Well my bags are all packed, it's 7am and I'm sitting in my apartment, going over all the little details of the expedition. Making sure I haven't forgotten anything. I've been planning this for 2 years now and it's finally time to go! I leave for California in 3 days to meet my whole team, and from there, we all fly together to Kathmandu. And from there: the Base Camp Trek begins!!!

My flight out of Montreal was very early in the morning, so I said my goodbyes to everyone the day before. My brother and 2 of my good friends came to see me off all the same. My first destination: Montreal to San Diego.

I spent two days in San Diego, visiting my oldest brother, before I would drive to Los Angeles to meet up with my climbing team. Me, J.C. and my nephew Nicolas decided to spend the day at Legoland.

It's 10am, I'm at the Bangkok airport waiting to take our next flight to Kathmandu. I have been flying for 18 hours now: from L.A. to Osaka, japan. then on to Bangkok. I tried to sleep as much as possible. I met up with my climbing partners at the airport and we are all anxious to get the show on the road. 2pm : We managed to get all our expedition gear out of the Kathmandu airport customs in 30 minutes, which is remarkably fast. Normally we would have been there for hours. Tonight we will have our first team supper at our hotel: the Shangrila. I'm happy that we are done with most of the flights, now I only have to get over the Jet Lag!

Today, we shipped out all gear to the airport for the flight to Lukla. This photo shows only one of a total of six loads of food and equipment that will be going to Everest Base Camp over the next 10 days. A total of 6.5 Tons of Gear (13,000 pounds). We also met with the Nepal Ministry of Tourism this afternoon, in order to pick up our Climbing Permit, and to meet with our assigned Nepalese liaison officer. He will be accompanying us to during our expedition. When we returned to the hotel, we were greeted by Mrs. Elizabeth Hawley. She is the person in charge of keeping all the climbing statistics related to Everest: number of expeditions, number of climbers, total summits... She is the main source of information related to Everest. To give a few more statistics related to our expedition: we are a total of 8 climbers, we will have 12 highly qualified climbing Sherpas assisting us in establishing the various camps. We will hire approximately 120 Porters and Yaks that will help bring our Gear from Lukla to Base Camp over the next 10 days. We will also have 2 cooks and 4 Base Camp assistants during the expedition. And Tomorrow, the Trek begins !!!

Wow! What a first day on the Trek. I was up at 3am, had breakfast at 4.30am; we were at the Kathmandu airport at 5.30am. We had to wait 2 hours for the weather to clear at our destination village of Phan Phlu (I definitely misspelled this one!), before taking the plane there. Then we took a helicopter from there to Lukla. It was my first time in a chopper and I got to sit in the co-pilot seat. What an experience; flying at 10,000 feet at the start of the Himalayas, just clearing some mountain tops by less than 100 feet! From Lukla, we started our 4 hour trek to the village of Phakding, 800 feet lower in elevation from where we started. This is where we set up our first camp. The trail and scenery was simply fantastic, just what I had been imagining for the last 2 years. Tomorrow is the big 3000 foot ascent towards the Namche Bazaar. This will be a tougher day.

5 pm, We arrived at Namche today, after a 5 hour, 3000 foot climb, or what we call "THE GRIND!" It was a beautiful day, passing through several villages, as we climbed the great Namche Hill. This is the doorway to the Khumbu valley, and where the people from all over the valley come to trade every Saturday.

Today is a day of much needed rest for us, to give us more time to adapt to the altitude. We are still feeling the effects of the 12 hour change in time zones to get here. Namche sits at 11,000 feet. It is the centre of activity in the Khumbu Valley and where the people from all over the valley come to trade every Saturday. Waking up to the view of Namche and the surrounding 21,000 foot peaks was nothing short of spectacular. A must see!Today is a day of much needed rest for us, to give us more time to adapt to the altitude. We are still feeling the effects of the 12 hour change in time zones to get here. Namche sits at 11,000 feet. It is the centre of activity in the Khumbu Valley and where the people from all over the valley come to trade every Saturday. Waking up to the view of Namche and the surrounding 21,000 foot peaks was nothing short of spectacular. A must see!

We spent the day visiting the village and the people. I will write more about the Sherpas later on, but the few words that come to mind to describe them are: Generous, kind, Patient, great Tenacity and Always Smiling.

We had an absolutely beautiful day to trek; not a cloud in the sky. We left Namche and headed for Tengboche to visit the Monastery and to see the LAMA so he could bless our climb. I also got to see Mount Everest for the very first time. No photograph compares to seeing this majestic mountain with your own eyes. You are surrounded by enormous mountains all around you in the Himalayas. But even from far in the distance, when you look at Everest, it still towers them all. We crossed Ama Dablam along the way; it is a unique and beautiful mountain.

Today was a very special day. We hiked for two hours until we came to a small village, Pangboche. our Sidar Sherpa (head Sherpa) had a very special surprise for us! He arranged for a Buddhist Lama to hold a private Puja ceremony for our expedition. The Lama gave us each a Kata (scarf) to protect us from evil spirits and to give us safe journey to climb Sagarmatha. Then we went to the Pangboche Gompa (Monastery) for a second ceremony. This is the oldest monastery in the Khumbu, 500 years old. We were greeted by two Dawa's (Buddhist Monks) who once again blessed our expedition. This lasted until the early afternoon. We then continued our trek to Pheriche where we would spend an extra day to acclimatize. We our now at 14,000 feet!

