16.5.2007
”Mount Everest is conquered !“
 YES! YES! YES! We are on top of the world! It´s Wednesday the 16th May 2007, 8:16 local lime (3:16 am CET) and we have finally made it – me, Tashi and, our excellent sherpas, Nim and Pem! Although the sun dazzles and the views are staggering, the extreme cold, exacerbated by the wind chill factor in the death zone, dictates that we cannot afford to remain up here long; just time enough to take a few precious photographs. We are mindful of the fact that we have a gruelling eight hour descent ahead of us and, although absolutely exhilarated, we are already completely exhausted!
We endured disastrous conditions on the way up to the summit! We set off from Camp 3 as scheduled sometime after 9pm, but at around midnight, a severe blizzard engulfed us. After about two hours, we were almost forced to give up completely. In the pitch darkness, the route illuminated solely by the light of our directional lamps, we could not see anything in front of us further than a few feet and, with new powder snow pouring down relentlessly and reaching well past our shins, we experienced white out conditions, our footfalls were immediately obscured, and we could barely see each other! We were so fortunate that by the early hours of the morning the conditions had calmed sufficiently to make our summit attempt possible.
On the way back down to Camps 3 and 2, I had the opportunity to look back up, in the cold light of day, with sickening realization at the treacherous path we had taken in the darkness. At several places one wrong step outside of the fixed ropes could have been fatal. But thankfully all proceeded to plan and we are now leisurely laying in our tents in Camp 2 drinking hot tea and preparing to sleep! Early tomorrow morning we will pack and head back down to Advance Base Camp where we will recuperate. I am especially looking forward to some celebratory Bernard beer and slivovitz (plum brandy) and what´s more, my father has solemnly promised to cook a traditional Czech sirloin steak with succulent sauce and dumplings!
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