Local time: 17:45 17 Nov 2007
Location: Island Peak Base Camp
Altitude: 5170m
Weather: Sunny and little wind during the day. -8C overnight.

Hi, Dave Armstrong here bringing you the details of our summit of Island Peak.

Island Peak Summit
We started our day at 3am from Island Peak High Camp with a number of steps and procedures to begin our our summit attempt. We heated our boots, gloves and clothing in our sleeping bags overnight and began our trek in the dark with warm clothes.

Climbing up steep rocks and boulders with head torches and climbing boots marked the beginning of our trek. This night walking continued until 6am when we could finally turn the head torches off.

As sun rose we could begin to see the amazing 7000 - 8000 metre mountains that surrounded us in all directions.

Crampon Point
We arrived at our crampon point and attached our crampons to our boots, tethered our selves together with rope and began snaking our way through the icy crevasses.
In single file we made our way safely through this dangerous area and our first glimpse of what lay ahead came to our view.

The Wall
We slowly made our may to a near vertical wall of ice which was approximately 100 metres high and had fixed rope all the way up. With our practice of using ascenders fresh in our mind from the previous couple of days we began our climb up what seemed a never ending wall of ice. With mostly upper body strength to pull ourselves up and the use of the crampons we slowly made our way the top of this very step ice wall.

The Ridge
Once we all safely and successfully made our may up the wall of ice we continued to stay connected to the rope all the way up the narrow ridge toward the summit. The ridge varied in width from 5m - 30cm and had a drop off on one side of about 200m and the other at least 1000m. The ridge still had many challenges and required everyone to dig deep into the energy reserves to finally make the summit.

The Summit
To the credit of each member of the group no one remotely looked as though this challenge was beyond them. The overwhelming joy and satisfaction of summiting this peak left everyone breathless and handshakes and hugs seemed the only actions our bodies would allow. We stayed on the summit for at least one hour and took pictures, video and sat gazing into the amazing mountains that surrounded us 360 degrees. A first for the MyEverest site was also achieved with the first Audio Post from a summit successfully recorded.

So 100% success rate for 5 on Island Peak.

Special Mentions
All of the group had recently picked up a head cold and managed to overcome the constant coughing and shortness of breathe to ensure this goal was achieved. A big effort!!

The experience and professionalism of Paul Adler through out this trip should be specially noted as the groups achievement was not possible without his guidance and assistance. So from the rest of the team....Thank You!

Our Sherpa guides Passang and Mila and there support team did not put a foot wrong. Thanks guys. Great work!

So once again thanks for all the words of encouragement and support from family and friends from around the world. We will now enjoy a few days walk out of the Sagarmatha National Park and a flight from Lukla back to Kathmandu.

This will be my last post until Paul and I return next year.

Best Regards,
David Armstrong

Your Messages
Hi you know who.
Thanks for your message last night. It gave me the extra energy I needed today to get up to the summit.
Lots of love, Me

Hi Jude,
Good to hear we're registered for Abu Dhabi race and you guys are in training. I'm looking forward to getting back to Oz now and getting into some solid training and fattening up in the 2 weeks before we depart. Yep, make sure we're racing under the Aussie flag rather than the Austrian flag! I'll call you when I'm back on either the 24th or 25th. BTW, yes, you should be jealous of not being here... ;)
Darren