Next morning now 5 deaths we wake to a sunny day my legs are still not working well and get dressed and start down Les and George have already left. The plan is to go from C4 meet Dan at C3 and keep going down to C2. I pass the Dutch guy still in a bag and 2 Indain climbers in yellow suits that have been moved down above the Geneva spur. They were not struggling and looked peaceful. I start slow and gain strength as I get lower, make to though the Geneva spur and repel the yellow band with no problems. I desend the Lotse face and meet Dan at C3. I continue down to C2 and make it off the face and have a half mile of flat before I start shutting down again. Dan check my O2 is out and the mask is suffocating I take it off and continue very slowly. I get to C2 at 1130 PM everyone is in their tents asleep I get another bottle of O2 and go to sleep.
I wake early and get to the kitchen tent find Les and George they bring us spam and mustard and is the first meal I had in days. We talk about the the terrible things we saw and our plans. I struggle to tell the story we all are emotional Les and George are marines both deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. Les seeing some bad things he tells me we did what we could for the dying climbers and forget about it. The next move is from C2 to Basecamp then the long trek to Lukla. I am moving slowly and know I will not make it through the ice falls before noon and have to spend another night at high camp to recover enough.
I make the call for a helicopter to get out I and in 2 hours I grab my gear and make it to the helipad hope to leave all our gear and get les and Geroge on but the chopper lands and said only one passenger. I quickly tell everyone goodby and load in the chopper put headsets on and the pilot informs me that it is to warm he may not get off the mountain he also disconnects his O2 to shut the door and when he puts his head set on he tells me he is F__ked. The brief time without O2 has him too dizzy to fly he ask me to check his hose and make sure his O2 tank is not empty. Everything is good and after another 10 minutes with rotor spinning he lifts off. He bounces gets 6 feet off the ground spins and after he clears the helipad we free fall to Basecamp I unload meet Kenji and Yangie with my other bags load another heli and within a few hours in Lukla. I get to namiste lodge still in my summit suit and heavy boots check on flights tomorrow if I get out of Lukla I will make it home in 36 hours.
I get lucky get our make my flights from Lukla to Katmandu to Doha to Chicago to Evansville and home without a glitch. I eat pizza and a beer in Lukla and get sick I don't care I have a toiled to sit on a shower and find a barber to cut my hair and shave me so I don't scare people when I get home. My face is burnt with a spot of frost bite on my cheek, my legs are back but still will not win a race. I sleep eat and write my notes on the flights home my expedition isn't finished until I make it home and I treat it as I was still makeing it from camp to camp. Land with Lisa waiting and my expedition is finally over.
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