It sounds as if this achievement is even more impressive than usual (if you can call ticking off 8000m peaks and 7 Summits usual...). We've heard very little of the summit story yet, just snatches of poor quality sat phone updates, but apparently Domhnall said yesterday was the hardest day he's ever had in the mountains. Lucille didn't make it quite to the summit, but had to turn back at about 7500m - that's 7500m high on a Himalayan mountain, folks, and one that's had what sounds like the heaviest snowfall season for years. She is an inspiration.
What I know so far is that he and Lucille attempted the summit with an Italian team who they've made friends with on the mountain, starting up from Camp 3 at 11pm Nepalese time on Thursday and climbing through the night. Lucille was carrying her GPS Spot, which sends her location to a webpage, and the first we knew they were trying for the summit was when her husband Ted, back in Edmonton, saw that the Spot had been activated and they were moving. So back at home we watched the Spot slowly move up the mountain and thought about them climbing through the cold, dark, mountain night. Domhnall called from Camp 4 just after dawn on their Friday morning, saying it had been a windy and cold night, but they were both doing well, and hoped to be able to make it to the summit in another 6 hours or so. Then two or three hours later the Spot started moving back downhill again. What was happening? Domhnall called Ted briefly, and before the sat phone cut out said that Lucille was descending but he was still climbing.
By this time it was first thing in the morning in the UK. Not sure how much I slept during the night, but for a couple of hours I sat at home obsessively following the Spot until we could see that Lucille had made it back to Camp 3. But there was no news from Domhnall. I rushed round cleaning the flat, but there was no news from Domhnall. I went out and sat in a cafe and drank multiple cups of coffee, checking Lucille's blog obsessively, but there was no news. Eventually I thought to check to see if there was any information about the Italian team they were climbing with. Hooray for Google: 'Italian expedition Manaslu' came up with a webpage for Adventure Consultants, and when I saw it I remembered that Ted had mentioned that name as the team that Lucille and Domhnall were climbing with. I opened the page. Whoohooo! The Adventure Consultants team had summitted and said the weather had turned, into the best day they'd had so far on the mountain, after weeks of heavy snow and wind. It wasn't conclusive news - I wasn't certain Domnhall was with them (they didn't sound Italian, after all!), but even if he wasn't, he couldn't have been far from them, and at least it sounded like the weather was being kind so he had the best chance of being OK.
By now I'd had far too much coffee. I texted the sat phone to say we were thinking of him and wishing him safe descent. I emailed Ted with the Adventure Consultants link to see what he thought. Then my phone rang - it was the sat phone! In the middle of the noisy cafe I grabbed it and heard Domhnall's voice say he was back at Camp 3. Relief! Happiness! We didn't manage much more before the connection broke, but it was enough to hear that he sounded fine and safe and well. He'd been climbing for something like 19 hours.
It's tough being the home team: never mind the muscles and high-altitude red blood cells and bravery and sheer grit of the mountaineers, it's us who have the nerves of steel ;) But now we had the good news. I texted the rest of the family. There were some more emails back and forth between me, Ted and Domhnall's girlfriend Jen, comparing what we'd each heard, and although none of us actually knew if he'd summitted or not, we knew that both he & Lucille were safe back in a tent and would soon be getting some well earned rest. We'd hear the rest of the story later.
Well, the story's still coming in, and don't think this is nearly the end. Our nerves have a bit more strain to take yet, because Part 2 is about to begin. Lhotse, here we come.....
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