We are resting for the day, to further acclimatize to the 14,000 foot elevation. There are a number of things we do to help our bodies acclimatize. Just to name a few; The Rest Step when climbing, which is a pause between every step. Pressure breathing, where we force the air out when exhaling to help the exchange of oxygen. We often take half of a Diamox pill before sleeping, which increases our respiration while we sleep, And we monitor our health every morning and night by checking; heart rate and Oxygen saturation, how much we eat and how many litres of water we drink a day, headaches and stomach problems, coughs and congestion etc. We monitor this every day to see if any patterns or symptoms appear among the climbers, so we can address the issue well before it may become serious!

Today was probably our most important acclimatizing day for the whole trek. We left Pheriche towards Lobuche and gained 1900 feet elevation. We passed a series of Shortens along the way. These are the stones structures build to honour past Sherpas and climbers that have past away on the mountain. Lobuche stands at 15,900 feet in elevation. We are all feeling the effects of altitude now but in general; we have acclimated very well, again because we took our time. We would often see trekkers pass us along the way. But then we would eventually catch up with them in the following days, and they would inevitably be slower, more tired or even sick. We will take another rest day tomorrow and then on the 4th, we will head to Base Camp, finally.

After ten days of trekking, we have finally arrived at Base Camp for Everest. Due to the large number of expeditions that come to climb Everest during this same season, an expedition must often come earlier to reserve where there base camp will be. We actually came in early January to rope off where our Camp would be. We are close to the entrance of the Khumbu icefall and a little off to the left. A very good location. Several of are Sherpas staff have been in camp for over a week, storing the food and equipment that we sent ahead of us. They have done a tremendous job in building our kitchen and dinning shelter. We have allot of work to do over the next few days, finishing our Camp. Everyone is in Great Spirit.

We held our Puja Ceremony this morning, to bless our expedition and protect its members from harm. No Sherpa will climb the mountain before this ceremony. It lasted 3 hours. The Lama chanted prayers, blessed us and our equipment, gave us strings to put around our necks throughout the whole expedition. Then we hung prayer flags across our whole camp. And then we ate and drank "Chang" to celebrate the rest of the day.

We continued to set up base camp today. Our expedition is very well organized. Each climber has his own tent, we have a stone shelter built for our dinning area, and we have a kitchen shelter, even a shower tent. We took some pictures of the whole expedition. This is probably the only time we are all together at the same place until the end of the climb.

We continued to get our Camp ready today, mostly the communications and power systems in place; so that we may charge batteries for the Com radios on the mountain, lighting in the kitchen tent and our personal systems like walkmans, cameras. We use a combination of solar power and a fuel generator. Just to give and idea of the massive infra-structure needed for an expedition of our size to climb mount Everest: We utilize some 40 tents at base camp and on the mountain, 50 sleeping bags, 70 Thermarest pads, 6000 feet of rope, 2 Tons of food, 8000 litres of boiled water for drinking and cooking during our stay. Not to mention the amount fuel needed to boil the water and cook the food! And EVERYTHING is removed from the mountain at the end of the expedition, even our waste..

"If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking." Buddhist Proverb

We had our first general meeting and introductions today, for all the Climbers, Sherpas and staff. We also started strategizing how we will move up the mountain and further acclimatize. We've established a tentative schedule for our moves to higher camps, but most importantly, we structured it so that we would pass through the Khumbu Ice Fall a total of only 6 times! The most hazardous part of the mountain. We prepared our gear for our first visit in the Ice Fall tomorrow! We also had a treat this evening for supper; I brought some Cheese Fondue from home, and it was a Hit with Climbers and Sherpas. They would not stop saying cheese fondue, cheese fondue while eating it! I was very pleased. We eat mostly local food that the Sherpa cooks prepare for us. It's great food, very nutritious and filling. They have been eating it and climbing here for a very long time, so we figured; why change a good thing! The Sherpas use allot of eggs in there food. We will be eating some 1200 eggs during our stay here! It's a good thing I love eggs, but I probably will be sick of them by then end!

"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."- Lao Tzu

Well here we are; our first visit through the Ice Fall. We got up at 4:30 am, ate and where headed into the fall by 5:30. We go into the fall when it's still dark and cold; nothing melts then and there is typically less movement at this time. The goal is to be out of the Fall well before noon, when the sun is blaring! We went up only a third of the way up today, to practice our climbing techniques, efficient movement through the ropes, crossing the ladders that span over the crevasses. Our first crevasse happened to be 20 feet wide, or 3 ladders long, go figure! No need to mention that we took it real slow. We were very pleased with our climb today, even though our breathing quite fast and hard. We are not yet acclimatized for this elevation, but you still have to move FAST through the Ice Fall. Tomorrow, we will rest again, and probably the next day, we will cross the Ice Fall completely and stay at Camp 1 at some 20,000 feet. I also helped set up our shower tent today, and got to take my first shower in 9 days; it felt absolutely Great!

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."- Beverly Sills

Cheking my gear, then rechecking it again, and again, and again!

