SUMMIT DAY!

Today in Mendoza I had a pretty easy relaxing day doing homework, organizing the trip gear, and getting together some laundry. Willy on the other hand went out rock climbing with Charlotte, spending all day out there. Not much happened today, except Fernando had a barbeque. The barbeques down here are so much different than in the states. There is no 'burgers and ‘dogs--here they cook steaks, pork, and sausages--a full course of each; it fills you up big time. Later we went to a friend Martin’s house for another barbeque, Willie was almost falling asleep when he was eating. Charlotte came along and everyone was in good spirits, chilling, and talking about wine and Aconcagua.

SUMMIT DAY!

 Woke up this morning at 4:30, hoping to head out at 5. We drank some mate, ate some M&Ms, and were ready to head up to the summit of Europe!  Most people who climb here either go for the summit from a higher camp, or take a snowcat up to the higher camp. Us? Oh no, we go on foot from here. So we left the huts moving pretty fast, in tennis shoes. Beautiful morning. Undescribable. But I’ll try anyways. As soon as the sun touched the sky everything turned shades of pink and orange. The craggy mountain peaks all around looked blood stained. Small purple and blue clouds dotted the valleys, hiding all but the highest greenery. The snow on the glacier turned orange under our feet, silhouetting our long shadows. The snow was hard, so we moved quickly up past the high camps and started passing people. The whole route is visible from the huts almost. The trail winds up past 2 camps, up a long headwall, traverses at the base of the cone of the east summit to a pass, then turns west up another headwall to the summit plateau. At the top of the first headwall we started to see people. All of them were just staring at us in our tennis shoes. Nearly every other climber was in double plastic boots with crampons and ice axes. Starting across the traverse we quickened our pace as the slope lessened a little bit. It was solid cruising, just walking and thinking. Its funny, this whole day didn’t really feel like a summit day. It was so nonchalant....Just having fun in the mountains. On Everest, there was so much build-up for summit day. But on this peak, we just arrived and went. No big deal. It’s a different feeling, but pretty cool...like a backcountry hike for a ski run. We hit the summit running, literally.  We didn’t have a problem with the altitude, and were topped out 4 and a half hours after leaving the huts. We dropped right from the top, sunny blue skies cheering us on to go ski a south facing ridge. Later we learned it’s a probable first descent, pretty cool. It was really fun, skiing down, having the time of our lives pretty much, filming each other, racing, it was nice. We made it back to the barrels about an hour after we left the summit and just chilled. This is a pretty awesome place I decided. Ski park, summit in 4 hours, come back to drink a Red Bull, and lay in the sun. Quite a bit different than all the other trips. No stress, easy rollin, sunny days. We decided to go all the way back to the hotel, had a shower, and slept in comfy beds. All the people at the hotel couldn’t believe we had summited already, they were like “Are you sure you summited?"

Happy birthday Angel!! Today we had quite an adventure. We left the hotel, and started a traverse over a bunch of peaks, to loop around the valley and end up at the Elbrus ski resort. Big day we hoped. We didn't accomplish the whole traverse, but we had a lot of fun. We scrambled and climbed on exposed towers leaning over glaciers, we discovered a peak broken in half by an earthquake, we crossed though waterfalls-- it was very diverse. The broken peak was actually pretty crazy. The whole thing was a jumble of broken, loose rocks stacked on each other. Touch one fridge sized block, and 4 more move above it. It definitley kept us on our toes. After the whole day of scrambling and climbing, we descended to grassy hills with flowers and butterflies. Then we put our helmets on. (rock fall danger). The whole climb was right on the border of Georgia and Russia, which are in dispute. Because of this it is a big deal to be on the border, so we got checked twice by military outposts. The guys would stroll up, fully geared with huge machine guns and their arms crossed, and start asking us questions in Russian. Speak English? Some of them do, some of them don't.

All day, I just couldn't help but laugh. I'm just having so much fun with life right now, traveling all over the world, with supporitng family and friends. Every day is an adventure, at home and out here. New friends, new places, its awesome. And today was a perfect example of how I feel. We were so free, wandering and exploring a mountain range in Russia, going wherever our feet took us, probing the unknown in a foreign county. This whole trip has been amazing like that, we have had so much time to do whatever we want, to do things not on our agenda untill we we're doing them. Great day in the hills. At the hotel, our muscles are just tired in a good way, in a way that lets you know they've been used well. A hot shower, relaxing, and good times.

