| |
Expedition Dispatches
Satellite phone updates from the 1998 American Everest Expedition
|
Wilson |
Feels As Though I Never Left
Thursday, April 16, 1998 — Base Camp (17,500')
Looking up at the Hillary Step from the South Summit.
[click to zoom]
(photo: Burleson)
|
 |
I fought the winds to stand upright and strained my eyes in the
strengthening storm to see my way ahead and finally reached the south
summit of Everest. I stood three hundred feet from the top, three hundred
feet short of reaching my goal, not just the summit of Everest, but to be
included among the few who have climbed the mountain from both the north
and the south. I looked at my climbing partner, Eric Simonson. We shared
50 years of mountaineering experience and well over 150 high altitude
expeditions between us. We'd both lost friends, plural, on the mountain. As
we looked at each other there was nothing to be said, nothing to be
discussed. We simply nodded our heads and pointed down. We would not summit
Everest this day. It was time to go home. We would live to climb another
day.
That was nine months ago. On one hand, if feels as though I never left Mount
Everest. On the other hand, I feel as if I just completed a big lap around
the world with expedition stops in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and
Antarctica. Following my most recent expedition to a very remote area in
Argentina, I returned home for four days, and the next thing I knew, I was
back in Kathmandu, Lukla, Namche, and eventually right back where I
started, base camp, south side, Everest.
When I was young, I read the account of Tenzing and Hillary, the first
ascent, the ascent from the south. It's a mountaineer's dream to have the
opportunity to follow in the their footsteps. It's a mountaineer's dream to
follow their historical path and climb through the Khumbu Icefall, Western
Cwm, Lhotse Face, Yellow Band, South Col, and of course, the Hillary Step.
That alone is reason enough to be here. I've returned this year to complete
my ascent from the south, but more importantly, I've returned this year to
help another man, Bradford Washburn, realize his dream: the placement of a
GPS station on the highest mountain in the world. It feels good to be back.
It feels right to be back.
— Greg Wilson, Climber
