Just got back to Boston about 2 hours ago, and all I have to say is it's great to be home! It's also awesome to see the beautiful, beautiful night, which is something I haven't seen for 19 days. The Boston driving is something that I haven't missed though...
I just want to thank everyone for all of the support. It is somewhat overwhelming to read all of these posts. I know most of you and there might be more spectacular mountains outside of the Northeast, but the people here in the NE hiking community are top notch, and can not be surpassed. You people are fantastic!
Just a few more things before I head to bed;
I will try and post a trip report by the end of the weekend, which will likely be just summit day (the rest of the time we were either just pack animals hauling supplies and gear up and down the mountain, or stuck in our tents due to bad weather) . I will also post some pictures which will likely keep evolving once Ben, John, and I start sharing each others. AND, to answer the question.... yes I was wearing a Yankees cap on the summit. I had a lightweight balaclava under it, and a heavy balaclava over it along with a down hood and a gortex hood. (The summit was -20F with 20-25mph winds, brrrrr.....) It was also nice to come off of the glacier after 16 days to see that the Yanks were up by 5-1/2
Thank you Mohamed for doing such a fantastic job deciphering my messages, and for taking the time to post them. A few of the latter ones I either had reception problems or I was just sheer exhausted. As for the summit message, our summit attempt was in beautiful weather, but due to sheer bad timing (or maybe the spirit of Ted Williams had something to do with it), the clouds started rolling in off the N. Summit and headed towards us as we started ascended towards the S. summit ridge. Before we could make it to the ridge we found ourselves in a whiteout. The rest I will leave for the trip report...
I want to thank Peter Anderson for being the key organizer for this whole adventure. Without him, this wouldn’t have happened. He also was Ben, John, and myself’s inspiration for attempting the summit from 14,200’ (99% of the people do not attempt the summit from here, and most people thought we were nuts, but it’s good to be a little different). Peter did it in 97.
I also want to thank Thom Davis for all of the guidance and planning over the past 8 months. You were also key in making this trip happen. By the way, thanks for leaving that large cache of food at 7200’ basecamp. We spent 17 hours there waiting for a flight off of the glacier, and ravaged the goodies out of your cache like 3 crazed wolverines...
I also want to thank GO for being another key part of this adventure, and for renting the Sat phone. You are like a big brother to me, and I was saddened to see you leave...
As for Ben and John, even though we suffered together, occasionally argued, spent many days roped together, and underwent a severe lack of hygiene that even thru hikers would have envied, I will never forget our experience together, ever... You two were fantastic partners to share this adventure with.
But the number one person to thank is my wife, who lets me keep living my dreams, and prevents my re-occurring nightmare from happening, which is me coming home and finding all of my stuff out by the curb... I am a lucky guy!