Early morning drive to the airport, but our flight was cancelled after 2 hours of waiting. It's a flight to a small village farther inland. Off to a rocky start, the day turned out to be amazing. We rented a small catamaran to take us out to a tropical island. The ride was awesome, golden powerful sunrays shining down to glint like diamonds on the water. Reaching down to feel the surface yielded a touch of warmth. The water is so warm. Then we hit the island. It was incredible, something I think everybody dreams of. Less than a mile square, we swam around it, discovering no life. On our beach there was an abandoned Dutch resort, overgrown. A dock led out to a small sunhouse 20 meters offshore. After jumping off this a few times, we grabbed scuba masks and took a look under the surface. It immediately sprang to life. There was a whole coral reef virtually underfoot. We snorkeled for about 2 hours, seeing things I've only seen on TV and more. Moray eels, angelfish, scorpionfish, fish with colors brighter than a 1980's highschool classroom. We got attacked by clownfish and swam with a school of fish so big it was like being in a cloud.  Unfortunately our day of paradise had to end. Our palm island faded behind us and we had to look ahead again, to go climbing mountains. Dinner at another cafeteria deal, these places are quite interesting as Indonesians don't share western ideas of cuisine. They eat the same thing 3 times a day so they think we do, too. As for cleanliness, not much can be expected. It's just different than at home.

Woke up, packed up, and got going. It's incredible for me. To think how few people, in total, have walked this "trail". And I am at 17. I'll have these experiences for the rest of my life. Crashing through the jungle in Indonesia, always a little worried that something will jump in front of us from the trees. It's thrilling. None of the porters speak English so charades is the game, but it does get a bit scary when they start yelling and waving their machetes around. Every bit of this is so different from home. There is nothing familiar here. Plants, people, food, nothing. It's crazy. Then of course reality kicks in. It started raining, and we had miles of swamp to cross mixed with thick jungle. After 3 hours of rain and 2 hours of standing helplessly at camp, some of the group arrived with porters and gear. We got a tarp set up and struggle through getting gear under it. It was far past dark by the time we were done. Soaking and miserable.  

Our day started off looking bright. Pack, breakfast, and start off with sun breaking over the treeline. Tramping through the bog gave us a nice start as we gazed on our surroundings. Last night we broke through the jungle, and were now in a sort of marshy highlands. Damian was doing a small photo shoot of me, and it got me thinking how different this summit is. Or at least the trek in. 6 days of jungle and marsh instead of the usual alpine walking. As much as we're complaining...this is a once in a lifetime. Thick jungle leading to a rock spire wreathed in clouds. Cool concept. Jumping rivers and wading through mud for 7 hours brought us to a relatively dry ridgeline camp. From here we could see tomorrow's walk, down to a big plain then into rolling hills at the foot of our mountain.

Everest. What a big word. Our adventure started off with a bang. I woke up today (happy birthday!) feeling pretty…. ill. This didn’t bode well for the million hour long plane ride to where diarrhea is imminent. Great. Anyways, me and Willie somehow managed to get ourselves into the Delta “crown room”, its not that cool, and then proceeded to miss our flight. We were on standby for the next one, and managed to take the last two seats. After arriving in LAX, we spoke to a short asian lady about our plane to Thailand. “we sowwy, no mo room on dis pane.” Our first asain encounter. We argued with her, and managed to get 2 business class seats. The lady had to lead us through security to where the plane was already boarding. She directly reminded me of the little suit designer from “The Incredibles”. Here on the busride to the plane, we met up with Damian and Gene. Gene is the other client. From Colorado, he has already climbing the seven summits. We settled down to a nice long ride to Bangkok. Who names a city Bangkok??

