Craig Barlow lives in the OC and made the summit of Mt. Everest on May 22, 2016 at 5:15 AM.
You might have seen his name in some of the SoCal registers. He is on his way back to the states and promises a full trip report. His summit team consisted of 7 climbers and 11 sherpas.
2016 IMG Everest Summit Team 2
1 Christian Geb Muller Zou GERMANY
2 Darren Vincent Rogers USA
3 Alan Jacob Keller CANADA
4 Craig Alan Barlow USA <--------
5 Barton Lynn Williams USA
6 Marin Minamiya JAPAN
7 Enrico Cambini ITALY
8 Kanchha Nuru Sherpa NEPAL
9 Mingma Sona Sherpa NEPAL
10 Pasang Nima Sherpa NEPAL
11 Chhewang Lendu Sherpa NEPAL
12 Pasang Kami Sherpa NEPAL
13 Phu Tasi Sherpa NEPAL
14 Ang Pemba Sherpa NEPAL
15 Ila Nuru Sherpa NEPAL
16 Namgel Dorjee Tamang NEPAL
17 Pemba Tshering Sherpa NEPAL
18 Karma Gyalzen Sherpa NEPAL
He posted a long report on Facebook. I've copied it here for people wise enough to avoid Facebook.
There I was…about to die…
OK, well, nothing that dramatic ever happened, but let’s start at the beginning. I flew from LAX to Kathmandu on March 27-28, 2016 with stopovers in both Hong Kong and Dhaka, Bangladesh, in a marathon flight that took nearly 36 hours with all of the time changes. After buying my 90-day Nepali visa for $100, I was picked up at the airport in Kathmandu (“KTM”) by Mohan who drove me to the Hotel Tibet at nearly midnight. I was exhausted, but my body had no idea what time zone it was in, so it was actually tough to sleep. I eventually drifted off for a few hours, but was up at 7am to organize my gear a little before breakfast and our first team meeting at 9. It was good to finally meet the people I would be spending the next two months with, and everyone was very friendly.
Our expedition leader, Greg Vernovage, had everyone introduce themselves, then went over some general information for the trip and what we would be doing for the day. After the meeting, Johnathan Schrock, our Team 2 guide, did my gear check. After some more gear organizing, our whole team went out in the city to purchase SIM cards for our phones. Like many others, I bought a cheap burner phone for $30 that was supposed to work better up in the hills and at base camp. I wandered around the tourist/shopping area known as Thamel for a little while and bought some leather gloves at the Mountain Hardwear store, but there wasn’t too much time since we had to have our duffel bags ready for pickup by 3pm. Later that night at the hotel, we had a welcome dinner where we all sat around and got to know each other better.
We were up early the next day and leaving the hotel for the airport at 4:45am. We were on the first flight to Lukla (9,300’), where we would start our trek, but as we were en route, clouds moved in so we had to divert to a small airstrip in the mountain town of Phaplu. We waited there for about 45 minutes until Lukla cleared, then took off again and made the final 10 minute flight to the reportedly “most dangerous airport in the world.” Our landing was uneventful and we were soon in a teahouse there waiting for the rest of our group that was slightly behind on another flight. After an hour or so, we started trekking. The day’s hike was actually a net loss of 800 feet down to the village of Phakding (8,500’). The total hiking time was only around 3 hours and we stopped for lunch of fried rice and potatoes at a teahouse along the way. This was the typical lunch we would eat nearly every day of the trek and it was actually quite tasty especially with a spicy chili sauce known as Khursani that we would generously smother it with. We had some light rain for the last hour of the trek, but it wasn’t enough to really get us wet. When we arrived at the teahouse in Phakding, we had some tea (surprise!) and generally relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We were able to order dinner off the menus in the teahouses during the trek, so there was some variety. I had meat mo-mos which are basically dumplings, and they were pretty good. Everyone was in bed early, but many of us struggled to sleep since we were still pretty jet lagged.
It rained for much of the night, but was clearing as we started our trek to Namche in the morning. The terrain today was rolling hills, nothing too steep, and we went at a fairly slow pace. However, after lunch it got much steeper as we climbed a long hill into the Sherpa capital of Namche (11,500’). We checked into our rooms at the teahouse there and like yesterday, rested for much of the afternoon. Then, after yak curry and rice for dinner, we were off to bed early again around 7:30.
Friday, April 1st, was a rest day in Namche and I was able to call Danielle for the first time on my burner phone. After an awesome breakfast of hash browns and fried egg, the whole group went for an acclimatization hike up about 1,000’ feet to the Everest View Hotel. We had our first views of Everest, Lhotse, and Ama Dablam along the hike, although some clouds moved in soon after. We walked to the town of Khumjung for lunch at a teahouse there, then back to Namche in the afternoon. A few of us went to a nearby bakery in town, where we ran into Ueli Steck, possibly the most famous mountaineer in the world today. We debated for awhile whether it was actually him or not, then Stefan, who is also Swiss like Ueli, went over and talked to him and we all got a picture. It turns out he was acclimatizing in the Khumbu region before climbing another nearby 8,000 meter peak, Shishapangma. We also saw Melissa Arnot there, who would soon become the first American woman to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen, but we didn’t talk to her. Fan boy moment over. After dinner back at our teahouse, we watched “Fury” on Justin’s laptop, then went to bed around 10:15.
