Rumana Chowdhury > Articles by: Rumana
Author Archive: Rumana
A Brief Background When I first arrived to United States back in April 1998, I moved to Astoria, Queens, NY (and I still live here 🙂 ). One day I walked to a nearby public library on Broadway and Steinway Street to inquire about their computer classes. The librarian told me they did not have that class in this branch, but they had it in Jamaica. Hearing that my jaw dropped. I asked her with surprise, “What! I have to go all the way to Jamaica to take some computer…
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Aconcagua Expedition January 2018 Trip Dates: January 6 – January 22, 2018 Trip Details: Saturday January 6: This was the first day of our expedition. My team-mates Marcia, Vraj, and Patrick were already in Mendoza. I was the last person to arrive there that morning with my flight arriving at 9 AM. I met Marcia in her hotel room and the rest of the crew later at the hotel lobby. We all walked together the office of Acomara to give them the money for the guiding trip in person in cash….
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Yesterday I visited my Mom and my brother’s family on the New Year Eve. I was chatting with my six year old nephew and this is how it went: Me: 2017 was the best year of my life. Nephew: 2017 was the best year of my life too. Me: But you are only six-year-old! Nephew whispered into my ear: “I am more than six-year-old now; please do not tell anyone.” His expression was the same when we adults would start to feel embarrassed by our real age because we are…
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Buying Guide for High Altitude Expedition Parka Buying an expedition parka can get very confusing, especially with many options out there to choose from. I recently found myself in the market to buy an extreme cold weather expedition down parka. And the more research I did the more confused I got with deciding which parka to buy at the end. To solve that dilemma, I decided to put together some key features of these jackets in a table format that I would quickly be able to refer to, instead of…
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Summit Day: February 24, 2017 (Friday) Background Info My friend Marcia had previously done Everest Base Camp. When she planned to climb Kilimanjaro and invited her friends, including me, to join I got super excited! I had no idea what I was going to feel like being in that altitude for the first time in my life. But going with friends is always a good way to explore unknowns. So, I decided to join her and invited a few of my other friends, and Michelle, Michael, and Chrislyn joined. Marcia…
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Hike Date: October 19, 2017 (Thursday) This was the second of the three day-hikes I did over two days before two-day backpacking trip over Hale, Zealand, and Bonds to wrap up my Northeast 115 List. I hiked Wildcat D in the morning before doing this hike in the afternoon. Mount Moriah has several different trails leading to the summit. The most commonly used trail is via Mount Moriah trail. For this hike, I used Stony Brook trail mostly because I knew I was going to have some headlamp hiking. The…
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Hike Date: October 19, 2017 (Thursday) This was the first of the 3 day-hikes I did over two days before two-day backpacking trip over Hale, Zealand, and Bonds to wrap up my Northeast 115 List. Since I was planning on doing Mount Moriah in the afternoon, I wanted to get an early start for this hike. As I am always guilty of sleeping-in, I did not get on the trail until 8 AM! I left my car parked at Pinkham Notch Visitor Center and took the Lost Pond Trail across…
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Trip Dates: Oct 21 – 22, 2017 (Sat – Sun) As I recently completed my Adirondacks 46er list, and since I had also hiked all of the 4000-footers in Maine and Vermont, I started to get a bit impatient to complete my New Hampshire (NH) 48, by doing that I would also be done with New England 67 and Northeast 115 list! I had three day-hikes and one backpacking left to complete the list. Weather looked promising for a few consecutive days. So, I decided to make this six hour…
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Summit Date: September 16, 2017 (Saturday) Watch the corresponding YouTube video here This hike was a part of the 10 day long trip in Arizona I had put together on behalf of my outdoor club MOB, and this was the first of the many activities we had planned for this trip. Last year when I did a trip out to Utah / Arizona, I spent most of my time in Utah, and only a few days in Arizona. But that trip helped me to plan out my future trip to…
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Summit Day: June 22, 2017 Background Info: Mount Elbrus (18,510′ or 5,642m) is the highest point in Russia and in Europe and 10th most prominent peak in the world. When our group of five reached the summit of Kilimanjaro (highest point in Africa at 5,895 m or 19,341 ft) in February 2017, we decided to pursue our next objective: Mount Elbrus – the highest point in Europe; and as soon as we got back to NY, we started researching different options. For this climb, we decided to go up via…
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This was technically my first SOLO trip outside the country, though I visited Puerto Rico by myself in May which is technically within the USA but everyone speaks Spanish there, and I literally speak 0 words in Spanish. Meanwhile everyone in Vancouver speaks English with Northern accent. In my first trip to Seattle this July for climbing Mt Rainier, I made plans to visit Alaska after the climb. In my second trip to Seattle in August to attend a mountaineering training course, I decided to visit Vancouver after the course, and this…
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What it is that in order to become a valuable member of a team in glacier travel, it is almost a necessity that we take at least one proper course in mountaineering. I wanted to do just that before the summer season ends and was lucky to get a spot in an already full August session as someone canceled their reservation. Here is what we did and learned on a day by day basis: Day 1 Sunday 08/13/2017: We met for Orientation at 6:30 AM at our guide’s office in…
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This summer, I had the opportunity to travel to Seattle not just once, but 2.5 times :). Trip #1 (July 21, 2017): First it was in July when I made a last-minute trip out there to climb Rainier via Emmons Glacier. After the summit, I was dropped off at my hotel near Seattle while the rest of the group proceeded onto climbing Mt Baker, which they were unable to summit due to bad weather. For me, just the summit of Rainier was more than enough on that trip. My two…
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After summiting Mount Rainier, I decided to scout Alaska (AK) ;). I booked a last minute flight from Seattle to Anchorage to NY, allowing me to spend 5 days in South-East Alaska. Day 1 July 22 (Sat): I flew into Anchorage, AK from Seattle in the afternoon, picked up my rental car, drove to my hostel “Bent Prop Inn & Hostel Alaska” in town. After settling in and taking a nice shower, I went out to explore. I was super hungry, so went to have dinner first. I ate at Spenard…
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SUMMIT DAY: July 18, 2017. After summiting Mount Elbrus (the highest point in Europe) in June, I was determined to get to the top of Rainier. Last year in the early season our summit bid was canceled due to high avalanche danger above Disappointment Cleaver. Along with one climbing member from that trip, we were eight of us joined together to reach the summit via Emmons Glacier on the Northeast side of the mountain. Day 1 July 14: Travel from NY JFK to Sea-Tac Airport in Washington. My flight was delayed…
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