Below is an excerpt from Alison's Everest Blog. The full blog can be found here. More stories and images from other expeditions coming soon, so keep checking back for updates or sign up for the emails!

June 4, 2010

PARTING THOUGHTS...

After a successful summit bid, Don Healy, Victor Vescovo, Mike Kraft, Vanesssa Folkerts, Jack Martin, Vern Tejas, Garrett Madison, Michael Horst and I returned to the South Col to rest. Our round trip time to the summit and back was less than 14 hours (we hung out on top for about a half hour) and I was SUPER PROUD of our team. Of course we could not have done it with without our awesome team of Sherpas and our supportive base camp staff–Ellie Henke and Joe Kluberton. Congrats to Victor and Mike for completing the Seven Summits. For me it was the completion of what is known in the adventure world as “THE GRAND SLAM,” which is climbing the Seven Summits and skiing to both Poles. I think this accomplishment is extremely meaningful because it may actually help me talk my way into getting a free breakfast at Denny’s.

We spent a night at the Col and the next day came down to C2 and then finally returned to BC. LAST TIME THROUGH THE DREADED Khumbu icefall. We found out that a Spanish climber that we met earlier on the trip (named Ava) was severely injured in the icefall when a snow bridge collapsed. She fractured a few vertebrae, broke her hand and fractured her tibia. She may have broken some other stuff too, I can’t remember. We felt sorry for her for about 5 seconds until we found out that when she fell she was not clipped in to the fixed lines that were set up for safety purposes…because she wasn’t even wearing a climbing harness. HELLO???? Apparently she was able to walk out of the medical clinic unassisted, so apparently she will be just fine (as soon as she raises her IQ a few points).

The following day I started the trek out of the Khumbu and that gave me two long days to think about the past two months. I’d like to share with you the following parting thoughts:

FILE UNDER: THIS BROKE MY HEART
- John Rudolph leaving the trip before the summit push. He was very sick and couldn’t kick his illness, even with cipro. I cannot even tell you what an important part of the team this guy was. He was smart, funny, strong and it was an honor to climb with him. If he had not fallen ill I know he would have made the summit. Now if only he weren’t such a rabid Gonzaga basketball fan…

FILE UNDER: THIS MADE ME LAUGH
- During our first rotation up to Camp 3 we stopped on the Lhotse Face for a food/water break. We happened to park ourselves right next to a team from Kazakhstan that was also taking a quick break. One of the Kazakhs looked at my yellowish-green girlie-looking backpack (complete with pink duct tape-covered ice ax attached to it) and asked, “What is that on your back–a cosmetics case???”

FILE UNDER: GET A CLUE
- Numerous times during the trip I heard people chalking failure up to things other than a lack of proper skills or weakness. If you can’t perform well in a certain area, look for ways to play to your strengths. Be creative. I was one of the slower members of the team, and I could makes excuses all day about how I was the smallest/lightest, had shorter legs, could not carry as much weight comfortably, etc…but the bottom line is that regardless of the reason for being slower than many of my teammates, I was SLOWER and nothing was going to change that–so I tried to find other ways to contribute to the team since I knew I was never going to be out front breaking trail. People always like to find excuses for lack of performance–I didn’t get this or that because I am a woman, because I am older, because I am short, because I am this ethnicity or that religion or because of some kind of discrimination. Well, discrimination is a HORRIBLE, awful thing, but sometimes we don’t get what we want because we just aren’t all that good. Sometimes the guy next to you is just plain BETTER THAN YOU. Take responsibility for your own shortcomings and work on getting better rather than always chalking up bad outcomes to external factors. Think to yourself, “Maybe I just suck…” and then work really hard at not sucking.

