Everest Nepal 2009
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In 2009, I joined a large, high profile, international, guided expedition (Russell Brice, Himalayan Experience, $50k) on Everest's south side, Nepal, was sick most of the time and reached the summit on May 23rd in a whiteout. Big thanks to Hiro Kuraoka and Shinji Tamura for their photos, especially on summit day, when I was too paranoid to risk freezing fingers and an aborted summit attempt to take many photos. Our team also climbed Lobuche twice to acclimatize. I only climbed it once due to the nasty virus I caught early in the expedition. For Everest, we were limited to five oxygen bottles each for the summit push. Our team was filmed as part of the Discovery Channel's reality television series, Everest Beyond the Limit (Season Three). I was not included in the program (only spotty appearances) because despite getting sick early in the expedition and thus skipping the first acclimatization rotation, my summit day (summit day was the focus of this series) was "efficient and uneventful" and so not interesting for television. And for that I am grateful.
