But he is haunted by the deaths of others:
I have been looking through my pictures from my eight-day summit bid. One is of two dead Korean bodies that were being lowered down the mountain while I ascended the Khumbu Icefall for the seventh and last time. That was a bad day on Everest. Five climbers were killed in one day. It was a sad sight to have to step over the Koreans' bodies and look into the eyes of their surviving teammates who were on the edge of tears as they lowered their comrades down the icefall.
In all, I stepped over or passed by six dead climbers while on my summit bid. Of course one was Scott Fischer (Mountain Madness founder) and another a Sherpa who died in 1991 on the upper mountain. I also sat down and took a break in the exact spot that Rob Hall died on the South Summit. It reminded me of how dangerous climbing Everest is and how I needed to try to focus my hypoxic brain at all times or I would be going home in a box myself.
Two days later Pemba Sherpani fell 1,800 vertical feet to her death down the Lhotse Face. Although I did not see her fall, I did see her broken body lying up on the Lhotse Face, which claimed two climbers' lives this season. When Willie, Jaime and I arrived in Camp III, the Sherpas recovering Pemba's body lowered her down into our campsite for the night. I ended up seeing her shattered body up close which once again shocked reality into me of how a simple mistake on the Lhotse Face leads to a long fall.
So you would take pictures of the dead? What in the hell?
Mountainteers are batshit to begin with. This is not something to brag about.
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