We had one more rest day in Namche on Saturday, so we spent some time exploring the town. We walked around the weekly bazaar, where people from all over the region come to buy, sell, and trade their goods. I bought a towel for showering at base camp, and another buff, since it was apparent that the one I had was going to get dirty pretty quickly. I got my first shower today at the teahouse which was nice, then a few of us sat around playing cards for much of the afternoon. I had pizza for dinner, which was decent, then headed to bed early.
Walking again today! We started trekking towards Tengboche (12,600’) at 8am. There wasn’t much elevation gain to begin with as we contoured along the slope high above the Dudh Kosi River. Eventually, we descended a little towards the river, then made a steep climb up the other side to Tengboche. This very small village is home to a large monastery (as seen in the Eddie Murphy movie, “The Golden Child”), and not much else besides our teahouse and a bakery. After our arrival, a few of us walked over to the bakery where we had a massive slice of apple pie that was nearly 4” thick. We played cards again in the afternoon to pass some time, but we got yelled at by an angry Russian (is there any other kind?) because we were being too loud. At first we thought he wanted to play with us, but then we realized he was actually mad which made us laugh even more. Whatever, comrade, it’s 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Relax. More mo-mos for dinner, but ate way too much and didn’t feel great, but was better by the morning.
Monday, April 4th was another rest day. There’s not much to do in Tengboche, so we went for an acclimatization hike up a nearby ridgeline to get some views. After lunch at the teahouse, we went over to the monastery to watch the monks chant. They all seemed pretty bored and we agreed they were phoning it in for our benefit. More card playing (this time a little quieter, but not much) afterwards, then some fried noodles and Tengboche’s world famous apple pie for dessert. Really dreary weather today which seemed to make everyone sleepy all day.
After a rest day yesterday, we packed up and moved on to the town on Pheriche (14,000’) today. Along the way, we stopped for about an hour in Pangboche for a ceremony where we were blessed by the Lama Geshe. It got a little colder after lunch, but we made it to Pheriche around 1:15pm. We got settled in our teahouse room and were surprised to find out we had our own bathroom. We just had to ignore the fact that the toilet would randomly start running during the night and flood the room. Oh well, at least we didn’t wake up with a mouse in our sleeping bag like one of the climbers on the Hybrid team. Playing cards was on the agenda in the afternoon again to pass the time.
Like we had in the previous towns, we took a rest day in Pheriche, and went for an acclimatization hike during the morning. This time, we hiked over a ridgeline to the neighboring town of Dingboche, and had lunch in a very nice, brand new, teahouse owned by Phu Tashi’s (our lead trekking Sherpa) son. It was great. In the afternoon, we returned to our teahouse in Pheriche where we listened to a talk from a representative from the local Himalayan Rescue Association (“HRA”) clinic in town. She gave us a crash course in altitude related illness including Acute Mountain Sickness (“AMS”), High Altitude Cerebral Edema (“HACE”), and High Altitude Pulmonary Edema, (“HAPE”), and the various methods and drugs used to treat each. She also gave us some signs to look out for so we would be able to recognize these in others. Russell Brice’s HIMEX team also came by and sat in on the lecture. I bought a t-shirt afterwards to support the HRA, but the XL size must be for Sherpa only because as soon as I washed it, it would only fit on a doll. Guess what? We played cards again the afternoon to pass the time until dinner.
Thursday, April 7th - Well, that was it for the civilized part of the trip as that was our last night indoors. From now on, we would sleep in tents. Today we headed for Lobuche Base Camp (15,800’). The hike wasn’t too long at just over 3 hours, but I started to feel the elevation today. We got settled into our tents after we arrived, then went over to the dining tent for lunch. After lunch, we mostly just rested in our tents for the rest of the afternoon. There was tea and snacks at 3pm in the dining tent, but that was just a break from napping. After an awesome dinner of fried chicken, rice, and potatoes (this would pretty much become the standard dinner for the next month and a half), we watched the first episode of Spartacus on Justin’s laptop in the dining tent. It was pretty chilly after the sun went down, but it gave us something to do before heading off to bed.
We went for an acclimatization hike today up to Lobuche High Camp (16,700’). Christian, Alan, Justin, and I set a pretty quick pace making the hike in around 40 minutes. It was probably faster than we should have gone, but it was good to really get our heart rates up. There was more relaxing, eating, movie watching, and reading for the rest of the day after we returned to Lobuche BC.
Saturday, April 9th - Another rest day at Lobuche Base Camp today. We went for a short 45 minute hike to the town of Dzongla today near the base of Cho La Pass. Bought some snacks there and was also able to get internet access. We hung around for an hour or so, then headed back to Lobuche BC. In the afternoon, we passed the time watching and participating in the “Sherpa Olympics.” This basically consisted of lifting heavy gas tanks, pushups, calisthenics, and trying to throw potatoes into a Pringles can. Betting was involved in this last event, and I am proud to say I retired as the reigning Western Champion. We had water buffalo steak with mashed potatoes and pasta for dinner, then the Sherpa cook team made us a good luck cake for our hike to Everest Base Camp tomorrow. We finished off the day by watching the cinematic classic, “Pitch Perfect” in the dining tent before heading off to bed.