We started at 5:30am, and headed into the Khumbu Ice Fall. They have a nickname for it here: " Welcome to Hell ". It took us 6 hours to cross it, up to Camp 1 at 20,000 feet. It is huge! And intimidating. I've seen allot of pictures and film about the Khumbu, but when you see it personally, then you can really appreciate the mass of these building size ice blocks towering over your head. The name of the game is always keep moving. I like cardio-vascular exercises, but your first time in the Khumbu when your not acclimatized, is a Cardio nightmare! It was heavy and constant breathing the whole day, with very little breaks. You can't really stop anywhere in the Khumbu because of the potential dangers. The round trip took 10 hours in all, which was longer than we anticipated. Now we will rest for at Base Camp for a couple of days, and then through the Khumbu again (hopefully faster now!) and move up to Camp 1 and stay there for 2 or 3 nights, with carries to ABC (advance base camp) at 21,500 feet during the day. So far, everything is going as planned.

"The hill has not yet lifted its face to heaven that perseverance will not gain the summit of at last."-- Charles Dickens.

It snowed last night; 8 inches fell over base camp in 2 hours. We had to get up during the night to make sure it stopped snowing and shake off all our tents. You can easily get buried under snow here. We will wait a couple of days for all the snow to settle before going back in the Khumbu. When the sun came out, and reflecting on the snow, the temperature quickly rose to over 40 degrees Celsius in our tents. Up here, you can freeze and boil at the same time. We laid out our tentative summit schedule from here on. We will all climb together to ABC at 21,000 feet and stay there for 3 nights to acclimatize. Then back down to Base Camp to rest. Then we will split into to 2 climbing teams for the moves to Camp 3 at 23,500 feet, Camp 4 on the South Col at 26,500 feet, and then the Summit push. We do this mostly because of the limited tent space available at Camp 3 and 4, and it is somewhat easier to manage the movements of two smaller climbing teams up there than one larger one.

"Faith is the daring of the soul to go farther than it can see."-- William Newton Clark

We had a special treat last night, we watched a DVD movie during supper, from a notebook computer (the marvels of technology) Our Sirdar Sherpa, Dawa Nuru watched the movie with us. I think it was his first movie, he was absolutely fascinated, he couldn't take his eyes off the monitor... Being that Da Nuru is Buddhist and doesn't believe in violence, I was a little worried about the choice of movie we watched, it was the Matrix. But he didn't seem to mind it at all. Tomorrow we move up to camp 1 for a few days at 20,000 feet.

" If passion drives, let reason hold the reins."-- Benjamin Franklin

Since the snow storm a couple of days ago, many teams where eager to get going this morning, so we decided to get up a little later and miss the crowd in the Khumbu. Today climbed much better than the first time. We were better acclimatized. We will spend three nights here, and during the day, we will carry loads up to our next camp; ABC at 21,000 feet. I'm fighting off a mild headache right now; the remedy up here is: lots of water and heavy breathing, so your can adjust. A Tylenol here and there doesn't hurt either!

" At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable." - Christopher Reeves

We carried a load from here to ABC today at 21,000 feet, which went very well. Then the rest of the day, we did nothing. You must really concentrate on resting here whenever you can; you have to keep as much strength as possible for higher up the mountain. So at Base Camp, I spend allot of time in my tent, listening to CD's or reading. It makes the time go by fast here, which is probably a good thing.

"Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead."-- Louisa May Alcott

We were supposed to go up to Camp 2 (ABC) again today to carry another load, but a snowstorm has pinned us down for the day. So we had to occupy ourselves for some 12 hours in a tent while the storm passed. It is a whole other world up here: Looking down the Khumbu Ice fall, looking up the Lhotse Face. Mostly, just as you start walking in the Western Cwm, towards Camp 2, you look straight up and to the left, you see for the first time the final Pyramid of Everest 9,000 feet right above you, and your already at 20,000 feet. It is massive, spectacular and intimidating. You keep saying to yourself as your walking and looking up: " I'm going there !

" A goal is a dream that has an ending." - Duke Ellington.

Looking up the cwm, towards the Lhotse face.

It was one of our Climbers birthday yesterday, Leo turned 50. Since we really didn't bring any gifts from home, so we stole items from his tent, gift rapped them and gave them back for his birthday. It was really nice! It was one of our Climbers birthday yesterday, Leo turned 50 years old. Since we really didn't bring any gifts from home, so we stole items from his tent, gift rapped them and gave them back for his birthday. It was really nice!

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. “ -- Charlotte Bronte

We are resting up for a very important part of the climb, it is the most important part of our acclimatizing phase; we leave Base Camp in 2 days, and go directly to ABC (Camp 2) at 21,000 feet. Then we rest a day and go straight up the Lhotse Face to Camp 3 at 23,500 feet. This is a 2,500 foot climb at angles between 40 and 60 degrees! The next day, we continue up towards the Yellow Band, which is half way up to Camp 4 (the South Col at 26,000 feet). At the Yellow Band, we turn around and come back to Camp 3 and spend another night there. Then back to Camp 2 for a night, and then back to Base Camp to rest. We are then in a position to make a summit bid 5 days later. I can notice that our attention level, concentration and anxiety has gone up quite a bit in the last few days, which I guess is normal. We are all aware that the success ratio on Everest is currently less than 20%. But our team is very well prepared, well trained and healthy, and we will do our best!

“Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half sorrow.”-- Swedish proverb

I managed to gain access to a Satellite Phone and called home today. It was nice to hear from my parents. I quickly updated them on things here and told them all is well and that everything is going just as planned. Unfortunately, I am not able to access my e-mails or the Internet from here, but my dad tells me that I have received many warm and encouraging messages on the Web site: from my office colleagues, friends, and from people all over. I would just like to thank you all once again for your messages; they are very inspiring and encouraging, especially when I think about it during those long hours of climbing. I will do my best, and safely! Tomorrow is a big day. “The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. -- Charles Du Bois

Today was a very important climbing day, to see how we are acclimatizing, and to set the stage for determining the summit teams. We climbed the Lhotse Face from Camp 2; It was an absolute GRIND! Our hardest day: 2,500 feet straight up an ice wall of between 45 and 60 degrees inclination. At some places the ice is so hard that you have to POUND your feet (crampons) in to the ice to make sure it holds. It took our team between 5 and 7 hours to reach Camp 3 at 23,500 feet, which are basically 2 tent platforms that have been carved out of the Face at a 45 degree angle. I had my best climbing day so far; I felt great the whole day but I worked really hard: 80 breaths/minute , 140 bpm all the way! But I think it insured that I would be part of the First summit team when the time comes. I'm very pleased. Camp 3 is not a fun place to stay; you are literary stuck in your tent all the time. If you go out, it's with crampons on and roped in! You eat, drink, sleep and acclimatize, nothing else. We will spend 2 days here.

From Camp 3 , there still is another 5500 feet vertical to go. And it was blowing up there!

Today, as you have all heard by now, is a very bad day on Mount Everest; Babu Chiri Sherpa, amongst the greatest climbing Sherpas, has passed away! I will dispense with the details here, as I am sure the story has been well covered. I just want to acknowledge it and pay my respects here. I had the honour to meet Babu in Montreal 2 weeks before coming to Everest. I was so taken by him that I contributed to his fund to build another school for kids in the Khumbu Valley. My expedition and I were quite sad and distraught as we helped bring him down the mountain this morning. We are very aware of the great dangers that Everest brings, but this accident; in one of the most unusual places (between 2 expedition camps at camp 2), by one of the greatest Everest climbers, just should not have happened. Tomorrow, my whole team will go down to Base Camp, and hold a memorial for him. Then we will take a few days off and then discuss our plans. I am sorry that this message was not a pleasant one!

Our whole expedition came off the mountain this morning to regroup. Babu Chiri Sherpa has been brought back to Kathmandu. Many mourned his passing today; reading from the Tibetan prayer book of the dead. This I learned was to insure his safe passage into the new world. Our whole team spent the day together. We had a big supper, drank some "Chang", listened to music and just sat around talking and even joking a bid. This helped the team allot! Coping with the recent events. We will take a few days off, then have a group meeting and access our plans.

This is the first camp established right at the top of Khumbu ice fall

Well, we got back into gear this morning, building a schedule for going back up the mountain. We will most probably join forces with another strong climbing expedition, to help fix ropes on the higher parts of the mountain, such as the Triangular face and the ridge to the Hillary step of Everest... Again, we are taking every effort to make it as safe a climb as possible. This will obviously be to the benefit of all the climbing teams on Everest. We spent the whole morning strategizing about the summit climb, going through every detail of that day to come, covering every aspect we could think of. We have divided our expedition into 2 summit teams, which will climb up one day apart from each other. This is our initial plan, but as we get closer to summit day, things can change...

"Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.- James Buckham.

One of our midnight games of cards!

We have had some difficulty with one expedition at Base Camp here; this particular team has built a Helicopter landing zone for themselves and their visitors, beside their camp at the top entrance of the Khumbu. The big problem is that the helicopter must fly over the entire Base Camp to get to that landing zone. It would not be as much of a concern if we were at sea level. But at 17,500 feet; the chopper is flying at its performance limits, and only some 10 meters over our tents. Also, Base Camp frequently has high winds that even prevent a chopper from landing. This puts all of Base Camp in danger. In 1997, a chopper, flown by one of Nepal’s best pilot, crashed not 30 yards from a camp here. No injuries thank god, but the point is clear. We asked, requested, pleaded, then complained to this team about the LZ (Landing Zone), but to no avail. Yesterday, they flew in a high ranked official for a photo op. If you could only see how all of Base Camp scrambled out of our tents when we heard the chopper coming, looking for shelter behind big rocks during its landing, and take off. And the high winds made it quite a shaky landing! As predicted! Anyway, out of good faith, this morning, about 30 to 40 climbers and Sherpas from all expeditions went down to a spot below Base Camp to build another LZ, which is in a much safer place. Me being an Engineer with knowledge in Aeronautics, I was asked to confirm and layout the new LZ location. So I switched my climber hat for my Forman hat, and in 3 hours, we had new Landing Zone. Lets hope the team in question uses it! Because all of Base Camp is quite peeved at them right now. The great thing was to see all the members from several expeditions working together to get this done. Teamwork!

