Tonya sings on the summit and hurts on the way down

Tonya Riggs is a petite woman overflowing with warmth, energy and emotions.

Here is what she initially wrote with some pictures from Jamie.

[Half the team is en route to Kathmandu (23-24 May), the other half at BC about to leave, all except Jamie who is helping with the Project Himalaya summit push.]

20 May back at ABC

Ahhhhh safety at last. I do not know where to begin or what to say. Thanks to everyone for making it possible for me. The prep, the training, the words of encouragement, and all the back-up while I am away. There is a start. I am sorry that we worried a few folks with no news. Lance wanted to wait until he knew we were all safe before he started reporting on one or two of us.

First for the mystery of the song on top. John Riggs has me so dialed….yes, it was the Carpenters, "I’m on the top of the world looking down on creation….." For those of you that don’t know, John and I were married 11 years, and when I called him to say, “Guess what has happened to me?” he said with no hesitation, “You are going to climb Mount Everest.” Most everyone I know got it within three guesses, nobody else in one.

Well I DID IT! I really did it. Now I have to clarify…the reason I was second on top is because

1) I left at least an hour and a half before everyone else and

2) my oxygen was cranked high from the beginning and

3) I was so afraid that if I didn’t make it by 9:00, Jamie would make me turn around. I was on a mission. I had the best Sherpa named Da'Yula who was the most loving and caring of them all.

This was by far the hardest thing I have ever done and I cannot decide if it was more emotionally taxing or physical. I think I am going to say Everest took more of an emotional toll on me than anything. We met so many wonderful people and so many of them are no longer alive. I had to step over the feet of one of them (David Sharp). I think I had a minimum of ten emotional breakdowns throughout the climb. We nearly lost one of own, Sele. Apparently he ran out of energy below the second step and just shut down [Actually just below the summit]. Lance and Jamie had to beg him to keep moving. Our communication was minimal so we had no idea if he was even alive. For hours I climbed with the thought that we had lost one of our own.

I set off for the summit bid at 11:00pm and was on top around 7:25am. The climb was surreal. We had a lot of moonlight and I was just awestruck. I saw forever in all directions. There were lots of lightening in the far distance. When I approached the ridge, the moon was so intense I thought someone was shining a big spotlight in my face. I was about to ask the person to turn it off when I realized it was the moon. It was so close I felt like I could touch it. We had the mountain pretty much to our self. I would guess there were maybe ten or less others going for the summit. It was so mysterious. I could see peaks in all directions. In no time I was looking down on Pumori…it was way down there. I wasn’t even near the top and I felt like everything in the world was below me.

There was a slight breeze with no precipitation. It became light so early. I thought it might be 7:00 or 8:00 am and yet it was only 4:30 or 5:00am. It was amazingly bright outside. I felt strong because my Sherpa guide Da'Yula cranked my oxygen when I hit the rock climbs. I used to bottles to get up and down. During the cruxes we turned me up to 4 liters per minute. The climb was nothing like I had read about. There was enough snowfall that we walked on packed snow instead of the shale like slippery rock that was previously reported on the ridge. This made for easy traversing. The cruxes were very slippery rock and quite steep but completely doable. In my opinion Mallory could have climbed through the second step with ease….it clearly goes as Conrad Anker has proven.

[Jamie says: "I'm not so sure"]

On top, it was quite windy but not too cold. I think we decided it was 15F below. I looked over and saw folks coming up from the South. I looked down on the summit of Ama Dablam and could not believe how much higher I was above it. [Tonya has previously climbed it]. Again, I was in a dream state. Strange things were happening on the summit. Folks were kissing the ground and leaving things on top. My camera would not work at all. It turned on and the lens projected out but it would not take a photo or close. You have seen a bit of the summit footage on the EPP website. I stood on top for at least 45 minutes. It went by so fast. All I could do was look around in amazement. We did some filming and spoke to Lance via the radios. I could take my mask off intermittently with no problem. The top is very small….maybe 20 people could fit on top.

I returned to our high camp at 8,300m around 1:00pm and rested a bit on oxygen. I was very wiped out. I wanted to stay the night and then retreat to 7650m the next morning but Sele was in danger and needed the tent and the oxygen…we needed to leave and free up some space. Around 3:30pm we left for camp 2 and didn’t make it. It became very windy and we had a little epic…..I must save that story for the next e-mail. Tomorrow we have the 15 mile hike to Base Camp. I am not sure when I can write again. This will be a long hike….the bottom of my feet are raw.

Love to you all…..

Tonya
 

[Both Tonya and Da'Yula (at times carrying 4 oxygen bottles) tore/slightly damaged the muscles around the diaphragm while breathing so hard; these injuries will heal in time. Tonya (and Da'Yula) did make it down to the thicker air of BC without problems on 22 May.]

Da'Yula heading up to the North Col - photo by Namgyal

Back in Kathmandu -  the rest of the story

... I am really fatigued and very weak.  I think I am less than 90 lbs but eating lots and sure to regain my strength in the next two weeks. The mountain was so easy to get up, it was getting down that was the challenge. Here is the rest of the story...

While hanging out at ABC I met so many wonderful people... THEY DIED on the mountain. Oh my, it was the most difficult of all difficult situations I have ever encountered. Dave Sharp died on the trail (we essentially had to step over him). His death is very controversial because the world is wondering why people walked passed him and did not give him oxygen or assistance. He literally died on the trail. David was British and a good friend of Jamie's.

