A final challenge – Ask yourself these 3 questions – By Elia Saikaly
I challenge you to take a moment to ask yourself these three questions: Do I know what I am most afraid of? Do I dare to dream of facing it? Am I living my most adventurous life? One of the greatest risks you can take, in my opinion, is to publicly declare the undertaking of a challenge where the outcome is uncertain. In my case, the odds of successfully reaching the top of Mt. Cho Oyu were rather slim especially when taking into account that last season there were very few summits. Once I evacuated my climbing partner Kheiry, sent down my 2 climbing Sherpas and my basecamp support...
The men and women behind the success of our 8000M expedition – By Elia Saikaly
More often than not, the support teams on successful 8000M ascents remain the unsung heroes. It is almost classically executed by Westerners to omit the names of all of those who helped them achieve their goal of standing atop one of the world’s highest peaks. The following is my attempt to share with you the many men and women who helped make this ascent possible. Few have the ability, the stamina and the resources to truly attempt something like this completely on their own. The dream began with the man, my friend, who dreamt up this idea: Kheiry Sammakieh. It was his...
Not without my baby – Crossing the Tibetan Border
Today I bore witness to a truly incredible sight – Love in its most formidable and unconditional state. A fundamental response to survival that left me astounded and quite honestly purely dumbfounded. On one level, I felt extremely guilty for having captured this on video, yet in the same breath I felt a responsibility to share what I saw with all of you. As I was crossing the Tibetan (Chinese) border, preparing to enter Nepal after an extremely arduous climb, I noticed a dozen Nepali women swarm our transport truck, each determined to carry 2-3 pieces of our equipment and supplies...
Endless suffering – The Summit of Cho Oyu part 2- By Elia Saikaly
It’s 1:00am and we still haven’t left camp for the summit. The wind is violently shaking our little North Face tent at 7100M above sea level. What happened to our perfect weather forecast? I’m currently breathing supplementary oxygen and I’m finding it challenging to see through the mask. I’m also slightly paranoid about my toes. I ALWAYS have issues with my toes above 8000M and the wind sounds unforgivably cold. I force myself to consume dehydrated vegetables and pasta in a pack and I ceremonially prepare for the final ascent. We step outside the tent and...
A tale of hardship and calculated risks – The Summit of Cho Oyu part 1
The truth is that I’ve been sick ever since Kheiry left. After evacuating him from ABC (5700M) I had to climb back through a storm, got lost in the middle of the night in snow up to my waist, nearly lost all sensation in my left foot and never fully recovered. For those that are unaware, up here cuts don’t heal, cold’s don’t just ‘go away’ and any form of sickness evolves into a much more serious condition. Perfect. All I had to was get up an 8,201M giant and apparently I had 4 days to do it! I received a weather forecast stating that the the night of...
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