Big day today as we finally made it to Everest Base Camp (17,300’) on our 12th day since beginning the trek. It was a pretty slow, steady climb with nothing too steep. We were greeted in the dining tent with some ramen and tons of snacks. After resting for a bit, we all went out to claim our tents. It was nice to have our own tents at base camp so we could spread out all of our gear and have some personal space. I had a little bit of a headache, but it was gone by morning with a little ibuprofen. Everybody was pretty tired, so we all headed to bed pretty early after a dinner of water buffalo, potatoes, and cauliflower.
Today, Monday, April 11th was our first rest day at Everest Base Camp (“EBC”). We had a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast, and bacon in what would be a typical EBC breakfast for the remainder of our stay there. After eating, we all got together to rig our harnesses the way that IMG and the guides wanted them. After lunch, I got my first shower at EBC. We had two small shower tents set up that were gravity fed by water tanks on the top of a hill. Each shower had a small gas heater that would warm up the water to be plenty hot enough. The rest of the day was spent resting and watching a few more episodes of Spartacus. I also bought an Internet “scratch card” for use at EBC. The internet was fairly reliable when the weather was good, just not exactly the speed we’re used to at home. The card I bought was for 1GB of data for $50. You would scratch off the card like a lottery ticket which would reveal your ID and password which would be valid until you used up your data allotment. I ended up buying one more $50 card later in the trip and that was sufficient for all of my Facebooking needs for my time at EBC.
April 12th was another “rest day” at EBC, but today we had a ropes course set up by the guides and Sherpa so that we could practice using our ascenders, get used to the steep slopes, and practice rappelling (both arm-wrap and regular). The course was set up about a 5 minute walk from our camp on the non-rock-covered part of the Khumbu Glacier. There really was no snow here to soften the slopes, just bullet-proof ice that we had to climb and descend. We all ran through the course several times practicing our skills and getting more comfortable with our setups. We spent the afternoon resting and packing for our trek back to Lobuche BC the next day so that we could climb that peak. We also watched “Meru” in the charging tent with many of the Sherpa which was a fantastic movie about the many failed attempts and first successful climb of that peak by Conrad Anker and team.
Today we hiked back down to Lobuche Base Camp (15,800’). We said goodbye to Elizabeth, Steve, and Jenna today who were only with us for the trek to EBC and were heading back to Lukla to finish their trip. Mary also left us today to continue her trek over Cho La Pass. We were all sad to see them go. It snowed a bit in the afternoon, so we all just relaxed in our tents for the day. Dinner in the dining tent of stew, rice, potatoes, and veggies. Pretty much the standard meal.
We hiked up to Lobuche High Camp (16,700’) today in preparation for our summit attempt on Lobuche East tomorrow. It was a short hike of under an hour, but it started to snow again just after we reached camp so we were pretty much tent-bound for the afternoon. The cook team brought us ramen and snacks right to our individual tents since there is no dining tent at high camp. We were all asleep early since we’re getting up at 3am for our climb tomorrow.
We started hiking at 4am this morning towards Lobuche East Peak. It had snowed an inch or so overnight, making the rocks treacherously slippery, but the weather while we were hiking was perfect. It wasn’t cold, so we were all in just a couple of layers even before the sun came up. We put on crampons after three hours of climbing when we got to the steep snow at the bottom of the fixed lines. The snow here was hard and icy and there wasn’t much in the way of steps kicked into the route. It was a tiring climb, but I made it to the top of the fixed lines around 8:45am. We had great views all around, especially back towards Mt. Everest and EBC. The top of our climb was probably 400 feet or so below the true summit of Lobuche East, but since we were just there for acclimatization and practice, we didn’t bother going all the way to the summit. I did some arm wrap rappelling and regular rappelling on the fixed lines on the descent, then hiked back to high camp on dry rock as the new snow from overnight had mostly melted. We took a break at high camp for some soup and drinks, then headed down the rest of the way back to Lobuche Base Camp. We had dinner there and another cake for reaching the summit, then headed to bed early.
We hiked back to EBC (17,300’) today, Saturday, April 16th. Since we had already been this way, there wasn’t too much in the way of surprises. We all got moved back into our tents and rested and relaxed for the remainder of the day.
Sunday, April 17th was a true rest day. No acclimatization hikes, no skills practice, nothing on the agenda. I had time to take a shower, and turn in my laundry to get it done. The kitchen staff charged $10 for a grocery bag full of clothes that they would wash in a basin, then wring dry, and hang on a clothesline. I also got my phone and camera batteries charged up on the car batteries in the charging tent. This was all solar powered and worked pretty well most of the time. We had some snow and sleet in the afternoon, but I was done with all of my chores by that time and it made for good weather to relax in the tent.