FILE UNDER: OOPS
- While rappelling down a 90’ rock face after our summit, my right crampon got caught in some old twine that was wedged in the rocks–and my right foot was jerked upward while the rest of me went upside down. My oxygen mask was knocked off in the process, and the tank in my backpack was putting pressure on my abdomen and I couldn’t really breathe in the awkward position I was in. I could not reach up to my boot with my right hand and I could not take my left hand off of the rope since it was my brake hand. I looked around to see who could help but there was no one behind me and Chewang was already pretty far out in front of me. At some point he looked back and saw that I wasn’t right behind him, and he came back to the base of the rock face and looked up at me dangling there. I yelled, “Um…little help?” He climbed back up the face and tried to get my boot untangled but he couldn’t do it either. As I still hung upside down he began to take my right foot and bang it against a rock in hope that the twine that was holding me hostage would brake. No luck. Now his hand was bruised/swollen from banging it against the rock. Finally, he was able to help me break lose from the twine and not a moment too soon because I was seriously struggling to breathe. I rappelled the rest of the way down and caught up to Chewang and thanked him and then started laughing. “Hey, that was sort of funny, no?” He laughed too and said, “I think you are TROUBLE.” I said, “Well I think YOU are trouble!” “No, YOU are trouble!!!” he told me. From that point on we never used first names again. We just referred to each other as “Trouble.”

- After our summit bid we were all pretty tired, but the adrenaline was flowing so I had trouble sleeping. I shared a tent at C2 with Don and as we were getting ready to go to bed I decided that perhaps I should take an Ambien to help me sleep (base camp doctors told us that taking Ambien would be okay during the climb). I knew everyone was feeling pretty revved up after the summit so after popping my pill out of the pack I offered one to Don, too. “Here… just in case you need it,” I told him. In the morning I realized I had given him a birth control pill.

FILE UNDER: CHIVALRY IS NOT DEAD
- I cannot even begin to express what a class act (most of) the men on my team were. I felt like I got so much help from these guys. I will never forget how far out of their way people went to make sure I was okay on the more challenging parts of the route–i.e., waiting for me to get across the ladders (because no matter how many times I crossed them I was always nervous) even if it meant they had to wait around in the cold for me to get to the crossing. People were always asking how I was doing, offering to help me with the weight in my pack, holding out a hand when I needed to jump a big crevasse and encouraging me when I was dragging. And I know they would do this for any of their teammates, male or female. It was really about them just being SOLID human beings.

FILE UNDER: I TAKE THAT BACK
- 65 is the new 45 for sure. Don Healy, who turned 65 on our trip–summitted Mount Everest. He was amazing!!!!

FILE UNDER: BAD IDEA
- After we got back to Kathmandu, Michael, Garrett, and I went out for dinner/drinks with a group of guides and climbers from another group (no one else from our group was around–everyone had flown out by then). I wanted to celebrate in proper fashion, but wasn’t sure what to do. I asked the guy sitting next to me at dinner if tequila shots seemed juvenile. He said. “I definitely don’t think so!” So…that kicked off the first of several rounds of tequila shots (and it was BAD tequila). I later found out that the guy sitting next to me was 18 years old. Of course he didn’t think tequila shots were juvenile. I, however, ended up having to sleep in the bathtub that night in order to get my hotel room to stop spinning.

So…in closing, I feel honored to have carried an ice axe with Meg’s name on it to the summit of Mt Everest. I could never find the right words to properly express my thanks to my teammates, guides, base camp staff and Sherpas, but please just know how much I love and appreciate you.

After turning back from the South Summit (just a few hundred feet from the top) in 2002, I really didn't think I would ever try again. Part of me can’t believe I actually DID try again because I swore I never would. And trust me, there were many moments of self-doubt, but somehow I found myself on the top of that mountain. As far as calling the trip a “success,” I hope I can do that. Yes, I made it to the top of a big mountain, but that doesn’t really have all that much meaning when you consider that Mt. Everest is just a big pile of rock and ice. Really–that’s all it is. We went up it. It was cold, it was steep, it was tough, blah blah blah. So what? What makes it meaningful are the people you climb with (that’s you too Meg). For me–the goal is never the summit. The goal for any of my climbs is for my teammates to feel glad that I was a part of their expedition. I hope they do indeed feel this way, because I know I am super grateful to have had the opportunity to share the mountain with them. Saying goodbye after the trip was really hard for me. I had sunglasses covering my eyes so no one could see just how difficult it was (I hate crying in front of people). God, I hadn’t shed that many tears since the Republicans lost Congress. XOX AL