Bad weather has pinned down the climbers and Sherpas for 3 days, so our schedule has been pushed back a little. The main concern is that if we stay in Base Camp to long, we start losing that precious acclimatation we worked so hard to get! In a couple days, we will go climb Kala Patar, which is approximately the same hight as Camp 1 atop of the Khumbu Ice fall. This will help maintain our acclimatation and we will get the best view of all of Mount Everest. It's a great place for photos. If bad weather keeps us around Basse Camp for more than ten days, we will have to an extra climb back up to Camp 2, We want to avoid that as much as possible because it means another trip through the Khumbu Ice Fall!

Today it feels like we are in the 9th inning, the last moves of an intricate chess game. Our expedition has been quite instrumental on Everest. We were responsible for fixing the ropes from Camp3 to the South Col (Camp 4). And we, with the help of 2 other teams, are now in the process of fixing the climbing ropes from the South Col to the top. It is a huge undertaking; demands allot of resources and energy from our team, but it will make the summit attempt much safer for us, and every climber on the Mountain. Many teams in Base Camp have been watching our every move for the last few days, planning their summit attempts around the day(s) when our ropes will be fixed. The difficulty is that several teams are now planning to summit on the same days(s). Our concern is that we don’t want to be caught in a mass of climbers, especially at the south summit, and the Hillary Step! So we have been going back and forth for 2 days now, on how and when to place our 2 summits teams safely in or around this “mass”, and without compromising our attempts. It looks like we will move within a week!

“See first that the design is wise and just; that ascertained, pursue it resolutely.”-- William Shakespeare

Well, we finally set our plans; Summit team 1 leaves tomorrow and summit team 2 leaves on the May 12. We will be 3 days apart from each other and we figured that this is the best approach. One teams goes before the rush, and the other after the rush. Therefore, our actual summit attempts are May 14 and 16. Wish us luck!!! Today it is snowing at Base Camp, just to remind us once again that Mother Nature decides in the end if we climb… Our last Base Camp trekking group arrives today from Gorak Shep. I will go down with another climber and meet them along their way up here. All of Base Camp is quite focused now; silent, attentive, alert, and anxious! As a follow up to the Helicopter story of May 6th; The Team in question seem to be using the new Landing Zone outside Base Camp, to the relief of everyone! Photo from left to right: Francois, Rob, Marc, Maximo.

“Victory is sweetest when you’ve known defeat.” -- Malcolm Forbes

Many things happened today, so I'll try and recount them all. First, and most importantly, WE BACKED OFF from the mountain. There were so many teams headed up today and the weather was quite sketchy that my decided at the very last moment that we would wait! At this point of the expedition, you get so anxious to go try for the summit... We keep telling ourselves again and again: PATIENCE! we have time. We did the last carry to the South Col, all our necessary gear is in place, ready. Our team is ready. We will wait another 2 to 3 days for the weather to improve and for the first big wave of climbers to make their attempts. That will now put our summit attempt towards the 19th and 20th of May. I must reiterate once again; our team, our Sherpas have done a phenomenal job in fixing ropes all the way to the Balcony of Everest, well above 8,000 meters. We are taking every precaution and are using enormous amount of resources to make the ascent as safe as humanly possible for our team, and all teams on Everest. To cope with the waiting period, a few of us went to climb Kala Patar today. It is about 4 hours from Base Camp and a really nice hike up. On a nice day, you will get the best view of Everest. Unfortunately, when we got to the top, the visibility was about 30 meters! We will probably come back again in a couple of days. Our last Trekking team showed up today to visit us for 2 days. I was given a real nice surprise; one trekker handed me an envelope from back home. I haven’t been able to access any e-mails since I have been here, so a friend from home printed out about 15 pages worth of e-mails from the Web site and my email box. I couldn't have asked for anything better. Thanks to my friends, family, and to my office: Merrill Lynch. I really appreciate your kind and encouraging messages. My team leader Jason, and I decided to visit the expedition that all of Base Camp was having trouble with, pertaining to the Helicopter Landing Zone. They have made efforts to land their choppers below Base Camp (safer!) but also; they were the first team who acknowledged the effort that my team made in fixing ropes high on Everest for us all. So they donated to my expedition some oxygen bottles and several hundred meters of rope, for our work. That was a very nice and appropriate gesture, and we went up to their camp to thank them and invite them to lunch tomorrow. They accepted. As a friend reminded me recently:

"Victory is in the effort!" -- M.H.

It has finally started to clear up today. Team one is going up tomorrow for the summit attempt (if the weather holds out, That is!). Team two goes up 2 days afterwards. No teams have reached the top of Everest yet. In fact, no one has gone past Camp 4 at the South Col. The weather this last week has been terrible. All the teams that went up a few days ago have been pinned down at Camp 2. If it’s not a nice day tomorrow, these teams will probably be forced to come back down to Base Camp and rest. Everyday you wait at Camp 2 or above; you lose strength for the summit attempt. So far, our waiting game has been the right call! Now we cross our fingers and hope for a few days of good weather, as we go up! Scheduled summit day: May 18 and 20…..

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”-- Beverly Sills

I became the resident barber during our long waiting period at Base Camp. Took a little too much off the top!