Monday, April 18th was also a rest day at EBC, but we did get out to practice crossing ladders for the first time. Again, the guides and Sherpa set up a course near camp for us to practice both horizontal and vertical ladders to see how our crampons would fit in between the rungs. It was actually easier than it looked and everyone did well. After some more rest in the afternoon, we were each assigned our personal Sherpas for the climb. Chhewang Lendu Sherpa was assigned to me. We met and talked for a few minutes and he looked over my gear for our dry run up the Khumbu Icefall in the morning. Again, we were all in bed early awaiting a 2:30am wake up call for our first foray onto Mt. Everest proper.
We were all walking by 4am today after breakfast. It took a half hour or so of trail walking to get to crampon point at the base of the Icefall. From there, the route was relatively flat for 15 minutes or so, then abruptly got steep as we connected to the fixed lines and started climbing up. The Icefall is a jumble of huge ice blocks and is generally considered the part of the climb with the most objective danger of avalanche, collapsing ice, and rockfall. For the dry run, we went about halfway up to get some practice, then turned around and headed back to EBC. I thought it was totally awesome to finally get some climbing in, and pretty much had a blast the whole time. There was occasionally some traffic at choke points near the ladders and steeper sections, but it wasn’t too bad. It was also a little windy which kept the temperature down. I was back to camp by 8:30am. The rest of the morning was spent napping in the tent, then in the afternoon, we watched “The Martian” from a projector on the inside wall of the charging tent.
Wednesday, April 20th – My Birthday! This was a rest day at EBC, but we still had things to do. We were each given a rice sack to fill up with gear (20lbs or so) that we would need at Camp 1 and above which was to be carried by porters to the higher camps. This included my second sleeping bag (we each had two, one to leave at EBC, and one for the higher camps so we didn’t have to keep transporting them back and forth through the Icefall), my down suit, and other cold weather gear. We were also given access to the “Costco Tent” where they kept tons of snacks and other food that we could select for meals on the upper mountain. We packed that food up in our rice sacks as well for transport. The cook team made a cake for my birthday for dessert and Ramin also managed to find a beer for me! The moon was nearly full tonight, and made for some great pictures over Everest from EBC.
This was our last rest day before beginning our first rotation tomorrow. We had a puja ceremony performed by the Sherpa today where we gathered all of our climbing gear and brought it over to the altar to be blessed. Afterwards, we threw rice in the air, were doused with flour, and drank some Chang - basically Sherpa moonshine. I got one final shower in before our climb and went to bed early for our 1:30am wake up tomorrow.
Friday, April 22nd - Today began our first rotation up to Camp 2 on Mt. Everest. Chhewang and I were walking by 3am towards the Icefall. We made decent time and arrived at Camp 1 (20,000’) by 7:30am. Already done with the work for the day, I got set up in my tent and started resting. It got pretty warm in the tents when the sun started to hit them, so we all got our foam pads and sat around outside talking. We snacked, re-hydrated, and rested for several hours until it started to get cold and windy, then we went inside the tents to take a nap. The Sherpa brought us our selected MREs from the Costco Tent which we ate, then pretty much went to bed before it even got dark. We were all pretty tired.
I woke up feeling terrible this morning. I was dizzy, had a headache, and it felt like I was getting a cold on top of that. Most of the group went for an acclimatization hike up towards Camp 2 at around 9:30, but I didn’t feel like doing anything so I just laid in the tent. Johnny forced me to go for a 15 minute walk around camp at around 1pm, but it didn’t make me feel any better, and I just went back to laying around. I didn’t eat anything all day, which I’m sure didn’t help, but I didn’t feel up to doing anything. All I did was sleep on and off for the entire day.
Sunday, April 24th – We woke up at 6am today to make our move up to Camp 2 (21,500’). I didn’t feel much better, but we had to move, so I got up and slowly got packed up and ready to go. The route starts out by going up and down through many crevasses and rolling snow covered hills. In my weakened state, the vertical uphill sections on the fixed lines almost killed me. I had no energy, and could barely make it to the top of each section before taking a long break. After an hour and a half of that, the route finally relents and is a very gentle uphill slope the rest of the way up the Western Cwm (Welsh word for valley, pronounced ‘koom’) to Camp 2. Even though it’s not very steep, it’s still at 21,000 feet and not easy. I was stopping every 5 minutes to catch my breath and it felt like it was taking forever to get to camp. Of course, IMG’s camp is at the far end of most of the tents, which I didn’t know at the time and it seemed like my torture was never going to end. I finally reached camp after the longest 3.75 hours of my life. I drank a few cups of juice in the dining tent, then immediately went outside and threw up. Great. It actually made me feel a little better though. After that, I found my tent and pretty much collapsed there for the rest of the day. I had a major headache at this point and my chest was on fire. I was able to choke down a few bites of dinner, but that was it. I went back to the tent and crashed hard.
Like the last two days, I woke up again with no energy. I went to breakfast in the dining tent, but couldn’t eat anything. Again, most of the group went for an acclimatization hike up towards the base of the Lhotse Face along the route to Camp 3, but I couldn’t get up the energy to do it. It was hard to even stay hydrated at this point since even water tasted terrible to me. I was really suffering and just wanted it to be over. I slept for much of the day in the tent, managed to drag myself to dinner, but again couldn’t eat. I just wanted to go back down to EBC.
