Update from Bob

Hi everyone – I just got an email update directly from Bob about an hour ago. He’s back at Kathmandu… Way to go Bob! Everyone here can't wait to hear the details about the amazing journey. Glad to hear your are back down in the "thick" air and doing well.

-Rob

From: Robert Lowry
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2008 7:27 AM
Subject: Update

Well I have made it back to Kathmandu.
The first hike out was 7 hours and a decrease of 2000 feet. The second day
was a 13 hour journey, 11 hours of hiking and a decrease of 9000 feet. much up
and down, my legs were just swinging forward hoping to land
safely.

The brief summary of the climb is this, I needed another
rotation to have the strength to summit. What I did not explain due to
political reasons was part of the issue. The Chinese "asked" Nepal to
close the mountain as you probably already know. The compromise was that
the Nepal Army would be stationed at base camp to ensure nobody goes beyond camp
2 until May 10th. The did that be having weapons at camp 2.
Typically by May 10th teams would have been done with their acclimatization
hikes. What I have always known about myself is that I need one additional
acclimatization hike above everyone else, that is just the way it has always
been. Since the Army did not allow us that opportunity, I had to settle
for one less. If I had the chance to come back down from Camp 3 and rest
for 4 days, I might have been strong enough to summit. Instead I made the
difficult choice to abort my summit attempt because my legs were like
jelly.

When I approached Camp 3, I felt like crawling in. It
took me 7 hours. Another team took 8 hours, and one of their teammates had
to turn around the next day due to exhaustion. I was concurred that I
would run out of steam and be above the yellow band in The Death Zone, which
means I could end up being someone to rescue. Everyone was supportive yet
sad for me about my decision.

When I reflect back I
can say now that where I sit today, it was a good decision. There was
one confirmed death, a few near HACE incidents, snow blindness, and frostbite
cases. These are people that took the chance that I did not. Many on
the mountain were seen crawling, and being helped down, according to those that
summit ted on our team. These are people that probably had less
experience, or had summit fever.

As for our group about 50% summit
ted. I was glad I was here, in reality the summit is only 4 days, this
journey is 2 months of hard work.

Some of my best learning is about
myself. To live is such a remote area for as many days teaches you what is
really important in life. I can truly say, taking care of your person and
the closeness of Friends and family is what is most important to me. On
these trips, the true person comes out.

My hair is longer now, I
lost 20 pounds and I am pretty tired, but other than that all is well.
Currently I am trying to move my flights, but I am finding that a little
challenging today.

Thanks everyone for your support, when I get
home I will detail the expedition and attach some photo's so maybe you can get a
better feel for the trip.

Talk to you soon