Lobuche Peak Expedition Dispatch

October 26, 2011 – A Safe Return to Base Camp

It is 11:45am and Denio and Raquel and their team have returned to Lobuche High Camp. They had an amazing day. On the summit, which is one of the most beautiful places in the world, they placed a carved mani stone that Lama Geshi had given to them as a blessing. The rock will stay behind on the summit. Raquel took it to a new level today; she has never done a climb of this caliber and she was strong, challenged, emotional at the beauty from the top, and she did a fantastic job. We want to congratulate her!

We will return to base camp now and I am sure that Jayta will be waiting with the tents up and some hot lunch for us. We have an exhausted set of climbers who will be happy to rest before they head down the Khumbu Valley.

Later:

It is 1pm and we have made it back to Lobuche Base Camp. Congratulations to Denio and Raquel on an excellent climb. We began at 3:30 and it took them 5 hours to reach the summit, so their total round trip was 9.5 hours. What a successful day; a very moving day!