I was talking to my niece Rayne on the phone yesterday.  She will turn five in June the day before I turn 42.  As you know she had painted me an amazing picture of Mount Everest before I went.

At some point in the conversation, she said "You only climbed to Camp Two."  I answered, "Yes, sometimes we don't get to go as high as we wanted."  After pondering for a minute, she replied, "Did you see the picture I painted for you on your website?"  I said, "Yes."   After a few more moments where she was obviously mulling something over in her mind, she decided, "Maybe next time I will paint it shorter so you can get to the top."  Once again, she melted me.

Scott mentioned wanting to see a few more pictures from the climb.  I am happy to oblige.  I had tried to send this one off the mountain but had ended up reposting the other one of me on the ladder.  This is my favorite image of me on the ladder.  I was climbing so well that day, feeling good, and we cruised down through the icefall.  So I'll be sure to post some new images each day since I no longer have to pray that the union between cable, sat phone, and PDA is maintained.

Four of my teammates summited last night.  One had to turn around.  Another decided to return to basecamp since his health did not allow him to complete the climb.  I imagine basecamp is awash in a multitide of feelings.  Still waiting for confirmation that the summit climbers have returned safely to Camp Four.

Have a good day,

TA