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Five guys trekking to EBC and climbing Island Peak
Scott is embarking on a climb of Ama Dablam
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Paul's second Mount Everest climb: an unfinished goal 
TA's Mt Everest climb, inspiring young people to dream big 
Pat is climbing Mount Everest - the last of his 7 summits 
Gavin is following his dream to climb Ama Dablam 
Aeronik continues her reinvention as she climbs Mt Kilimanjaro
Transition Blues
Howdy,
Up early again-though now I have shifted from 3 AM to 5 AM. I have heard that it takes a day per hour of jet lag to truly catch up so I have a few more days to go. Yesterday and this morning I haven’t felt so great. I seem to have developed a phantom random productive cough and the nausea has paid a return visit so time to get it together for my doctor here to give me a good going over!
Six more of my teammates summitted last night. I think the last wave may be trying tonight. Glad to know they made it up and down safely.
I did an interview on NTV news yesterday that will air tonight and perhaps tomorrow night as well. I met the reporter on the top of Signal Hill. It was my first trip up there since I returned and I found looking out at the city and ocean really put me a reflective state. The memories of hours and hours of training came flooding in especially if I looked east towards Everest. I could almost “see” Everest in the distant clouds as I struggled to find the words to answer the reporter’s questions.
I still feel so inarticulate in speaking of the experience since I’m really just beginning to give it voice. Although I wrote of it daily, I think speech and writing must come from different parts of my brain and access different parts of the climb. Those of you who can watch NTV can let me know how the interview went, as I don’t have a TV.
I’m into the part of the transition that is much less fun. The sparkle of returning has been replaced by the tarnish of sorting out living back in the “regular” world. I locked myself out of the house. My car mirror got kicked in. I have a “noisy line” which makes it sound like water is running in the house all the time. The car battery was dead. And no one bangs pots to tell me it’s time to eat, so I forget to.
In many ways, life on Everest was so simple and easy. Sleep. Walk uphill. Eat when Pemba knocks the pots. Read. Sleep. Repeat. Life “on the outside” at the moment seems much more complex and difficult. Funny how perspective changes. Once again, I think I am charged with going slow-“bistante, bistante” as the sherpas would say, “slowly, slowly!” Remembering to breathe. Remembering that everything is impermanent including transition. Quite soon, I will be ensconced in life here again.
TA
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Messages
Connection
LAM — Sun, 05/20/2007 - 12:00Your description of what you are going through with getting into ordinary life reminds me of how I felt the weekend after my by-election campaign! There was only one focus in my life every day for three weeks. My Pemba was my campaign manager.
post big-event syndrome
sarah — Sun, 05/20/2007 - 12:52Jill, Dallas, TX
TA, when I was finishing up my Ph.D. I was told that there would be a big let-down after it was all over. Sure enough, it happened. I don't know that it has a name, but I would imagine that this type of thing happens to everyone after having had single-minded, intense focus for a long period of time. I wonder if Ed Viesturs and others who have completed the 14 8000ers felt the same way after having focused for so long on topping out on those peaks. As you said, you will get back into the swing of things and as one organization likes as one of its slogans - "just do the next right thing". Thank you for continuing to post after returning home. Those of us who have been following you will also suffer "post-following-TA" syndrome when you quit.
im, proud of you still
Visitor — Sun, 05/20/2007 - 14:04dear TA,
hey, its brittany hanlon from hazlewood and im still veary proud of you for what you have done for us back here and i no that you tried.Even tho you got sick you stayed up there to make us happy and we are veary happy. so i hope you are getting over the sickness that you had!r u feeling better if so im glad you had a hardgoing over for the past ahhh...ill just say month.Well i gotta go c ya later!!!
!!~~**brittany!!~~**
Photo's
truvei — Sun, 05/20/2007 - 15:42Hi TA,
Loved your photo's today, and like you, the self portrait is a favourite. Basecamp looks like a pretty heavily populated area. I often think about what life would be like without computers, telephones, televisions, or radios. Some day I'm going to try and do that for at least a week. Should be an interesting experience for me. I think I might get a little resentful also with having to face a busy life all over again. Good luck with the transition. In no time you'll be enjoying the every day circumstances of your life and will no longer be dealing with what it took for you to make the climb, deal with illness and make the decision to return, and other circumstances of your fantastic trip to Nepal!.
Take care, Trudy
Yep. Right on schedule.
wilberfan — Sun, 05/20/2007 - 16:14"Post Big-Event Syndrome". Yep. Predictable and expected. You're right on track. Swirly-ness. Difficult to articulate... You must have REALLY mixed feelings to know your teammates summited yesterday...!
