I have annotated a shot from the South Col on May 23 prior to our ascent with landmarks. Understand the South Col is at 26,000 feet. Look closely and you will see climbers on the triangular face.

You can see part of our team getting ready below. We had been climbing up to this point for several days, spending two nights at camp 2, one night at camp 3 and eventually two nights here, not including the complete day ascending from the south col to the summit and back.  For me it was 24 hours of movement on Everest from this point.

Laurel and I accepted the gracious invitation of Jeff Greene and the Newport Kiwanis club to speak about our Everest adventure. It was a fabulous experience and we met a number of wonderful folk and even sold some copies of my first book, “Tempting the Throne Room“. It so inspired us that we decided to leave and go up the road and make tracks to Ramsay’s Cascade.  We timed it perfectly between big storms so the water flow was ideal, as you can see.

Crimson bee balm patches in front of flowering rhododenron made me feel as if I was chasing the Himalaya back home. I’ve missed the Smokies in all her humid glory last spring. Thankfully, remnants keep me connected.

 These monster poplars are not to be found in Nepal.

 And neither are snakes, up at our Khumbu elevations anyway. This is my first one of the year. Since departing April 4, I haven’t been in the Smokies and reconnecting with home mountains gave me great perspective on the Everest climb. So much goes through my head each day, some new memory or synaptic connection regrows. I think we spent so much time at altitude that my brain is reforming and collating some thoughts from the experience. I could talk for a week about the events of our summit day alone. Laurel is tired of me saying, “Oh, and did I tell you about this?”  I found myself at Kiwanis trying to condense a life experience into 20 minutes. Thankfully, our audience was so accommodating.

Last weekend we spent in Athens, GA. Laurel has accepted a real professor job down there so we helped settle her into a new house, which needs work on the air conditioning we discovered. Athens was a lot of fun; never seen so many restaurants and bars in one place. I suppose that is representative of a college town.  I wish Knoxville had that variety of food.

I’ve got two more Rotary speaking engagements coming up in Clinton and Bearden, then another Kiwanis gig in Alcoa. If you are affiliated, please come by and say hello. I leave you with a shot of me and my Sherpa brother, Ang Dawa on the summit of Sagarmatha. It is looking as if we may have been some of, if not the very, last people to be there this year.

 Dawa is saying “Rock and Roll”!  Then he drug me off the top of the world, but our time was up.  I hope everyone is enjoying their summer here in E. TN. as much as I am.

John

p.s.  Here is another previously unpublished Everest photo. When I look at it, I am reminded of the cold, stark, lonely ritual known as the “Alpine Start” so dreaded in mountaineering. It is the beginning of the Khumbu icefall as we left basecamp in what would be a weeklong push for the summit. 3.30 am, 10 degrees and 12 hours until our shot directly up to camp 2. Just viewing it sends me into a chill.

Thanks to Cole at WBIR for his interest.

https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/knoxville-man-saves-guides-life-climbing-mt-everest/51-565762367

Many thanks to Alan Williams for his interest and coverage.  It was a lot of fun!

http://www.wvlt.tv/video?vid=485031341

On May 23, Knoxville resident John Quillen sat on top of the world. But the climb to the summit of Mount Everest wasn’t typical.

Quillen, a drug and alcohol counselor, arrived in Nepal in early April and hiked for 10 days to reach base camp. From there, Quillen met Neal Kushwaha of Ottawa, Canada, and spent a month participating in acclimatization — climbing between camps one, two and three to get used to the changes in altitude.

On May 18, the pair, along with their Sherpa companions, started their push up the mountain and by May 20 found themselves in good standing between camp one and two, and were taking a rest when the unthinkable happened.

An oxygen bottle fell from a higher point in the mountain and struck at least two people, including the head of a Sherpa. The Sherpas are a Himalayan people whose members often serve as porters on mountain-climbing expeditions.

“The ugliest part about it is that several people walked by this guy and did not help him, in both directions up and down,” Quillen said.

Kushwaha and Quillen knew that they couldn’t be bystanders, so they moved into action.

“That could have been us and we actually said that to each other. Like that could be you, that could be me, that could be one of our Sherpas, that could have been us,” Kushwaha said. “And (also) some people walking right by us but we had to go do something.”

The duo along with their Sherpas moved the man hit in the head to a safer location before Quillen moved to help a different man who was struck on the leg, ripping his body suit.

Meanwhile, Kushwaha and his Sherpa tended to the head of the injured Sherpa, as blood continue to come from his wound.

More: Local author David Brill recounts first-hand experience with Great Smoky Mountains rescue personnel

More: How ‘American Ninja Warrior’ has changed Knoxville native Grant McCartney’s life

“Neal (Kushwaha) and his Sherpa had to get on the radio and beg what they call the HRA (Himalayan Rescue Association) to dispatch somebody to come up because he’s a Sherpa and he doesn’t have any insurance,” Quillen said. “Western climbers have insurance. We really had to beg some people to come up.”

To make a safe area for a helicopter rescue, Kushwaha and his Sherpa moved the man several feet down the mountain, losing a lot of ground that had already been climbed.

Once the injured were secured, Quillen and Kushwaha along with their Sherpas moved quickly to camp three, but were physically and emotionally exhausted.

