Ed Viesturs' Quest for the 8,000 meter peaks

Viesturs

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We left Base Camp at about 7am and we descended for about 2,000 feet into the Miristi Khola river basin, and then we climbed very steeply and very rapidly on very wet grass and steep slopes for about 5,000 feet — where, by that time, it was early afternoon, the clouds had come in, it was foggy, lightly snowing. We crossed a high path, snowy pass, and then we began our 7,000-foot descent into another river valley; the last hour of which was in the dark, with headlamps, in the fog, on very, very steep trail — if you could call it that.

So by about 9:30pm that night, we finally found a flat spot to collapse and put up our tents, where we spent the night. The following morning, we walked into the village of Lete where we then were able to place our order for porters; 18 porters which would then be going back up to Base Camp to retrieve all of our gear and equipment.

That day, we continued walking for a few more hours; we spent a second night in the village. And then yesterday we walked all the way to Jomsom — it was about a six-hour day. We were able to book a flight out of Jomsom today and here we are in Kathmandu, basically the end of the road.

Now the only difficult part for us is getting ourselves out of Kathmandu. It's a very busy part of the year. Thai flights are fully booked, so we're all on wait lists and we're all very anxious to get back home. We're doing everything that we can to get out of here as soon as possible.

So that's basically it. The expedition is wrapped up, we're all safe and sound here in Kathmandu. Looking forward to getting home to our friends and our families, particularly, as soon as we can.

So thanks for listening. It was an exciting escape from Annapurna. We now know why it's not one of the top-10 hikes in the world. It's very difficult, very exciting, and not something you could casually do on a weekend, or three or four days. But we're glad to be out of there; glad to be here, and looking forward to getting home. Thanks for following on the Mountain Zone. Ed Viesturs, signing out.

— Ed Viesturs, MountainZone.com Correspondent


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EXPEDITION DISPATCHES