Day 4- 8/13/06

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• 7:30am- A strategic decision was reached last night, so that most of us can conserve our energy to help Darol to the summit and reach the summit ourselves, only Kevin, Alex, Josh, Terry, will hike with Darol along with the porters. The rest of us will forge ahead to the next camp to get things set up.

  
  • 7:45am- Just found out its Michelle’s Birthday…so goes another special day on the mountain.

  
  • 8:05am- Terri is not feeling well, the altitude is setting in so she is staying behind with one porter, and heading down to the low camp at 9,000ft. The call for her to go down makes the most sense.

  
  • 10:50am- Taking a small break at the last water stop on the trail, its odd not being around Darol, however we all take much comfort in the fact that the trail today will be much easier on him, of course altitude plays no favorites. The landscape has now completely changes again. There are no trees whatsoever. There are just some small bushes and grasses.

  
  • 12:00pm- The landscape has once again changed. Nearly devoid of plant life all together, there is barren land and rocks straight before us give us the feeling of planetary explorers.

  
  • 3:30pm- Most of us came into camp at 15,200ft between 3:30 and 4:00 PM, and are very tired. The altitude has been much tougher on everyone today. Darol is somewhere behind us, we believe about 4 or 5 hours.

  
  • 6:50pm- Darol is coming up the hill and it was truly special as everyone in camp, us, the porters, and a huge group from Ireland, are all out to greet him with cheers and support.