Well, I’m back up at Camp 1 (23,000 ft.) on my summit push. May 23rd is the day I’m pushing for. Looks like the 23rd might be a stellar day! It may be a bit on the chilly side, but the forecast is for a clear day… looking forward to that!

As far as my fitness status, there’s not too much to report… Feeling strong after my short two day respite at the 17,000 ft. base camp. A few of the  teams have made the summit on some pretty horrible weather days. Thanks mostly to the magic of bottled oxygen.

It’s funny, I’ve had so many people caution me that what I’m up to is super dangerous, and they’re right as far as it goes… But as I watch “climbers” leave advanced base camp with a mask on I’m thinking the same for them. Leveraging bottled oxygen to that extent is at least as high a risk; if not more. If anything with their system goes wrong it will be a matter of minutes until they’re in serious trouble. What I’m up to ( solo / nOs) is sketchy, but I don’t think they realize just how exposed to risk they are. Being at 29,000 ft. with a body not conditioned to survive at that altitude is, to me, rather foolhardy… But, to each his own poison. The greatest part of climbing is that everyone tailors the adventure to their desire.

I’ll try to do daily updates from now on… as this is the interesting part.