I awoke to a grumbling stomach. Awesome. Only about 7 more hours to go. After a few hours fighting my tummy, the pilot announced the time and date. March 31st. ??. we missed a day somehow…. Crazy. Anyways, we arrived in Thailand. Bangkok, no problemo. Now we had a few hours to kill. I was all for hitting up the clubs, but Willie reminded me of 2 things. #1, its 7:30 AM. #2, he is stricter than dad. We got coffee instead. Asia is crazy, in a good way. Its just so different than the US. We still had a 3 hour flight to Kathamandu though. As soon as we landed in Nepal, the extreme differences struck like heat and humidity. The airport had cows grazing on the grass that grows on the “runway”. There were rusted cars everywhere. Walking through the airport, the vents are holes broken through the brick. Everything just seems so old, like out of an Indiana Jones movie. We stood in line to get our visa’s, and I came out with my visa and my 100 bucks. Working for good karma, I went back through and paid the man, his eyes went bigger than my fists. Willie told me that the missing money would have had to come out of his paycheck. Yikes. Finishing there, we went to get our luggage. Surprisingly, we came out with it all except one bag. We were supposed to be missing 6. We walked outside, into total chaos. Well it was to me. Honking, whistles, yelling. I moved in 800 directions at once. I shook hands with 20 people that im sure had nothing to do with us. I started to cross the street, and somehow a herd of people and 2 cars all got ahead of me. Quite taken aback, an army guy grabbed me, smiles, and says, “You're in Nepal”. Thanks man.

The drive to the hotel is one I will never forget. 3rd world. Kids running, dirty and barefoot through heaps of rubble and garbage. Thousands of people selling the same stuff. Dogs sniffing and lying everywhere. Cows wandering through the streets, little metal sheets put together for houses. Every person riving on the much overcrowded street is laying on their horn like it’s a brand new toy. Total chaos. Vendors everywhere, its amazing. Totally different culture in everyway. As we arrived at the hotel, peace is restored. It is in a little alleyway, with trees, and shaded patios. I soon learn that somewhere at the airport Willie was taken by Jagged Globe, the company he is with this trip. Damn. Here I meet Kili Sherpa, the man who runs many trips, who is helping us with all our arrangements. The rest of the day is filled with unpacking, packing, and wandering through Thamel, the region of Kathamandu we are in. everything is stores selling the same merchandise. Im totally beat, and tomorrow we have a lot of work to do. Welcome to Nepal.

I woke up today, about 6:30, not too bad when I learn later that both Damian and Gene woke up at 2 in the morning from the time difference. Its about 12 hours different than home. Willie came over today, and we all went to a little bakery for breakfast, hot cocoa and croissants. Not too shabby. After just chillin for a bit, we went over to Kili’s house and headquarters. This is a storage where Willie keeps a lot of his Everest gear. On the way here I had a birdeye view, riding in the back of a truck on top of all our bags. Quite an adventure. Upon arrival, we pretty much just repacked everything, into barrels and bags, all the food into barrels. The hosue is beautiful. It has tall walls all around, and a big gate, very very luxurious. The doors and intricate carvings of religious and cultural meaning, and there was huge pole with giant prayer flags streaming from it. Two dogs were here, one a young puppy, something I might have to try to sneak into my bag going home… Then, I rode back to the hotel with Kili. On the back of a motorcycle. Man was that scary. Busting through streets so packed I would prefer to walk at 30, swerving through tourist buses and taxis, deafened by honking. I wish I would have had a head cam. Then me and Damian ran errands through town. After two dinners, I finally got to bed, exhausted as usuall.

Ill pass, sorry.

After the hecticness and amazingness of the monkey temple, we decided to go to another religious area. Bad idea. We tried to go through a street, but it was just a throng of people, impenetrable nearly. At the end we see a giant christmas tree structure. Army men line the street, blowing their whistles, and people are yelling everywhere. I guess we had stumbled upon some religious ceremony. There were probably 5,000 people packed into a square 500 feet. Not so fun. After making our way to the edge, we see that the giant tree is on wheels, and people are trying to pull it down a street. Another bad idea. The huge structure was swaying everywhere, and hit the roofs of the 6 story buildings, raining dirt and bricks onto the street. It seems like totally chaos, but the people love it, then some ghurkas, local soldiers, fire some ceremonial 200 year old muskets off. I thought they were cannons at first. After all the crazyness, we somehow popped out back at our hotel, escaping muggings, monkeys, and ceremonies. Not a bad day after all.

Cold again today, big surprise. But as we started up the trail, it grew warmer, almost pleasant. Up we went for nearly 2 hours, I think, arriving at a point of the ridge, 5100 meters, about 16,000 feet. Feels good to stretch the legs out, a lot, and see some more terrain. Back down, and Eugene and Tety to Pheriche, Damian and I to Dingboche. We had to register for our Denali permit, which we learned last night you must have 3 months in advance. After checking the internet, we learned that it is 60 days, perfect for us. So after registering for the permits, we set off running up the trail, back home. Now, today, after I finish typing this up, I get to go back to Dingboche to send it out. Enjoy!!

