First of all I want to direct you all to my Everest 2010 video. It is a compilation of some of the video clips / pics from my expedition and I hope it gives you a good insight into what life is like up there. If nothing else, you can listen to the demise of my voice!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZL1OLMt8H8 (it is in 3 parts – this is the link to Part 1)

I just wanted to write another blog having returned to the UK and had time to reflect on, I suppose, “what might have been.”

The past week hasn’t been the most tasking of my life I have to admit. The skies are blue, the sun is shining so unlike in the past two months I can relax outside without the fear of being blown away. Plus, there is actually grass here – I know, unreal!!

It would obviously have been nicer and probably more relaxing to have made the top but sadly things just don’t always go to plan. It is about how one reacts that is the key. On my other mountains I have been fortunate in many ways and always had success so I suppose it is a shock to the system that I am now facing the inevitable reality of not succeeding in the original objective.

I am purposefully avoiding the terms, “failure” or “lack of success” because I do not see it that way.

I gave it my all, yes, and did not make the top, yes. Saying that though, the lessons I learned from the exped will assist me in any other ventures I choose to undertake. Human life is way way more important than the summit of any mountain. Peter Kinloch’s family (Scottish climber who died on the mountain a few days after our ascent) will, i’m sure, testify to that. I said in my last blog that it would take a cold person to pass teammates who are altitude sick and delirious, but sadly some people, in their selfish pursuit of the summit, do precisely that. Rather a sobering thought I must admit.

It was an incredible experience, it really was. Yeah, Everest has changed a lot. It isn’t the purists dream it once was. The North is much better than the South but still, it isn’t great in a commercial sense. Hypocritical I know…I suppose I am part of that conveyor belt. Still though, being up there, alone in the dark on the Northeast ridge is, I can assure you, an immensely lonely place and one that I won’t forget. Passing bodies on the edge of a rock face with a mile long drop either side is again, not something i’m going to forget.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to go to such amazing places.

So, the question I am being asked a lot right now is….what next? A fair question I agree, I would probably ask it as well…in fact, I do ask myself it, a lot. Everest is still there. It will be there next year, it will be there in 2012 and guess what, it will be there in 2020 as well. You get the drift.

What i’m saying is, yes, I will go back, I have no doubt at all about that. Having got so close, having not made the top for reasons outside my control, means that Everest is unfinished business. I know for sure that I can do it, more now than before in fact. It has only increased my desire in fact.

2010 on Everest wasn’t my year but I hope and believe that one day, hopefully sometime soon, I will stand on top of the world.

Thank you again to my sponsors for all their support. Thank you for all the messages I have received in the past few weeks, hearing such sound advice and kind words from so many people I respect is touching. Thank you also for following my blog and giving me so much support – in the meantime, if you are interested, check out the video I made.

All the best,

Geordie