Starting late last week, singer, activist and actress Mandy Moore took to Instagram to announce that she was hiking part of Mount Everest in a trip that had already changed her "soul ... forever."
The excursion was part of an Everest viewing trek with Melissa Reid, the first American woman to ascend and descend Everest without oxygen, as her group's guide.
"I went into this Everest viewing trek relatively blind," she wrote last week, adding that her eyes were wide open now. "Not unprepared, mind you...but I wanted to venture forward into the unknown with an open mind and heart and as free of expectations as possible."
"Once we arrived in Kathmandu and had our de-brief about what the next 10 days of our life we’re going to look like, it became abundantly clear that this experience was going to be one of physical discomfort, personal challenge AND fundamental spiritual growth. Sign me up," she added.
This season has been one of the deadliest in the stories history of explorers climbing Mount Everest, with 11 deaths thus far.
A record number of permits were granted by Nepal this year and inexperience of climbers have been two reasons experts have pointed to for the rising numbers of deaths.
Over the weekend, Moore reached base camp and rejoiced, while also describing the struggles of such a feat.
"There is so much magic in these mountains," she wrote Saturday. "They represent adventure in the grandest form and in a language all their own. Traversing this terrain has its challenges. Breathing at altitude, for instance, is not easy. One of the greatest gifts/lessons that Melissa simultaneously bestowed on us during this trek was the fine art of pressure breathing."
The "This Is Us" star, 35, added that this feat is something she'll carry always, especially back in the states, if she's having a rough day.
"Besides hydration and staying nourished, breathing is THE vital key in the fight against altitude sickness," she wrote. "It’s also a major takeaway that I will be employing back to the real world whether I’m in the midst of a tough workout or a weird day. Mind blown."
Moore also opened up about the emotion of such an accomplishment, something so few people have experienced.
"It’s impossible to be lucky enough to arrive at the foot of these mammoth peaks and not be attuned to the palpable energy of all of those who came before and lost their lives in these mountains," she wrote. "The wave of emotion: respect, reverence, appreciation....that washed over us as we took in the prayer flags and yellow domed tents of base camp AND sat on the rocks regarding the chortens that dot the hillside of the Tukla Pass the day before, profoundly."
Finally, she followed up her base camp announcement with a lengthy, thoughtful post a few hours later trying to sum up the trip.
"There’s no way to encapsulate what coursed through our veins and brains living in the mountains this past week," she began in Sunday's post. "It will come in time. I think I’m slowly learning that I feel most like me when I’m outdoors. It’s couldn’t be any more outside my every day realm."
But she also talked about how this trip inspired her to try other things that may have scared her in the past.
"I dug deep while in the midst of all of those pressure breaths and made a mental list of things that scared me but I was anxious to tackle," she added.
