O’Neill Summits Mt. Everest and Lhotse Face in 24hrs
Nepal — On May 25th, mountaineer and Dynastar athlete, Hilaree O’Neill, stood alone atop the highest point in the world, taking in the 360 degree view.
After enduring avalanches, persistent rock and icefall, altitude sickness, crevasse falls, a sprained ankle, and teammates lost to both injury and sickness, O’Neill and her team of fellow North Face athletes, finally reached the summit of Mt. Everest.
Then, less than 24 hours after summiting Everest, O’Neill and teammate Kris Erickson had already pushed on, going on to summit the almost 28,000 ft Lhotse Face as well.
Hilaree has detailed her team’s progress, documenting the trials, tribulations and challenges of the Everest expedition on her blog.
Read on for an excerpt from her final entry, “Here We Go”, before beginning the summit push.
Congratulations to Hilaree and the entire North Face/Everest team!
Here We Go!
The day has finally arrived. We’ve received our weather report today and it couldn’t look any more promising for a summit attempt on the 25th. Winds are low, a mere 5-10 km per hour at 8500 m at midnight. Temperatures are manageable at -20 C and the weather window is solid, in that it lasts for 3-4 days.
Everyone in camp was struggling with letting this first weather window pass us by, but in the end, I think it’s the best decision we could have made. Our team is now 6 people, Kris Erickson, Sam Elias, Emily Harrington, Conrad Anker, Mark Jenkins and myself. Phil has decided to step down from making a summit attempt and has taken on the role of base camp manager, something we desperately need.
Sooooo, tomorrow we will get up at 2 am, head out around 3 am and climb to Camp 2. We will then have a rest day at Camp 2 and go to Camp 3 on the 23rd. We will leave Camp 3 around 6 am on the morning of the 24th and expect to take about 8 hours to get to the South Col. Given that everybody feels strong, we will rest for a handful of hours and then start our summit push.