This is the moment I have been working on for the last 8 weeks (and 2 years!). Summit Time. I must admit that this journey has been a marvellous one; from the thought in my mind 2 years ago, to an E-mail I sent my climbing colleagues, to the preparations, to the equipment gathering, the training, the financing, the time away from home, the climbs through the Khumbu Ice Fall, to this moment. The experience so far has been amazing; I have learnt allot about myself, and the people around me. If I can share one thing right now: being here has made me realise that the problems I use to think were big in my life, are not so big anymore. And I believe I have found what I was searching for. My next E-mail will be after the Summit attempt. Summit or not, I am content!

“ Be what you want the world to become” -- Gandhi

We were supposed to go to Camp 3 today, the weather was really nice. However, many other teams did not stick with the plan of letting our team open up the route, alone. Most teams moved up from Base Camp yesterday, which means that they intend on climbing on the same day as we do! I guess they are feeling the pressure of time running short (that we all do) but decided that they couldn't wait. Well, as we decided earlier on, we do not want to risk being mixed with a group of 70 climbers all jammed up at the Hillary step! That's an accident waiting to happen. So again, we backed off from the mountain. I must tell you; that being ready at Camp 2, after all this preparation, with only 10 days left to climb on the mountain, is taking it's toll on our team. But we are a great team, we support each other, and we are riding out the emotional roller coaster ride, which at 21,500 feet, is quite accentuated. We watched 40 climbers going up to Camp 3 today, which confirmed our suspicions (all the dots on the picture are people). Without my team going up, these climbers must now either open the route themselves or retreat for a few days to rest. And we know of another 30 climbers going up tomorrow. So we will stay at Camp 2 tomorrow, and this time we told no one of our plans. We will let as many climbers cycle ahead of us, and then in 3 days, we will take our whole team and power up this mountain! I never expected how much we have to work around other teams here, mostly because that no one has summited from the South Side as yet, this late in the season, and we are all now committed to the same summit window, between the 24th and the 27th. We have already seen a few teams pack up and leave. Well I, and my team are here for the duration...

"See first that the design is wise and just; that ascertained, pursue it resolutely."
-- William Shakespeare

Yesterday morning, we had to help rescue a climber coming off the summit of Lhotse, the sister peak of Everest. He got to weak after the summit and needed help back down to Camp 2. We sent a couple of people to get him at the base of the Lhotse Face and bring him back to camp. That went pretty well. However, That same afternoon, a young climber from the same expedition was in trouble above 8000 meters on Lhotse. His name is Thomas and he is 19 years old. He fell on his way down from the summit of Lhotse. He lost a Crampon and a glove while sliding 100 meters off the route. From our Camp, we could see him trapped high up on the Lhotse face. Being the large expedition, we coordinated with a few other teams in how to go get him. It was a tense situation because the sun was going down and he would surely freeze. A great climber named Simone was close at hand and sacrificed his summit attempt to rescue him and bring him back to Camp 4. They made it safely to Camp 4, after sun set.

We decide it was time for our summit attempt. We couldn’t rely on the weather reports anymore because they were more often wrong than right, and we still wanted to wait out the large group that went up but we were really feeling like we are running out of time. So we left Camp 2 for Camp 3 on the Lhotse face. The climb up the Lhotse Face went very well but as we feared, we walked right into part two of the Thomas rescue. Thomas needed to be brought down from Camp 4 above 8000 meters on Lhotse. We ended up sending several of our Sherpas to get him at Camp 4 and bring down to us at Camp 3, so that my expedition leader, Jason Edwards, could treat him and then continue sending him down the mountain. This seriously put our whole summit attempt at risk (timing wise and energy spent on the rescue when we need it the most!), and probably our only summit attempt. But we had discussed this possibility prior and faced with this situation, all the members of our team agreed adamantly that we wouldn’t trade a summit attempt for a life. We treated Thomas’ symptoms at Camp 3 and he responded pretty well, so we sent him down to Camp 2 with a total of 5 people to insure his safety. He made it well to Camp 2 and spent the night under our care. He was eventually evacuated by helicopter at Base Camp. It was disappointing to see how other expeditions just ignored the whole situation, and wouldn’t get involved and lend a helping hand. They just figured the big expedition like us would take care of it! Well we did, and fortunately we were still able to stay on course for our summit attempt!

Going to the South Col at 26,500 feet from Camp 3 at 23,500 feet was a gruelling day for me; we start using oxygen at this stage of the climb because the air is so thin at these elevations. I was looking forward to this climb because I would get to cross some very important places on Everest that I have seen or read about: the Yellow Band, the Lhotse traverse, the Geneva Spur and then on to the South Col! However, once you start using oxygen, your body quickly adapts to it and becomes sort of dependant on that flow rate, but we only have a limited supply. I must have miscalculated the amount needed for the time the climb would take, and I ran out of O’s at the worst possible place: just below the Geneva Spur, which is a tough vertical climb of a few hundred feet. At sea level, it would have been a breeze to climb but at 28,000 feet, it is very strenuous. And my body was much less used to the thin air than before. It took me some 90 minutes to go up this pass; I never pushed so hard but I made it over the Geneva spur. I walked into the South Col 1 hour after my team. Because I arrived later than the rest, my expedition leader was quite worried that I was to slow for the summit push and was encouraging me to consider staying at the South Col. I explained to him what happened and he left the final decision to me. I was considered the least favourite of the team to make the summit. That discouraged me, and then I came to my own conclusion: if I feel good when the time comes to climb, I will climb, do the best that I can and come down safely and be happy! So we crammed 5 people per tent, ate some food, drank and went to sleep for the next 4 hours, until the final summit push would begin at 8pm that night.

