I watched the final episodes of EBTL at home with laptop in lap, a first for me. Alan Arnette (@alan_arnette) had virtually assembled a group of Twitterers — both climbers and interested armchair mountaineers — to view and comment on the show in real-time (#EV09). My friend from Everest Base Camp, Keith Cowing (@keithcowing), who had orchestrated an enormous amount of educational outreach during my climb, was also online to reminisce and share his unique perspectives of the mountain and the recent season. Alan’s wrap-up of the night can be found at http://www.alanarnette.com/blog/archives/1777

The two final episodes concentrated on Russell Brice’s HIMEX summit teams, and featured stunning high altitude photography — owing to the fact their teams summited a bit later in the morning than our IMG teams did (their Sherpacams captured more of the upper mountain in full color with full lighting, instead of grainy infrared in B&W during our sunrise summit). By making somewhat later departures from high camp, and perhaps with larger numbers of climbers vying for the summit on their chosen days, the conga lines to the top made me break out in a cold sweat (!), and reaffirmed my belief in a strategy of early departure/keep-the-lead as the preferred way to the top (and safely back home). The final episode featured Russell’s slower climbers, each of whom very unfortunately succumbed to gastroenteritis, which is medicalspeak for the trots. In case you didn’t know, dealing with such unpleasant matters at extreme altitudes while wearing a down suit and a harness is a literal nightmare. Meaning no disrespect to the climbers’ strength and tenacity, my favorite Twitter quips of the night: @johnwhittle “This episode brought to you by Huggies” and my own simple offering: “Time to take a shower and burn your down suit…” HIMEX’s second team persevered through this and a developing storm to summit. Congratulations to them all, particularly their Sherpa team and the tough cameramen who accompanied them (including my friend Matt Green, who was on the first HIMEX summit).

My good friend and summit partner Ed Wardle’s (@aloneinthewild) photo is at the top of this post. He and Sanduk Sherpa were with Danuru Sherpa and I almost every step of the way on the mountain. It was Ed’s 2nd summit of Everest, and 3rd time on the mountain (he filmed on the prior two seasons of the show, and is one tough hombre). Always smiling, Sanduk claimed his 3rd Everest summit with us on May 20, 2009, and I’m sure he’ll continue to add to his impressive climbing resume in the future. Just below is a fun photo of our IMG Sherpa team during our puja ceremony at the beginning of the season, singing, dancing and enjoying life — the way I’ll always remember them… 

Namaste,

Scott

IMG Sherpas celebrating life during our puja ceremony, officially beginning our Everest season (March 2009)