MT. EVEREST SUMMIT – PICTURES

    General     cybercast, everest expedition, EXPEDITION

Back to Base Camp after Summit Robin on the Summit

Cristine on the Summit

Robin Rinji & Kami on the summit

Pemba on the Summit

Cristine climbing Lotshe Face Back to Base Camp

SUMMIT DAY, MAY 13th, 4am: WE MADE IT!!

    General     cybercast

Updates : from Base Camp

SUMMIT DAY, MAY 13th,   4am:  WE MADE IT!!

Well, how to put into words what we have just been through.  We have been safely back at base camp for 24 hours and it seems like only now are we realizing what we have truly accomplished. We feel very lucky to have summated AND returned safely to base camp without any complications or injuries as we are only finding out now the extent of some of the other teams injuries, tragedies, and disappointments.
Sooooo….
Our three sherpas (Pemba, Kame, Ringe), robin and I, anxiously left basecamp at 4am on May 10th to make our way all the way to camp 2, relieved to know that this was our last climb up through the khumbu icefall.  It was the usual strenuous climb through the icefall, with the added  relentless heat to camp 2, but this time a bout of nausea/vomiting/diarrhea kept me well occupied all the way to camp 2.  Luckily, everything resolved by the end of  the day and was fine to continue climbing but could not believe my timing of getting sick for my first time in my entire two months in Nepal!

We left early the following morning for camp 3 (7150m).  The first two hours are on steep terrain until you get to the Lhotse face where the really tough climbing begins.  The Lhotse face is a steep vertical climb, made even more difficult wearing our down suits and heavy packs are containing all our gear, sleeping bags, food for camp 3 and 4.  Camp 3 sits about halfway the Lhotse face and it is the last camp before you need to start using oxygen and in fact, many people choose to sleep at camp 3 with oxygen for the night depending on how they are feeling. We arrived completely exhausted, short of breath, and crawled into our tent for the night but did not feel we needed oxygen for the night. Camp 3 can be a very perilous place, the tent being fixed by ropes against the Lhotse face and just stepping out of the tent to go for a pee can be dangerous (we discovered a crevasse right next to our tent) and you need to be clipped in with your harness to a fixed rope.  Needless to say, Robin did not attempt to beat any of his previous peeing records at camp 3.

After a few hours of restless sleep, we headed for camp 4, called the south col.  We started using oxygen shortly after leaving camp 3 on the Lhotse face.  Using oxygen immediately makes you feel less lethargic, gives you a surge of energy, obviously improves your breathing, keeps you much warmer and gives you the strength to keep climbing.  Again, it was a very strenuous climb, very cold and windy against the Lhotse face, across a very steep and rocky section called the yellow band and up to the south  col.  We arrived at camp at around 3pm, and luckily we already had one tent set up (put up by the sherpas when they climbed the previous week to drop off the oxygen) because  it was impossible to set up our second tent in such high winds. So the five of us bundled up in our little three men tent,  rested as much as possible with oxygen to regain some strength, tried to eat chocolate bars, and basically watched our water come to a mild boil after 2 hours.

But already at 6pm, it was time to get ready for the summit push.  Every move such as putting your boots on requires a huge effort, and it takes very little time without oxygen that you begin craving for your oxygen mask.  After double checking our gear, Pemba and I were ready to head out by 730pm   and Robin, Kame and Ringe headed out one hour later.  It was a clear night, the winds had died down and we started to climb, being one of the first teams to head out that evening.  It is difficult to describe what goes on in your mind when you start the summit push.  For me, after months of over thinking this day, months of planning, researching, training, acclimatizing, 8 weeks since leaving home, 4 weeks at basecamp, what was my best strategy to climb to the summit for the next 12 hours?? Well it was to stop overthinking it, think of as little as possible and just physically climb.  Everest is also a big mental challenge and each person has to find what will mentally help them climb through the night, in the bitter cold and through some of the most miserable conditions imaginable.  There are moments where I truly had to remind myself that I had in me to continue on and reach the summit but there other moments where I needed to distract my mind and well, I sang a lot of mindless childhood songs over and over again (many thanks to my brother Eric and my cousin Caroline for the songs). After 4.5 hours, we arrived at the “balcony” a flat spot just before the beginning of the south east ridge of Everest.

It’s a constant steep climb, very rocky at some places and somewhat difficult to manage with crampons.  But we had a good pace and reached the South summit earlier than expected. We changed oxygen bottles at the south summit and managed to eat my only chocolate bar,  the only food I had in  for the entire climb. After the south summit begins the most exposed section of the climb, a very narrow ridge that leads to the famous Hillary step, and then the exposed ridge continues all the way to the summit.  The ridge is so narrow at times, about only a foot and half wide, that if you tripped, you would easily fall a few kilometers o your death, staying into Nepal if you fell to the left and into Tibet if you fell to the right….
And suddenly, we saw a small bump and prayer flags….and there we were, at the top of the world!!  After 9 hours of continuous climbing, we arrived earlier than expected and we were standing alone at the summit!!  There were some tears (that quickly turned into ice!)   We were relieved, shocked, in awe, and in complete disbelief that we were finally standing at the summit of Mount Everest! It was still dark, with only a sliver of the sun appearing in the horizon.  We tried to stay on the summit as long as possible to see the sunrise but after 30 minutes and the winds blowing at around 70km/hour, it was getting too cold and we were concerned about frostbite, it was time to quickly make our way down. We were so cold, the winds were blowing at about 60 km/hour that we quickly had to start heading down.

But getting to the summit is truly making it only halfway. Both Robin and I found it more difficult to make our way safely back down to camp 4 and then to continue on to camp 2.  Climbing down requires much more concentration, more technical moves, a lot of rappelling down very steep terrain, where a mistake can certainly be fatal.  We stopped at camp 4 only long enough to rest for one hour, eat a little and continue to camp 2.  After 52 hours of no sleep, almost continuous climbing up and down Everest, one chocolate bar and half a cup of water, we stumbled completely exhausted at camp 2 at around 6pm, collapsed into a deep sleep still wearing our down suits and having barely removed our boots.

After waking up the next morning in the same position that we fell asleep in  the night before, aching all over, still feeling exhausted, we packed up all our gear from camp 2 and  headed down for the last time to camp one and to khumbu icefalls.  We arrived at basecamp ecstatic, relieved, and for the very first time in 2 months, felt we were able to finally relax completely….and drink a well deserved beer.

Back in Base Camp Robin and I worked very hard for our summit and feel we both earned it.  We are very grateful for our amazing sherpas and to our support staff, without them, none of this would have been possible.  We feel very lucky that we stayed healthy, strong, had no major injuries, had good weather and simply had some good luck as well.  Everest is a dangerous place, this climbing season has already claimed  three lives, there has been many helicopter  medical evacuations, and more than  half of the climbers here this season will simply not summit for various reasons.   We are all packed up and are leaving in the morning to trek to Tengboche and then to Lukla. We hope to fly to Kathmandu on Wednesday, May 18th where a well deserved summit/goodbye party awaits us.Thanks everyone for following us on this incredible adventure through the Peak Promotion blog.   Christine