“He who has health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.”-- Arabian Proverb

I MADE IT, I MADE IT, I MADE IT !!!
I think I could write a novel about this one day alone. There is so much I went through emotionally and physically today, and yet it seemed to go by in a flash. Climbing at night makes you focus only at the task at hand; you can’t see your surroundings, especially how far and how high you still have to climb. You only see your next step. I think that helped enormously. We started at 10pm last night, the weather was perfect: a light breeze but cold. Coming out of the South Col is a slight incline climb that gradually gets steeper and steeper as you go up. We could see all the stars in the sky, right down to the horizon. I was moving up steadily, breathing hard but feeling great, as if in a trance; watching the climber in front of me, hearing the climber behind me, hearing my steps, hearing my breathing, my heartbeat. It was one step, then 6 breaths, one step, 6 breaths: I was playing music in my mind to the rhythm of my breathing. It helped pass the time and before I knew it, it was 2am and we reached the Balcony at 28,000 feet. There is no denying it; it is the hardest thing I have ever done. It’s a race between time, how much energy you have, and if you can make it to the top and back in that time. I had left my goggles up on my forehead at the start and they froze up and became useless. I worried about getting frost nip on my eyes. This is what cost the summit of my team leader’s previous expedition. When a gust of wind would hit me, I would turn away and close my eyes and climb without looking for a few moments. This seemed to work but I could tell that I was starting to loose a little of my vision in my left eye. It wasn’t serious, yet, I could still go on. But I was nervous; Things can change very quickly up here. My team leader froze his left foot. He wasn’t sure he could continue. This was going to cost him the summit, for the fourth time. He was devastated. We took off his boot and I put his foot inside my down suit, on my chest to warm it up. It worked, temporarily. What he really needed was the sun to rise and warm it up. The sun wouldn’t rise for another few hours. It was minus 40 degrees Celsius. I didn’t tell him at the time, but while we sat there warming his foot, both my feet became cold! We continued to climb for a while but he had to turn around, his foot was getting worse. I continued. My feet did not warm up as I climbed, but they didn’t get any colder either and I knew that if the weather stayed the same, I could wait it out until sunrise. The sun finally rose from the Tibetan side. From where we stood, we were probably the first people to see it. And with the sun came heat and a burst of new energy for me! It kept me going and I made it to the South Summit. I was so happy, I was doing really well. Then my oxygen mask started failing. The cold and humidity in my breath completely froze the air-bag where the oxygen flows. Again, I wasn’t getting air at the most crucial point of the climb. I had to switch mask’s twice during the climb. From the South Summit, I could see the Knife Ridge I would have to cross; just about the scariest part of the mountain. This is where many climbers turn around. There is no getting around it; it is frightening, you look down on the right and it’s 8,000 feet straight down into Tibet. You look down on the left and it’s 7,000 feet into Nepal. I didn’t look down! I looked straight ahead, placing my foot in the step in front of me, one by one by one. I got through it, slowly. And then it appeared before me; the final challenge: the Hilary Step, the most difficult technical part of the mountain, a 30 foot vertical rock climb. I’ve imagined being in this exact spot countless amount of times. It’s not what I imagined… It is the make it or break it place. At sea level, I could climb this without any effort. Here, at 28,700 feet, no air, climbing for 8 hours, needing reserves for another 7 hours, I was just about exhausted. I stood at the bottom of the Step for about 5 minutes, just trying to catch my breath, trying to fill my lungs and muscles with as much oxygen as possible. I told myself: “Now or Never” and I took a step, grabbed the rock, took another step, stopped, breathed 40 times, took another step, stopped. I was reaching the top of the Hilary Step and had one more move to do, the hardest move: reach your hand around the top corner and pull your whole body around the corner. I took my biggest breath ever and lunged. I got half way around the corner and stopped. I stayed motionless for what seemed an eternity. I didn’t know what to do; do I dropped back down and try again? I don’t really want to. Do I give it my last burst of energy? Everything I got? And then, the greatest thing; a hand appeared from around the corner. (Sorry for being mushy here but it’s what it really felt like) To me, it was like a hand of God appearing – helping me where I needed it most. It was Tenzie Sherpa, he waited for me on the other side. I took his hand of friendship and he pulled me up. We sat there for a few moments smiling, looking out onto the horizon. No words were spoken. Then we got up and started walking the last ridge to the summit. This was the very first time I thought I was going to make it the top of Everest. Forty minutes later, I was walking the last 30 feet to the Top of the World! I was the Second climber of my team to reach the Summit “ The least Favourite” made it number Two! This part I can’t really describe: What was it like?: It is pure Emotion… It was the fastest burst into tears I ever experienced. Then it stopped just as fast. And then I saw it for the first time, what I wanted to see all this time: the curvature or the earth! How small the earth really is. I could see thousands of miles in all directions. I just sat there for fifteen minutes. Watching the beauty in front of me. I MADE IT! My dream has come true. I have reached my goal. Now it’s time to go down.

