Return to Everest 2009

Keith Cowing: I have been home from my trip to Mt. Everest in Nepal for a month. That trip lasted for a month and a half. I was gone longer than I have been back. While I have readjusted to my life here, part of me is very much still there. And to be honest, I like that situation. That said, I am still trying to process all that happened at Everest.

Dateline: Space, New York Times

"Before Friendship 7, handheld photography in space was "thought to be a distraction," said Scott E. Parazynski, a former astronaut. "But as people saw these images, they realized they weren't just pretty pictures and it was imperative to photograph up there." Photographing in a space suit can be tricky. It is all the more difficult in zero gravity. "Just juggling your photographic equipment while floating takes a lot more thought," said Dr. Parazynski, who participated in seven space walks during five missions. "You use a lot of Velcro." With the sun rising and setting about sixteen times a day, the lighting conditions also produce dramatic challenges, and the extreme temperatures can freeze camera shutters. "You can't bring back anything tangible besides those photographs as a record of where you've been and what you've done," he said. (Souvenirs like moon rocks are strictly against protocol.) "We're given this god's-eye view, so we need to learn how to capture it and bring it back home."

Scott has posted a number of images from his trip to Mt. Everest online at Picasa. You can look at the photos here.

Several weeks ago, my friend Wayne Hale asked his Tweet community: "Space Policy forum is debating the definition of exploration. Is Scott Parazynski climbing Mt Everest "exploration"?"

An excellent, thought-provoking question that I hadn't had time to properly address while on the mountain. Here is my take on the matter, having recently taken journeys to both space and Everest's top...

"But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why thirty five years ago fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills. Because that challenge is one we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win."

This is the anniversary -- you know I'm big on anniversaries -- of the first ascent of Mt. Everest by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary. Even JFK compared going into space with climbing the highest mountain. Since a good friend and college, Scott Parazynski, just completed his personal conquest of that mountain, it seems timely to review the comparison.

Family photos on the summit.

26 May 2009

Just six days ago I’d wearily downclimbed to Everest’s base camp. As I sat in a small blue tent that evening tenuously perched over one particularly malodorous barrel, a loud rockslide thundered directly towards me. I briefly thought of the irony of it all: I had finally summited “The Mountain of My Dreams”, only to succumb to a tragic potty accident… Think of all the eulogy possibilities!

The intense days of my Everest summit climb, the long descent and my return to Kathmandu’s “civilization” have zoomed by, but the key details remain as vivid as the photographs and video we took on top. Simply stated, Everest was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, physically and mentally, but strangely enough this was also my ultimate reward. Some things just don’t have to make sense…

Thanks very much for following along with my adventure to its exciting conclusion. I greatly appreciate the many comments on the blog, and the supportive emails I’ve received while away. I hope I don’t bore you with too many details, but here is my day-by-day account of the end game: