Don't celebrate until you get to base camp...
May 14th, 2005
When Ed Viesturs reached the summit of Annapurna on Thursday, May 12th, becoming the first American to reach all 14 8,000 meter peaks, he was not quite done. He still had to get down from Annapurna, and the mountain was not going to let him go so easily.
According to reports on MSN.com, a thick afternoon cloud moved in shortly after Viestur's team left the summit, obscuring their view of the route back to camp 3. Soon, the clouds gave way to a full-on blizzard with only 10 ft of visibility.
The whiteout made it almost impossible to navigate the crevasses and find the all-important ropes that lead back to camp 3. The ropes were found after three hours of circling when Viesturs tripped on one of the lines.
After reaching camp 3, the team made their way to camp 2. Visibility continued to be extremely limited even as the team made its way to camp 1 and finally, base camp.
Once the team safely reached base camp, they celebrated with beer.
You can visit Ed's MountainZone site at: Ed Viesturs.
And view his photo gallery at: Viesturs Gallery
