I'm back home and feeling good. Well, as good as one can be after an Everest expedition. The official weight I lost was 30 lbs, give or take a few. I initially thought it was 25 or so, but I woke up the following morning and was 6 lbs lighter....what the? And that was a few days after my summit push (which I'm sure I was lighter just afterwards). Pretty scary. I didn't even lose that much last time I climbed Everest, and this time I was eating like an absolute cow (steaks and chickens and all that goodness). I'm pretty sure it had to do with the extended time we spent at ABC as well as the longer summit push on the North Side. I have a bit of frostnip on my thumbs and pointer fingers, as well as my two big toes (just the tips though). They are still numb and the outer layer of skin is coming off. I'm happy with that...no permanent damage.
After all was said and done, this season on Everest was actually pretty normal, aside from the poor weather forecasts we had. In my opinion the weather was just totally bizarre on the North Side. Everything seemed "early" in April, and then the Jet Stream just never really lifted properly as it was supposed to, so we could sneak under it. I remember getting on the plane back to London from Delhi on May 29th, reading the paper, and there was an article talking about how the monsoon hadn't properly moved in yet and that it was still expected to do so in the next few days. Crazy. That's so late in the season. For a more in depth recap of the season, check out Alan Arnette's blog post:
Anyways, the bottom line is that the North Side was brutally cold and windy and my body just wasn't suited for it this time around. Voila. Now I'm home in Miami, sun-burned from the beach already, and starting the process of bulking up again (FYI, I can't lift anything at the gym anymore...it's pretty sad). I'll be dreaming of my next big challenging climb (probably some time next year), but in the mean time, it's back to hardcore memory training for the World Memory Championships come December.
Cheers!
(PS. Pics are coming soon....stay tuned. Video too.)