We woke up early (3:45am) to head back down to EBC today. We started walking at 5:30 and it took until 10am to make it all the way back to EBC. I was totally drained when I got there, but I was happy to be back in my own tent and able to rest. I skipped lunch since I had no appetite, but was able to get myself to the shower around 1:30pm. That made me feel a little better, but I still just napped all afternoon. We had a nice dinner at 6pm in the dining tent and I was starting to feel a little better where I could actually eat a few bites of food. We also had another cake for dessert for Richard’s birthday who had just turned 47.
I slept much better but I officially had a cold at this point. I was able to eat most of my breakfast, but I still didn’t feel right. After breakfast, I talked with Emily, one of the guides with the Hybrid Team who is also an ER Doctor specializing in high altitude medicine, and Greg & Jangbu. Emily thought I had an upper respiratory infection, but that I would be able to recover at EBC without going down to Pheriche or somewhere lower. Greg reassured me that we had plenty of time left in the trip, and not to worry. He said he was sure I would recover and be just fine. That made me feel better. It’s stressful to get sick up there and feel that bad knowing how much you have invested in the trip. But, he was right and I did recover over the coming days before our next rotation up to Camp 3.
Today, Thursday, April 28, was a rest day at EBC. In the afternoon, we had our training on how to use the oxygen masks and tanks. For the most part it’s pretty simple, but I can see how it might be difficult up high when you’re kind of out of it and trying to remember the sequence of getting everything hooked up.
Friday, April 29th – Sunday, May 1st – More rest days at EBC. Not much happened here, we were just reading, watching movies, and resting to pass the time. We went to the Costco Tent to replenish our snack foods for the upper mountain, and basically got ready for our 2nd rotation to begin on 5/2.
Monday, May 2nd – We started walking at 3:30am today up from EBC to Camp 1 (20,000’) to start our 2nd rotation. We always start in the dark going through the Icefall to make sure we are completely through it by the time the sun starts to light it up and it becomes more unstable. I’m pretty much recovered from my illness at this point and feeling strong. It took 4.5 hours again to get to Camp 1, same as last time, but it felt easier this time. Again, sat around and re-hydrated at Camp 1 and generally rested for the afternoon. I took 125mg of Diamox this time to hopefully avoid getting sick again (although I don’t know that my last sickness was completely altitude related), but it couldn’t hurt. I felt good all afternoon and had normal appetite for dinner, which was just some pre-cooked ramen in our tent. Camp 1 is pretty bare bones. There are just our sleeping tents and a bucket for going #2. There is no dining tent or any luxuries at all, so we spend as little time here as possible. Justin and I watched a couple episodes of Spartacus on his phone in the tent before bed to pass the time, but were still asleep by 7pm.
Tuesday, May 3rd – No rest day on this rotation, so we got up and were heading for Camp 2 (21,500’) by 7am. Since I was feeling better this time, I beat my previous time to Camp 2 by well over an hour arriving by 9:30am. I sat in the dining tent there for awhile, coughing like crazy for about 15 minutes, but I eventually felt fine. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and packing up the rice bag with items that we were going to leave at Camp 2 and not bring up to Camp 3 (not too much stuff).
Wednesday, May 4th – We got started up towards Camp 3 (24,000’) at 5:00am. The beginning of the climb isn’t too steep as you leave camp, but as soon as you hit the Lhotse Face, it starts gaining elevation fast. The fixed lines start at the base of the face and once you are there, the slope doesn’t relent all the way to camp. It was icy in places, with not much in the way of steps kicked in this early in the season. We started out in our down suits, but that was overkill, and I knew it was a mistake pretty early on. But, I managed to stick it out, finally taking off the top half and tying it around my waist when we reached Lower Camp 3. There really is nothing flat on the Lhotse Face, so any tent platforms have to be manually chopped out of the slope to make them usable. We reached Lower Camp 3 after about 4.5 hours. This is where the majority of the teams make their camp, but of course IMG’s camp is about 500’ higher up the face. I was pretty tired when I got to camp, but there is not much else to do there besides relax and recover, so that’s what I did. Much like Camp 1, Camp 3 is bare bones. There is no dining tent, just our sleeping tents and a bucket. Oh, and watch your step. If you trip over a tent guy line or stake, you will very quickly find yourself in the bergschrund 2,500’ below. We generally snacked on our Costco Tent food, then had ramen for dinner and were asleep before it got dark. For my first night at 24,000 feet, I slept as well as could be expected, but I wouldn’t call it a restful night.
Thursday, May 5th – We were up at first light for our descent back to Camp 2. The night at Camp 3 was good for just a taste of high altitude, but I was glad to not have to stay any longer. The descent using a combination of arm wrap rappels, regular rappels, and hand over hand descending went quickly and we were back at Camp 2 in just 1.75 hours. We ate some breakfast when we arrived, then napped in the tents for the rest of the morning. We had lunch in the dining tent, then got organized for our descent back to EBC the following day. Dinner was early at 5:30 so we could get to bed and rest for our hike tomorrow.
Friday, May 6th – We were walking back towards EBC just before 5am. Since I was feeling good, it went much quicker and I was back by 8:10am for a time of just 3:20. And I wasn’t totally exhausted when I got back. It’s so much better to be healthy! I had a shower a little while later which felt great, then spent most of the rest of the day relaxing and reading in the tent. There was another IMG trekking group in camp, but we mostly avoided them like the plague just in case any of them were sick. We were very unsociable.