I continue to love your dispatches (and those pictures! Wonderful self-portrait.). I look forward to more surprises about your physicality ("Wow!! I never realized what a huge uvula she had!") ;-)
Scott
To be expected
Visitor — Sun, 05/20/2007 - 16:49Hey TA and hello from Louisiana..I also have followed your long journey and am so happy you are still posting. After finishing my masters degree in nursing I decided to go right back and start another degree without taking a break. Now that school is out for the summer I'm asking myselft everyday, "what am I going to do with all this time on my hands"? I think when we focus so hard on something for so long we all feel somewhat lost when its over. I know you will find yourway each day as things settle down for you. I'm dreading the day when you stop posting, I think all us readers have grown to think of you as our personal friend. Loved the pictures, keep em coming!
Eileen
Shreveport, Louisiana
It's totally normal
Visitor — Sun, 05/20/2007 - 18:01I think the feelings you are having right now are 100% normal, we all go through it, I know I do. When I buy a new car, bought my house, go on a vacation, whatever, the getting ready, the research, the wondering and anticipation is sometimes the best part of it all. When I put so much thought and efford into whatever big thing it may be, afterwards I sometimes wonder was it all
worth it ?
But it must have been because soon or later I'll do it all again.
I can recall back in the 60's being in grade 11 and sitting in class one afternoon and listening on radio to the lift-off of the first American to orbit the earth, I still can remember that feeling of amazemant. TA I'm sure that many of the children you have spoken to over the past months, and those of us that have followed you on this journey will retain memories of this adventure for many years to come. I know for me I will, because it is the first time that I have really ever followed what is involved in such an undertaking, and I have to thank you for that opportunity.
It is "Totally Awesome"
So give yourself plenty of time to think about all that has happened over the past months, and I'm sure that in the months to come you will be heading off on a new adventure, knowing that you have become a part of many other lives around this planet.
Pictures are great, as close as I'll ever get to Everest. Keep em coming.
Don P
Thanks for the journey, TA
StellarKart — Sun, 05/20/2007 - 19:28Hi TA
I've followed along with you the past few weeks after finding your blog on Paul's website. Your insights and writing talent are amazing. You communicate what your experiences on Everest were like as no one before you. Your writing is both transparent and thought-provoking and inspiring. I have no doubt you will return to Everest one day, wiser and stronger. The mountain will be waiting for you, beckoning you once more, like a Siren. There is a haiku I thought of when reading your posts, it's from David Brin's novel "Startide Rising"; one of the story's heroines states "Of what are heroes made, but men and women who, like us, Try." It's been a privilege to watch you "Try" these past weeks. God's blessings to you as you transition to "normal" life once more, I pray each day you will find more peace.
Cheers,
Mark R in Pennsylvania USA
Post Partum Everest
taloeffler — Sun, 05/20/2007 - 20:00Mark and All the Folks Above,
Thanks for your words of support. You're right. I'm smack in the middle of post partum Everest and because I came home early, I didn't have to jump right back into life and so can't just ignore this part. Transition has always been one of my challenges and even though I gave myself so much practice with it the past two years, I knew this one was good to be a doozey-because the experience was so big. Not only am I leaving the mountain, I am leaving the 18 months of preparing for the mountain behind. The "Road to Everest" was as full and intense as my mountain experience.
It's a bit like I'm perched over one of those big crevasses in the icefall. I'm on the ladder looking down into a large abyss. I'm actually quite safe on the ladder but it is dizzying to look down into all that space. One of my favorite sayings is "This too shall pass." I know that one day soon I will wake up and I'll be off the ladder and on the other side of the crevasse. Until then, I will clip into various literal and metaphorical safety lines, place my crampons carefully, and move from rung to rung with intention and care.
Thanks for understanding,
TA
post partum blues
daviecrewcut — Mon, 05/21/2007 - 00:09Hi TA
I can't believe what you named your 'transition'..PPE! when I read your post early this morning, the first thing that popped in my mind was that you were describing the 'big let down' that a lot of women feel after they give birth!!That may seem way out there, but it is true!! You build up all these expecations and when it doesn't turn out like you planned, you get the blues!! I can remember coming home from the hospital with Erika, after all the planning, getting everything ready and then suddenly, BHAM, I was home with a screaming infant who didn't sleep like babies in those cute commercials! BUT it got better and I adapted and survived the transition to parenthood!
You will wake up on the other side of that crevasse but before that happens, as you balance on that ladder, you will survive with the support of your friends and the courage and resolve that has allowed you to tackle mountains and so much more!!
take care and see you soon
Nancy
Continueing Challenges
dalveran — Sun, 05/20/2007 - 23:31Hey, TA! Thanks for describing what you are feeling during this transition. I'm sorry things are rough for you. I remember feeling out of sorts after coming back from a 60-day canoe expedition on the Hanbury and Thelon rivers in 1987. It is hard to deal with all the noise and hustle-bustle of life in techno-land after being in the wilderness for a long journey. Know that I am thinking of you and wishing you peace and health!
Hugs,
Anne Dal Vera