As a result, 30 minutes later we only had 15 meters of track, and even that wasn't all that great. There was just too much soft snow, at least one meter deep or so. Needless to say that it took quite a few attempts before we did any normal cycling. If ever you get the chance to see our video, you'll think we were filming for "America's Funniest Videos" or "Mr. Bean's Cycling Escapades."

Fortunately we all managed to cycle for a short distance on at least one occasion. By four o'clock we decided to return to our camp at 6,450m, all the time keeping in mind the words of an anonymous climber: "It is no use to reach the summit of a mountain and die during the descent. The success of mountain climbing lies in the ability of the climber to climb a mountain, return and tell the world about it."

By 7pm, we were all back at Camp 2.5, some more exhausted than others. But who cared? We had broken a Guinness World Record!

The next day we left for Base Camp at around 10am. Going down with all our gear plus the bike proved to be extremely difficult.

Fortunately for me, as we were walking down to Camp 2, we met Stijn and Peter, who were going up and needed my tent, stove and Therm-A-Rest. That shaved almost four kilos off my back, and it was cruising down all the way after that!

During our decent from Camp 2 to Camp 1, I finally had the chance to show my appreciation to Luc for all his support and assistance during our ascent. After Martin, who was completely exhausted, had decided to stay in Camp 2 for an extra day, Luc and I went for Camp 1. It took us quite some time to get there, and I had to keep on telling Luc at regular intervals that putting up a tent right where we were was out of the question. But somehow we made it, which is just another proof of the fact that walking in pairs or teams is much safer than alone; Luc talked me up the mountain, I talked him down, it's as simple as that.

Peter and Stijn stayed on Mustagh Ata for another week or so; first, they had to bring a young Chinese guy with cerebral edema down to Base Camp, after which they made a second attempt to reach the summit. Unfortunately, bad weather and fatigue kept them from going beyond Camp 2 again...

It took us another day to get to Kashgar, and we flew back to Beijing after that. All in all we got home with our bodies fairly intact; except for torturously aching lips and a slight case of hemorrhoids, everything was fine...

— Siegfried Verheijke, MountainZone.com Correspondent