Saturday, May 7th – Saturday, May 14th – The wait. With all of our acclimatization rotations done, there was nothing left to do but wait for a good weather window to go for the summit. This was one of the toughest stretches of the whole trip. There was a great amount of uncertainty (and rumors) as to when the weather was going to be good, when we would be leaving, and what other teams were doing. I mostly tried to ignore all of it and just focus on relaxing and passing the time. I knew we would get our shot at some point, and there was no reason to get too worked up about the details. I trusted that our leaders would make good decisions and would put us in the best possible position to succeed. We would get weather updates each day, but the different forecasts seemed to conflict with each other, and seemed to change drastically on a daily basis. We were mostly looking for a window of a few days with low winds and not a tremendous amount of precipitation. To pass the time, besides napping and reading, we would occasionally go for hikes to nearby highpoints, and we even got out for some ice climbing on the glacier near camp. Everyone was really starting to get antsy and nerves were getting more frayed when we were all called into the dining tent at 5pm on Saturday 5/14. We knew it had to be good news. We were told that we were being split into two groups and that both would be leaving for the summit early the next morning. I was in the first group with a start time of 3am the next day. Our target summit date was 5/18 which meant there would be no rest days between EBC and the summit (there was supposed to be one at Camp 2). Everyone in our group felt strong and thought it was doable.
Sunday, May 15th – We started at 3am bound for Camp 2 (21,500’). Due to our tight schedule, there was no stopping at Camp 1. Everything went well and I was feeling good all the way to Camp 2. It took 7:20 to get there at a fairly leisurely pace. I was a little worried because Chhewang seemed like he was struggling above Camp 1 and kept stopping to catch his breath. Then I learned he had just walked back from home in Phortse the day before after all the Sherpa were suddenly summoned back to EBC for our summit bid. I knew he would rebound quickly, and by the next day’s climb to Camp 3, he was back to waiting for me looking like it was a walk in the park. We rested and recovered for the rest of the day at Camp 2, then got ready for the climb to Camp 3 the next day.
Monday, May 16th – We were walking just after 6am today, headed for Camp 3 (24,000’). Even though the Sherpa were carrying our sleeping bags and pads as usual, my pack was heavy with my down suit, other cold weather gear, food for the next several days, oxygen mask, and regulator. We made great time up the Lhotse Face in 4:40, which was over an hour faster than last time. It was probably a bit too fast as I was pretty tired when we got to camp. I coughed quite a bit, but felt better soon after. As soon as we got to camp, we started on oxygen. This was the first time we had used it and we were to share a tank with our tentmate at 1 liter per minute (“lpm”). So, since we were sharing, it was only 0.5 lpm. I didn’t feel like it made that much of a difference for recovery, but it was better than nothing. We rested and recovered all afternoon and had some ramen for dinner. It started to get quite windy late in the afternoon and would continue all night.
Tuesday, May 17th - The plan was to leave Camp 3 at 8am to head for Camp 4. But, when we were ready to go, it was too windy to go anywhere. We laid in the tent for hours waiting for some slowdown in the wind speeds, but it never came. On top of that it started to snow and conditions seemed to get worse and worse. Some groups had tried to go up, but all got turned around. We also had a Sherpa team at Camp 4 trying to get tents set up, but they reported it impossible with the 70mph winds there. It was really cold in our tents and our sleeping bags were already packed up and ready to go. Both mine and Justin’s feet were getting really cold, so we took off our boots and warmed them in each other’s down suits. Note that there is nothing wrong with this above 23,000 feet. Finally around 1pm, it was decided that we could not go up that day, so we got our sleeping bags and pads re-setup. We thought that we might have to go back down to Camp 2 if things got any worse, but things were improving by our 4pm decision time, and it seemed like we were resigned to spend another night at Camp 3 and try again to go up the next morning. Just as we were getting settled back in, a decision was made from on high that we would have to descend back to Camp 2 immediately due to avalanche concerns from wind loading and the new snow. We were all devastated. It seemed at that time that the storm was nearly over and the sun was starting come out. The thought of being so close to going for the summit, to having to descend 2,500’ feet was a punch right to the gut. I don’t think any of us thought that was the end of our summit bid, but I have never been so demoralized as I was at that point. We packed up as quickly as we could and headed down arriving back at Camp 2 just as we would need to start pulling out our headlamps. I didn’t feel great when we got back to camp and could hardly eat dinner. The moon was shining brightly at this point, and we could look back up to where we were and see nothing but perfect conditions. How could this be happening?!?!
Wednesday, May 18th – Friday, May 20th – Rest days at Camp 2. The other summit group left Camp 2 on Thursday to move to Camp 3 to start their summit bid. Due to tent capacity issues at Camp 4 at the South Col, we have to be at least two days behind them, so we wait. There’s not much to do at Camp 2, especially since we hadn’t planned for an extended stay here, so we pretty much just hung around and rested. On Friday, May 20th, I woke up with a cough and pressure in my chest, just like I had earlier during our first rotation. I was terrified that I was going to get sick and at this point, there was no time to recover. I didn’t say anything to anyone knowing that I would either have to suck it up or my trip was over. I had normal appetite throughout the day, but I was not able to get full breaths and I was definitely coughing more than I should have been.