“That’s where good fortune I think favors our attempts to help him. It put us into camp three probably late at night around 9:30, 10 (p.m.), which is way too late to be going up the most dangerous part of the climb, the Lhotse Face, which pushed our whole summit schedule ahead several hours,” Quillen said.

This advancement in schedule allowed the duo to take their time to camp four, commonly referred to as “The Death Zone.” They arrived late on May 21 to stay their first night in the the Death Zone, where they experienced rough weather but a clearing the next morning.

“Most people barely survive up there and we were cruising around just re-energized, ready for our summit push, and I can only account for that in divine terms,” Quillen said. “You look at any account of Everest and … it’s a survival game and we were definitely thriving right before our summit push.”

At 7 p.m., the team started their summit push and arrived early the next morning to a nearly empty mountain. Quillen spent a total of 45 minutes on the summit and Kushwaha spent 35, when most get about enough time for a picture.

“It was sunny, it was clear, it wasn’t windy and if it was, it was only at the summit, which is normal. Hardly anybody there and when they did come, it wasn’t anything spectacular,” Kushwaha said. “As magical as it gets, we could probably come to Everest ten more years in a row, and never have that experience again. That’s how crazy it is.”

The two spent two more nights in the Death Zone before heading back to camp two on May 25 and base camp on May 26.

“It was a blessing from God in my mind, no doubt about it. And kind of a nod to the time we took to spend on somebody else,” Quillen said. “That’s the only way I can conceivably see it.”

This is the money shot. You will rarely see a summit video without hordes of climbers. This is a result of my slower pace. I arrived at 10 am, May 23, 2018.  Most climbers had cleared by 8 am. Enjoy.

It comes with the territory for me. Everyone knows I had a bit in 2011 following my summit of Muztah Ata. So predisposition to the mountaineers disease is a recurring possibility. As I descended from Everest’s summit last week, my toes on the right foot developed a familiar throbbing. Getting off Sagarmatha was a priority on multiple levels.

Continued

(Sorry for the pic of a pic, I need a new wifi camera}

I’m still floating on air since my 24 hours above 8000 meters to the summit of Mt. Everest four days ago. It seems like yesterday. I realize that it will take a while to assimilate the events. One thing that has not been revealed was our role in the rescue of a seriously injured Sherpa at the beginning of our summit push which altered the entire schedule to our advantage.

On May 21, our full team headed up to camp 3 on our summit push and started up the bergschrund on the base of the Lhotse face. Immediately an oxygen bottle comes tumbling down the 45 degree slopes and careens over our helmeted heads. Sherpa eschew helmet use for one primary reason. It prohibits use of the endemic forehead strap that connects them to occasional 100 lb loads.  This day, it would almost prove fatal for one heavily laden porter.

Subsequent to the oxygen bottle near miss, I, along with my Sherpa, Ang Dawa and Neil Kushwaha along with his Sherpa, Sange paused to re evaluate the safety of the route given the recent spate of projectiles.  Within two minutes a large rock dislodged from ascending teams on what was becoming a typically blistering day in the Western Cwm of Everest.

The dull thud unmistakably suggested that someone had received the business end of this one. A fully suited Sherpa came dragging towards me. Down was leaking from a profuse gash in his suit. Aside from the obvious injury to an expensive down garment, this high altitude dude appeared uninjured.  He pointed at the hockey stick gulley and indicated there was another victim.

Neil, Dawa and Sange rushed to the scene as ascending climbers ignored the splattered blood and crumpled form in a pool at the base of Lhotse. A sizeable rock, which had clipped the first Sherpa nailed this poor porter. Neil and our Sherpa essentially carried this considerably bloodied chap to a safer point off the fixed line.

Blood was everywhere. We immediately found a pair of his socks to apply pressure to his skull. It was the one thing Icould recall from my last first aid class years ago. This Sherpa was in trouble and was in shock. He couldn’t remember his name. We gave him water and immediately got on the radio. It was Neal, Sange and Dawa who reached Kaji, our Sirdar at Basecamp. From there, Kaji was able to get in touch with the HRA who dispatched a helicopter. The helicopter made a high altitude rescue above camp 2 and this Sherpa was airlifted to Kathmandu. My Sherpa and Neil walked many extra feet to ensure this guy would live to climb again.

The resulting delay caused us to depart from the South Col one day late. In my next post, I will explain how this made all the difference. Right now we are on hold in Namche Bazaar as flights from Lukla are on weather hold. Thanks for following, I will post more photos soon.

John

It seems like this trip has been one long waiting game. I don’t have any “news” per se, but Summit Climb posted that John and team were headed up to camp 3 yesterday which puts them right on their anticipated schedule. They should be waking up in about 2 or 3 hours and heading up to camp 4 tonight. If the weather continues to remain fair, we’re looking at a summit push starting tomorrow evening.

So since I can’t give you a very interesting John update, do we have any Sandra Bullock or “Hope Floats” fans? I was visiting a farm in Smithville, TX last week and realized I was 2 miles from “Birdee’s” house. I’m not 100% sure I’ve seen the  movie but I did swing by anyway.

And this is what my house currently looks like. The pup and I leave Florida for good on Thursday and we are so excited to be closer to John so we can be together on weekends. Longstreet can barely contain his excitement.

Thanks for keeping up with John’s progress. I may update again, but most likely I’ll leave it to John when he gets back to basecamp. Hopefully the internet will be good enough for him to give a thorough report.

Laurel