Back Home!

We've been in a big rush getting back home, and I haven't been able to update for awhile, as I have not had internet access. We woke up this morning at 16,000 feet in a village called Lobuche, and this evening my dad and I arrived back at sea-level in Long Beach! The rest of the team are celebrating in Kathmandu-- my dad and I skipped out on the celebration to make it back in time for my brother Ted's college graduation in New York.
The day after we summitted, we came down from the South Col (camp 4) to camp 2. I was very tired at that point, but glad that we had all made it back safely lower on the mountain. It was amazing how after being to almost 30,000 feet, 20,000-foot camp 2 felt like it was nearly at sea-level!
The day after that, we came back down to base camp, where we received lots of warm hugs and congratulations. We only had one night back at base camp, as the next day (the 20th), we packed up our bags and headed down the valley. Base camp had a strange, empty feeling-- it was sad to leave my little tent that had been my home for the past 2 months!
My dad, Doug, Wim, and I were hoping to get a helicopter out of Lobuche on the 21st to save a little time, but Victor and James decided to walk down to the Lukla airstrip to fly out to Kathmandu on the 23rd. However, even though we awoke on the 21st to a beautiful, clear day in Lobuche, apparently there were clouds lower down the valley, so the helicopter couldn't fly in until the 23rd either. It was kind of hard waiting those two days in Lobuche. We were just an hour away from a hot shower and a big meal, if only those clouds would clear!
Once the helicopter landed in Kathmandu, I was greeted by a mob of journalists and cameramen. I was so surprised! I thought maybe my story would be in the LA paper, but I didn't expect this!
After a shower and a short interview, my dad, Bo, and I said goodbye to Doug, Wim, Omar (who is the first Egyptian to scale Mt. Everest!), and Greg (who is the 11th? South African) and went back to the Kathmandu airport. After nearly 20 hours of travel, my dad and I landed at LAX and were greeted by my family, and some more news people. Now we only have a few hours before we jump back on a plane to go to New York! I am very excited to see my mom and brother though.


Thank you everyone for all of your wonderful comments and your support!!! I will write more about our summit push and what it felt like to summit Mt. Everest when I have a bit more time.

Summit!

We made it to the top! Now all we have to do is get back down...

Camp 2

We finally started our summit push yesterday, making our way from base camp to camp two. We don't have internet access up here, but we were able to relay this information to our correspondents in New York via sattelite phone. We're taking a rest day today, and plan to press on tomorrow. If all goes well, we should summit on the 17th.

Still at Base Camp

It looks like we're going to be able to go up soon for our summit attempt. Fingers crossed!

We've gotten our oxygen masks and tested them out. I was able to get my oxygen saturation back up to 100% this morning! After I turned off the oxygen, I only had a few seconds of being at pseudo sea-level before it went back down, though.

We're all getting a little restless hanging around base camp. We've played many games of "Quiddler".

Base Camp

We're still at base camp. Hopfully we'll be able to go up soon though.

We’ve tried to hold on to our fitness these past few days by doing some sort of activity each day. We’ve been ice climbing in a really neat cave near base camp, and we’ve also been on hikes up Pumori to Pumori base camp, and then up to camp one. Pumori is a 7145-meter mountain near Everest.

Back from Holiday

We're back at base camp from our little holiday down the mountain. We went down to Pangboche, where we stayed at the Sonam Lodge for four nights. This lodge is owned by a Sherpa named Germin who came to the summit of Cho Oyu with us last fall. While we were there, I think we watched a total of 15 DVDs, many of which managed to rank negative points on Wim's 1-10 scale. However, we also went down to Tengboche one day for lunch, where we actually got into some trees. It was so nice to walk through trees after we hadn't seen any for a few weeks. We also paid another visit to Lama Geshe.
After Pangboche, we stayed a night in Dukhla, and then two nights in Gorak Shep.
Now that we are back in base camp, we are just waiting till we can go for our summit attempt. The ropes are not yet fixed to the summit. Once the ropes are fixed, we hope there will soon be a good weather window.