Mingma and Danaru arrived at 8:30 a.m. with videotape to transmit back to
the States.
They look great! A bit sunburned, but great. It was fantastic to hear their
summit tales. Right now they are bathing and generally sprucing themselves
up!
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Ben and Inaki are in Camp Three; both are feeling strong. They should be
down today.
Nancy is in the icefall with Ang Gelu and Kili - can't wait to see them!
Nancy's friend, Ann, left these hilarious tacky Hawaiian leis to drape
around the summitters' necks! And balloons, too.
We've made a string of them
from the chorten to the cook tent.
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Lama Jangbu and Dorjee have gone back up to the South Col from Camp Two to
help Saki collect the last of the supplies. It's "pack in, pack out" time.
Whatever our expedition brought up on the mountain, we are bringing back
down. Indeed, I remember the sign entering the park said, "Take nothing but
pictures and leave nothing but footprints."
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| 5:09 p.m.
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Oh - it's so fantastic to see Nancy. I got first hugs because I climbed up
the base of the icefall to meet them! She had a layer of sunscreen on so
thick she looked like an Egyptian mummy!
Seeing Martha hug Nancy brought tears to my eyes!
Kili, Ang Gelu and Yuri were just beaming, too!
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I can't believe how great everyone looks;
I expected the mountain to have
beaten them down a bit more!
We all sat outside the cook tent and swapped stories. It seemed as though
they had been gone for ages! We couldn't chat fast enough!
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| Nancy said climbing to the summit was DRAINING. An exhaustion like she's
never experienced before. About three hours into the climb, around midnight,
she thought, "Oh, I'm never going to make it!" Then, Ang Gelu checked her
oxygen and it wasn't turned on!! A few gulps and she was off!
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Nancy and Martha filmed another Good Morning America (GMA) segment this
afternoon. The interviewer said, "Nancy, we have a surprise for you!" Her
father and two brothers were in the studio! Both she and Martha were so
excited - it's hard not to live vicariously through their excitement!
Nancy just crawled into her tent and said, "Ugh. I just want to lay here
like a log." Understandably, she's wiped!
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| We've just been talking about packing; tomorrow is the big day! We have so
much stuff to give away; we're going to make a huge pile and let the Sherpa
peruse! It will be tough to do it fairly. Names out of a hat?
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| 7:47 p.m.
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| EVERYONE is here! Dorjee, Lama Jangbu, Saki and Ben arrived at dusk.
Inaki has already gone to his camp; we didn't even get to see him!
Poor Dorjee has lost his voice, but everyone is happy and healthy.
It's going to be an early night - some pretty tired climbers at camp! Yawn.
Nite.
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| Oh! Kili wants to write something
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| This is Kili Sherpa writing from Everest Base Camp May 25th 2001.
Greetings from Summit of Mt. Everest!
Dear friends Tad and Ali at Tanager Lodge and Chris Boskof at Mountain
Madness Seattle.
I will see all of you in few weeks from today and I have many things to
share with you about our Expedition.
Thank you
Kili Sherpa from Everest Base Camp.
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Heidi's 2001 journal
