Camp 2

Bart made it safely to Camp 2. As expected he is exhausted!!  After a few hours rest he will depart for base camp. The next update will be from him.

Bart: There was a tricky spot at the bottom of the Hillary Step, which, by the way, I renamed the Hillary Stairs, because of the large amount of snow that had covered the rocks making for an easy ascent and descent.  Anyway, there was a section at the bottom that required my full attention.  From there it was pretty straight forward getting back to the South Summit.  As I approached the South Summit I walked over a bunch of small rocks that reminded me I wanted to collect a few to take home.  Pk scooped a dozen or so and I stuffed them in my pocket.  From there down I began to feel extreme exhaustion and asked for Pk’s help setting up my rappel a few times in key places.

We arrived back at the Balcony around 8:30 or 9:00 am and rested and ate again.  I finally felt a strong urge to pee and tried to suppress it but finally gave in.  It took a monumental effort to get through all the clothing to make it happen.  It was nice to see everything in the light of day from there, and I pondered Beck Weathers spending the day waiting for Rob Hall.  The two other deceased Indians were thought to be near the Balcony, but I didn’t see them.  The tents at the South Col were in sight, but appeared very small.  It took over an hour to descend, and we once again had to step over the dead Indian.  I also looked at the South Col carefully as I got closer and closer and tried to visualize where Yasuko Namba had perished and wondered if her body was still there somewhere.  It’s a large area several hundred yards long and wide, littered with boulders, so it was hard to tell.

Once at Camp 4, I rested for an hour, called Judy, then continued the descent to Camp 3.  I had wanted to rest longer, but we were the last team on the mountain and IMG was already in the process of dismantling camp.  I had hoped to rest at Camp 3, but it had already been taken down as well.  We stopped at lower Camp 3, and had a snack before continuing on down.  I was so exhausted I continued to have Pk set up important rappels.  Mostly though, it was forward facing hand rappels Pk couldn’t help me with and I had to just grin and bear it!

When I got to the bottom of the Lhotse face I thought to call Judy, but I was too tired. Besides, it was 3:30 am in Utah and she would be sleeping.  I decided I would call her closer to 6:00 after I had dinner at Camp 2.  Bad idea!  When I finally called her she was almost inconsolable! She had awakened alarmed since she hadn’t heard from me.  She had asked me to call her when I got off the face since that area of the mountain was one of her biggest worries.  The 6:00 am news she woke to was reporting climbers had died descending that day.  I felt horrible!  I knew I had made a big mistake and apologized profusely.  She soon settled down, happy I was alive!