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

-- Charlotte Bronte

* Just a note to mention that my team leader, Jason did summit later that morning.

This is my favourite picture. Do you see the curvature...

Download English Poster

Téléchargez l'affiche Française

She would not let us go! Sagarmatha, Everest had other plans for us on our final decent off the mountain. At this time of the season, everything is melting and the Khumbu Ice Fall becomes a river and more dangerous. As we descended from Camp 2, the weather turned very bad. When we entered the Khumbu Ice Fall, we found out that a major portion of the route had collapsed the night before. We were all standing atop a newly formed 100-foot ice wall, where the route used to be. Below us, we could only see broken blocks of ice the size of cars and buildings. We had to rappel down one by one, and then find our way out of this half-mile maze. But with our limited equipment, we could have easily become trapped. So after 1 hour of planning, we committed to going down and finding the route. It took 6 hours to exit the Khumbu, but we found our way out. When I came down from the last ladder of the Khumbu, and I knew I was finally safe off of Mount Everest, the expedition was complete, with a summit!

“If what you do is right and true, then the bad things that surround you, can no longer hurt you” – François Langlois

THANKS
I would like to acknowledge a few people who were beside me through this whole adventure:

Dan Seguin from Process Interactive, Thanks buddy for designing and updating this AMAZING Web Site. Everybody in Base Camp loves it! I owe you big time!

Dan Dabulis Merci Dan pour tout, on se voit bientôt. J’ai une histoire formidable à te raconter.

My Family Mamie et Papa, you can rest now; I’m safely off the Mountain. Hey Yves, I did it! Isn’t this wild? Remember when you first took me climbing, you told me I had the physique for high altitude climbing, well I guess you were right … See y’a soon!

My whole Sherpa team: Tenzing, Dorge, Pemba, Da Nuru, Nuwang Tenzie, Pasang Kitar, Lakpa, Shering Dorge, A Rita, Nurbu, Dasona, Palding, Siam, Gaylou, Mingmar, Boudy and Nuru. The Sherpa people are absolutely phenomenal. We could not accomplish Everest without them. Their strength is unmatched. The world is a better place because of them. Definitely! Dhaniabad, Namaste

Mic Merci Mic pour ton support et encouragement. Cela m’a beaucoup inspirer. Comment va le terrain?

Annie Thank you for believing in me from day one, even before I told you I was coming to Everest. Freely given, right? You were with me at every step to the top.

Mike, from Kayakqua Thanks Mike for jumping in at the right time. Can’t wait to see the new store in the Foubourg!

My partners and colleagues at work, Merrill Lynch Thank you all for your e-mails and support. I got them at just the right time.

AND finally, all of you who visited this Web site and signed my guest book. This was the driving force that pushed me right to the TOP!

The song is: IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, by Billy Joel……………..

It was a pleasure sharing my adventure with you.

François Langlois

“Find a purpose in life so big it will challenge every capacity to be at your best.”- David O. McKay

“The height of your accomplishments will equal the depth of your convictions.” -- William F. Scolavino

“The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, anew continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channelled toward some great good.” -- Brian Tracy

“Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.” -- Phillips Brooks

“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” -- William Jennings Bryan

“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.”-- Chinese proverb

“If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible...what wine is so sparkling, so fragrant, so intoxicating, as possibility!” -- Soren Kierkagaard

This is my closing dispatch for the time being. Well, to backtrack a little bit: the trek out of Base Camp towards Kathmandu was quite a pleasure. Unlike the trek into to Base Camp where we were preoccupied with the upcoming Everest climb, now we had the time to explore the Khumbu Valley. It took 4 days to walk the 70 miles towards Lukla, where we then flew by plane to Kathmandu. Unfortunately, we were somewhat caught up in the events of Kathmandu, with the massacre of the Royal Family. It unsettled the whole country and made are departure more difficult. But we did get out before the riots intensified and curfews we set. I arrived safe and sound in Montreal on June 12th.

My Plans for the future?: The whole Everest expedition and summit has given me more confidence to go after others dreams and aspirations. I had promised myself that if I reached the top of Everest, I would put the experience to good use by giving presentations and raising funds for charities locally and internationally. Just to name one project that I would like to support: I would like to help finish the school for underprivileged children in Nepal that the climber Babu Chiri Sherpa was constructing, before his untimely death.

As for sports: I have rejoined my rowing team that has been training during my absence for the World Rowing Masters. The regatta will be held in Montreal in the first weekend of September, and we will be rowing the Olympic class 8-man boat. If you are in Montreal at that time, do come to the Olympic Basin that weekend, you will surely enjoy the races. And my next bigger project is to qualify and compete in the World Ironman Triathlon competition in Hawaii in October 2002 (“god, more training!”).

Finally, for climbing: I will always go out in the mountains, but not necessarily to extreme altitude peaks. I don’t know that climbing another 8,000 meter peak will bring me more to my life than what Everest has already done. I am however considering to complete the famous Seven Summits; which is to climb the highest peak on each continent. Will See! If I do, I will certainly share it with you on the Web.
Thank you once again for visiting my Site.

François Langlois
Mount Everest summit, May 24, 2001