Saturday, May 21st – The beginning of summit attempt #2! We were walking up towards Camp 3 (24,000’) by 5am. Since I was not feeling great, I was determined to take it slow and go at a pace at which I felt comfortable. However, I still made it to Camp 3 in 4:45 which was essentially the same pace as last time. I felt OK, but not great when I arrived. Like last time, I was splitting oxygen at 1 lpm with my tentmate, now John. We rested and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, this time with much better weather outside. There was a little bit of snow overnight, but nothing that was of any concern.
Sunday, May 22nd – We were up at 4:45am and walking up the steep slopes towards Camp 4 (26,000’) by 6:20. My chest was still hurting, but it was manageable, and nothing was going to stop me now. Our backpacks got a little heavier at this point since we were now carrying oxygen tanks that weigh somewhere around 16lbs. We were wearing our down suits now even though the weather was decent, but it was still cold. There was no warm up coming out of Camp 3; you’re immediately on the fixed lines going up very steeply. We crossed over the steep rocks of the Yellow Band, then traversed over to the Geneva Spur which had to be surmounted before getting to the South Col and Camp 4. We came across a large group descending as we were at the base of Geneva Spur that caused some delays as we waited for them to go by. We also passed our first of three very recently deceased climbers here. It was a sobering reminder to be vigilant to high altitude issues that can come on very quickly. I made it to Camp 4 by noon and climbed into a tent with John and Marin. Unfortunately, we are three to a tent here and I was in the middle with very little space. We spent the afternoon resting, rehydrating, and eating as much as possible before our summit bid was to start. It started to snow later in the afternoon, though there was little wind.
I didn’t sleep all afternoon or evening, but was getting prepared to leave for the summit by 7pm and walking around 8:15pm. Over the course of the afternoon, it had snowed nearly 6 inches which made for tedious climbing conditions. My oxygen flow rate was 3 lpm when I started climbing, after resting on 1 lpm all afternoon. At 3 lpm, a bottle of oxygen will last for 10 hours. We started up the Triangular Face out of camp, however we soon lost the way as the ropes were buried under snow. Several of our Sherpa were wandering around all over the place trying to find the route, but it took probably half an hour before the next rope was found. We were pretty much standing around getting cold during all of this. We passed another dead body about 2/3 of the way to The Balcony, which marks the halfway point between Camp 4 and the summit. We took our first break there after approximately 3.5 hours. I believe it was somewhere around midnight at this point, though I did not look at the time. We switched oxygen bottles here, so I had a fresh bottle (and therefore 10 hours) to return back to The Balcony where I would switch back to the original bottle. The route up to this point was steep, and even with the oxygen it was hard. Dealing with the chest cold didn’t help. Above The Balcony, the route follows the Southeast Ridge up to the South Summit, then the true summit (29,035’). There were several rock steps that had to be surmounted along the ridge that weren’t too difficult, but at that altitude, everything is a chore. I was definitely slowing down the higher we went, but I never had any thoughts of quitting.
I remember telling myself that the next 24 hours was going to be miserable, but once it was over, I would have a great accomplishment and memories to look back on. One more day of suffering, then it would all be over. The thought of coming back without having made the summit (especially after coming this far) was too much to bear, so I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I finally reached the top around 5:15am. The sun had just come up after a night of a nearly full moon and the views were amazing. I don’t know that I was really in a state to appreciate them fully, but I tried my best to take the whole moment in. Chhewang took some pictures of me and we took some together before starting our descent after only 15 minutes or so. We didn’t rush on the way down and I stopped to take some pictures of the route now that it was light out. Due to our weather delays, our group pretty much had the mountain to ourselves. We didn’t have any delays due to traffic on the ropes or any horror stories of having to wait for an hour to move 10 feet. I believe we were the last ones to summit from the Nepal side for the entire season. I made it back to Camp 4 around 8:30am and pretty much collapsed in the tent. We were told before we left for the summit that we could spend another night at Camp 4 if we wanted to even though it would be best to try to get all the way back to Camp 2.
I was pretty exhausted and looking forward to another night at Camp 4, but when we returned, we were told that a Sherpa team was on its way to break down the camp and we had no choice but to return to Camp 2. Ugh! I rested in the tent for a couple of hours, then got packed up to continue the descent. Somewhere during this time, I felt some tingling in my left big toe and took off my boot to take a look at it. It was turning purple and appeared to be frostbite. I talked with one of the guides who called down to Emily at EBC. She told me to immediately put my boot back on to prevent swelling and get down to Camp 2 ASAP. I didn’t really have any pain at that point since everything was numb. I started back down a little after 10am and made my way down slowly as to not make any stupid mistakes since I had been awake for almost 30 hours at this point. It was actually pretty warm on the descent and we were soon sweating. We stopped for several breaks to hydrate, but nothing tasted good to me and it was hard to eat or drink anything. When we got to Lower Camp 3, I had to stop to take off the down suit since I was sweating like crazy. That was a nice long break, and I could finally see light at the end of the tunnel that this day would be over soon. We made it back down to Camp 2 around 2:30pm. I was in no mood to eat, but I tried to drink as much as I could (which wasn’t much). After hanging around and debriefing with everyone else in camp, we finally went to bed around 6:30pm. I was totally exhausted but didn’t sleep to well. Emily had instructed me to sleep with my boot on and to surround it with hot water bottles all night inside my sleeping bag. My foot was definitely not cold!