9:30 PM May 18- May 19,2009

I was startled out of my doze by Damian’s yelling, “be ready in a half hour!”. My heart was beating so fast I thought I might faint. Here I am, ready to punch for the summit of Mount Everest. A half hour later, we were all standing in the pitch black, geared with our warmest, looking at the long line of lights heading up the ice into the Triangle Face. We started walking, a slow steady rhythm to save energy. I wasn’t saving any energy in my head though, a million thoughts were rushing through all at once. We met Tim Ripple, the Canadian team leader coming down because of cold feet. I hope mine stay warm. Up in the rocks of the Triangle Face, standing below many other climbers who were obviously taking their time, I felt my feet start to drop in temperature. Hurry up, hurry up was all I could think. It was endless, taking 2 steps, waiting for 5 minutes, 2 more steps. I couldn’t make it. I stopped myself 10 times from stopping Damian. I decided I would wait until the very end to stop. Climbing up the Face, the slope is about 35 degrees. Not too steep, but not exactly a walk around the park either. Finally, after an endless trudge, we arrived at the Balcony. Here we changed oxygen bottles. I was carrying all my own, like Damian and Tety. Paldem Sherpa was carrying Eugenes, like most clients do. I guess Damian decided we would be our own sherpas, builds character. At the Balcony I shook my feet, put on my huge down mittens, and suddenly felt my core temperature dropping in the light wind. We need to go. So we started off up the rock steps, a series of 55 degree rock bands leading to the south summit. Again, stuck behind people I couldn’t stay warm, even with the supplemental oxygen. I was wiggling my toes and shaking my feet at every step, doing all I could to hang on. By now we could see a glow on the horizon, the sun was coming. I made a decision here, if my toes didn’t warm up when the sun hit, I would have to turn back, or something else to save them. Nearly falling asleep at each break between steps, we made our way up and up, slowly.  It was a super hard decision, i didn’t know if I would escape frostbite if I kept going, but I knew I couldn’t make myself turn back this late in the game. Luckily, when the sun peeked above the horizon, my core temperature rose, giving a little more life to my poor toes. Climbing through the rock, breathing heavily, I realized I wasn’t getting any air. My mask was frozen. Great. I pulled it off of my face, sucking in the freezing thin air. Shortly, I realized I couldn’t go too far like this. I started to hyperventilate, freaking out, I couldn’t get air. Calm down man, calm down. I relaxed a little, and told Damian about my dilemma. He fixed it in a jiff, just blowing through the intake valve of the mask, clearing it of the ice buildup. We arrived at the South Summit, and I have never been happier. From here we could see our goal, at most an hour away. We changed oxygen bottles again, and looked at the new problems ahead of us. We had the Hillary Step, and much other rock climbing problems. We took off, and nearing the goals, my desire burned in my chest. It didn’t matter how many Hillary steps there were, I would reach the summit. 45 minutes later, we were there. I was nearly crying, here, on top on the world, me. It was too much to take it felt so good. Finally here, after all these months of preparation, of raising the money, of getting here, of acclimatizing, of staying healthy, all those days, leading up to this moment. It was the most amazing feeling. Everything I have worked for, dreamed of, all has paid off, placing me on top of the world. We took our photos, ate and drank a little bit, and stated off down the ropes to find Eugene who had fallen behind. We found him just above the Hillary Step, where Damian turned around to summit again with him. Tety and I got in line for the descent. Here I actually did fall asleep a couple times, Tety shaking me to wake up and move. This was the hardest, wanting more than anything to sleep, but needing to walk all the way back to South Col. We were on the summit at about 9:00, so we were climbing and standing in line for 12 hours. Not exactly record time. I arrived back at the Col at about 1:00-2:00, I am not quite sure, exhausted and happy as could be. I sat in my tent, ready to boil water, but first I wanted a celebratory hostess cupcake. One bite, and I passed out. 6 hours later, I woke up to a big commotion. Eugene stumbled into camp, and nearly fainted in Damian’s arms. He had snow blindness, and was exhausted. We got him into the tent, and I got to work fixing him up. I spent most of the night trying to help him, with small rests in between. Long day, great day.