Hahn also shared with MountainZone.com some of the difficulties he encountered being both a participant in May's summit attempt, and an observer—or more accurately, the high-altitude photographer.

"On top of the physical demands of the expedition, doing the dispatches was a lot of work, but despite, it was a process that I enjoyed even so. It was a good combination..."

"I've always been interested in telling a good story," Hahn said from his home near Mount Rainier in Washington state, where he works as a climbing guide. "I liked writing, but I felt that I didn't have significant experiences to draw from. The writing I admired was written by people who understood life, who had had noteworthy life experience. But when, finally, I found myself having those same kinds of experiences as a high-altitude climber and guide, I also found that I wasn't really interested in sitting down to write about them. I'm more interested in going from one adventure to another, not in spending time brooding or writing about them.

	STREAMING VIDEO Dave Hahn
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"Doing dispatches for The Mountain Zone sort of forced me to do that, sort of writing on the go. It was exhausting because I was writing when I should have been resting. On top of the physical demands of the expedition, doing the dispatches was a lot of work, but despite, it was a process that I enjoyed even so. It was a good combination."

Hahn said that he usually cranked out his dispatches at night, after everyone else went to bed. Hahn, dressed in down pants and a down parka, would go into the communications tent and, by the dim glow of his headlamp, type away with cold fingers on the laptop.

"I think I was almost more tired at Base or Advance Base than I was higher on the mountain," Hahn noted wryly. "But I was excited to. It wasn't a terrible burden because I was enjoying what I was doing. And I found the most useful time for me was to wait for those quiet times, at Base Camp or Advance Base Camp, without distractions, to try to write."

Even though this meant typing through the night, often until 4am, to complete his reports and send them via satellite telephone to MountainZone.com.

"...I knew how far we still had to go to reach the summit. And I ended up of course belaying when I was trying to get positioned well for photography. So doing both was hard...."

"Of course, any other type of writing is revised and edited later," said Hahn. "But for me there just wasn't time. I just hit the send button. It some ways that might be good, I didn't rework them too much, but it means you inevitably make mistakes. I knew that part of sending dispatches was to make sure something got to Mountain Zone fairly quickly, so that's the way it went."

In addition to playing the Edward R. Murrow of Mount Everest, Hahn also had another role for the expedition: that of a BBC high-altitude videographer.

"I found it difficult to do both," Hahn said. "I was excited about the photographer, and I took my responsibilities of shooting digital video seriously, but it was a tough thing to try to combine it with my role as a participant."

	STREAMING VIDEO Dave Hahn
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	WINDOWS MEDIA modem speed (28k) (56k) (T1) Windows Media

In addition to predictable problems—due to extreme cold and moisture—with the camera, Hahn said it was difficult to focus on filming critical scenes such as Conrad Anker's freeclimb of the Second Step because he also was serving as Anker's belayer.

"Also," said Hahn, " I was the one who had climbed this route before, so I knew the route, I knew how far we still had to go to reach the summit. And I ended up of course belaying when I was trying to get positioned well for photography. So doing both was hard."

Hahn however is ready for more, saying that he hopes one day to film an ascent of the final part of the route, and to venture more times to the summit of the highest peak on earth.

"I say that without apolgogy, or the need for Everest Anonymous," Hahn said. "I'm still hoping to have a view—both times I've reached the top, it's been in clouds or storm or whiteout. I just like it up there. If I get the chance I'll go back."

The veteran climber expressed his pride in being involved with the expedition, and gave credit to the individual members, who as a team got along remarkably well.

— Peter Potterfield, MountainZone.com Staff