Tuesday, May 24th – One more day of descending to get back to EBC. I was up at 4:15am to pack everything up for the final descent back to EBC. We started walking at 6am and I was moving pretty slowly due to my toe and yesterday’s exhaustion. We passed Camp 1, then made the final climb down through the Icefall. I rappelled everywhere I could to protect my toe as much as possible from slamming into the front of my boot, so the descent went slowly, but we finally made it back. I saw Greg and he gave me a huge hug of congratulations. I also had time to call Danielle. After drinking a few Cokes (this was one thing I was craving more than anything else), I went over and had Emily look at my toe. She rubbed some aloe on it and bandaged it up. It was determined that I would not be able to walk out of EBC back to Lukla, so I started packing up my duffel bags for a helicopter flight back to KTM. I got all packed up in an hour or so, but it was too foggy for any helicopter flights and we were resigned to spend one more night at EBC. I unpacked the essentials for spending the night and got my tent organized for one last time. I was able to eat some dinner to get a little energy back, but we were all in bed soon after. Once again, I slept with hot water bottles surrounding my foot, but at least I didn’t have to wear the boot while I slept.
Wednesday, May 25th - I was up early with the hope of a helicopter flight, but again it was foggy and overcast. However, it cleared pretty quickly, and by 7am we were waiting at the LZ hearing rotor blades in the distance. We were picked up soon after and before we knew it were back in Lukla after a scenic 15 minute flight. We changed helicopters here for the flight back to KTM and after another 50 minutes were landing back in the city. It was pretty surreal to have changed landscapes so quickly and be back in “civilization” so soon after being at EBC. We were driven back to the Hotel Tibet where we checked into our rooms, then I was driven over to the nearby Ciwec Medical Clinic to have my toe checked out. The nurses and doctor there soaked my foot in an iodine solution, then re-bandaged it and gave me a walking boot. They diagnosed it as being somewhere between a 2 – 3 on a scale of 5 of frostbite severity. There were no guarantees, but the doctor seemed hopeful that recovery was possible; however, it would take at least 6-8 weeks to know anything. I was released, then went back to the hotel to rest. I was told to walk as little as possible and to keep my foot elevated to reduce swelling. So, I was pretty much confined to my hotel room. I spent the rest of the day catching up on Facebook and eating, drinking, and resting.
Thursday, May 26th – Friday May 27th – These days were mostly spent hanging around Hotel Tibet in KTM. Each day, I made the short walk over to Ciwec to have my dressings changed, then headed back to the hotel to rest. I stopped at the grocery store and bought some snacks for my room, but that was about it. I wasn’t in any shape to go out sightseeing which was disappointing, so I passed the time on the internet and getting my bags re-packed for the flight home. I ran into several people from our expedition at the hotel and we talked and had dinner together. My flight left KTM at 11pm on 5/27 and everything went smoothly. We stopped in Dhaka again, then Hong Kong where I changed planes for the long 13 hour flight back to LAX. Danielle picked me up at the airport with a sign and balloons and my mom and Glenn were there too along with Danielle’s parents. It was great to see some familiar faces and be back home!
Final Thoughts – I’m thrilled to have summited the highest mountain in the world. I was gone nine weeks which was probably the hardest part. I was definitely prepared for the physical demands of the trip, but I think the mental and emotional parts were the hardest. It was probably the most difficult to be away from friends and family for that long, not to mention trying to stay focused on the task at hand while on the expedition. Especially towards the end where we could all see the light at the end of the tunnel, it was really hard to not have certainty of when we were going to go for the summit (if at all) and when this whole trip might be over. It was tough getting sick too and not knowing if you were ever going to recover. Those were probably the lowest points for me when you really had to question what you were doing and how badly you really wanted to be there. Anyway, I’m definitely glad I did it, but I don’t think I’ll ever sign on for another trip that long again. I know for a fact that it would bother me for the rest of my life if I didn’t make it, and I’m glad I don’t have to make the decision whether or not to try it again. It was a ton of work, but I also met lots of great people and I think we all really helped each other get through the tougher times. I can’t imagine trying to do something like that without the support of everyone on the expedition and at home. Thanks to everyone who supported me and sent good vibes, prayers, or whatever my way. I thought about that kind of stuff a lot and it helped get me through a long nine weeks. If you made it this far, thanks for reading this ridiculously long trip report, and I hope you enjoyed it!
Thanks for copying the report. Wow, that was long! I wish he had described more of the summit push than the early trekking and resting days. It's amazing how much energy he still had after getting sick and not eating or sleeping.
I think he was lucky he didn't lose his big toe to frostbite. He told me it took almost 3 months to fully recover.
I can't imagine waiting day after day for a summit bid, and not knowing if the prior months of prep and work would get you there. And the cost. It's just too much for me.
