaineering 'career' (for lack of a better word). With any luck the awkard phase will pass mostly unnoticed and see me no worse for wear at the end. And if I am fortunate enough to be spared the ability to form rational thoughts for the next few years or suffer from cronic climber's memory then I would very much like to climb one of the 8,000m peaks before I turn 30 (probably not so much while on the climb, but before and after).