Then there is Vitor for Brazil. He died quietly in his tent at 8,300 meters. We spent a lot of time with Victor. He was a father of two little children. His death is so upsetting.

A wonderful French woman lost her husband to a fall. He was seen after the third step just hanging on the fixed line. She did not go above C3.

There were others and this really took an emotional toll on me. None-the-less, I climbed up with no problem and really enjoyed summit day. I was on top early and then back at C3 (8,300 meters) by say 1:00 in the afternoon. I was emotionally whipped by the excitement and the adrenaline. All I wanted to do was sleep on oxygen and then descend all the way to the North Col the next day. I couldn't. With Sele's rescue and the risk of another night at 8,300 meters it was important for me to keep moving down. Sele would need the tent space and the oxygen etc.

So, I started down. I was emotionally drained. I think I stopped at every dead body and cried. Da'Yula started preparing me for the deaths and he would shake me back to my senses at times and tell me to stay focused.

I had spent so much time training on the uphill and not enough on the downhill so I found myself having a difficult time walking downhill. It is very steep from the high camp to C2 and you cannot rappel as the lines are just too tight. You can't even angel arm rappel at times as it is to too tight. Brad short roped me just so I could move a bit faster and have the security of being attached to him. Brad is our cameraman and a guide on Aconcagua. It was a great help. However, we did not leave high camp until 3pm and it started getting dark and very windy.....our next camp was at 7650 meters. Micha was with us but ahead of us. As the winds became unruly.....we hear Micha yelling, "Brad.....over here." We found Mica in a stranger's tent. We climbed in to regroup. Our tents were still another 200 meters below and we did not think we could make it there. Micha was complaining of frostbitten toes and I was so weak all I wanted to do was sit.

We decided to spend the night in this tent at 7900m. Think about how high this is, there aren't many mountains higher than this. It was awful, the three of us crammed in this tent. Da'Yula brought me my next tank of oxygen but I gave it to Micha because he was in worse shape. Brad and I slept without oxygen. Let me restate, I did not sleep. I spent the entire night wiggling my toes and fingers in complete fear of losing them all. Every five minutes I just wiggled. We boiled water using the snow blew into the tent. It was awful water with lots of floaties.....ick!!!! I did not have enough power in my boot warmers to turn them up and my feet were wet so I had no choice but to take my boots off. I did keep the batteries on and near my chest which kept my core a bit warm.

The next morning it was still howling. Micha took off, he needed to get down fast. Brad had dropped a mitten on summit day so he took off due to cold hands [Jamie had a spare but we didn't meet]. Da'Yula and I started down. We only needed to get to 7650m to our tents to get more oxygen. The wind was blowing me over. We were both in bad shape. Every ten to 30 feet I would fall. Sometimes due to wind and other times due to fatigue. Finally, Da'Yula called for oxygen to be brought to us. He sat down and encouraged me to wait. I was being plummeted by the wind and feared frostbite. We were on the edge of C2. Many of the tents were torn apart, very little left. I crawled and rolled to a torn tent that offered a little shelter....I rolled through piss, food, and trash but got some relief. I was only about 20 feet from Da'Yula. I lay face down and started crying for no reason other than I was a bit scared and completely frazzled. I think I fell asleep because the next thing I know, a rescue sherpa [Project Himalaya sherpa] rolled me over and shoved a mask on my face. I had oxygen, suddenly the world became visible again and life was getting better. I was on the oxygen for about ten minutes and then able to get up and retreat down to our tents at 7650m where we could get more oxygen and water.

Because of the long exposure so high we needed to get all the way to the North Col. A wonderful Sherpa named Nima Tenzi [a Project Himalaya sherpa] escorted me down to the North Col. It was a long day. Every step hurt but I was happy and talkative and smiling. We found at about 7500m we were out of the wind and the sun was warm. It was just a slow process-every step hurt. The bottoms of my big toes were blistered (I think only from my boots being a bit too big and my feet slid around more than necessary). My quads were screaming! Going up...piece of cake. Coming down...HELL.

Got to the North Col at a decent time and spent the night on oxygen. Almost suffocated. I put the mask on and some time in the night rolled onto my stomach, face down with the mask.....ran out of O2 and woke up gasping. Funny at the time. My face still hurts from sleeping on the mask. I think I bruised all my face muscles.

The day down from the North Col was beautiful. Got back to ABC and ate lots of peanut butter and Nutella, hehehehehe. Had a rest day at ABC and then did the awful 15 mile hike back to BC.

Now in Kathmandu  I need to recover and regain my strength. I need to put on about 15 pounds.....most importantly, I need to get out of Kathmandu. (I am not going to rock climb in Thailand....in fact, I could not pull one move at the moment). I am just going to sleep in the warm sun for a couple days. I will still be home as scheduled. My lungs need recovery as does my entire body. Everything hurts at the moment.

It was all worth it. I would do it again tomorrow from the south side. It was a wonderful journey and a fabulous climb. I learned the power of the death zone. It has an amazing relaxing effect on you. All you want to do is sleep and rest in your tent. You must keep moving down no matter how much it hurts. Your body can only handle so much at that high elevation. I understand how so many many perished in their tents....sleeping after a great summit. It is really sad and very scary.

So as Paul Harvey would say....that was the rest of the story.

I love you all and can't wait to come home. Tonya

[She is home now]