The alarm went off at 2.45am after about 4 hours sleep and we were soon descending the Namche hill and all we could hear was the river ahead raging. At around 4am the light started to appear and the contrast in landscape from base camp with green hills and vegetables growing in small plots and birds in early morning song was inspirational. We passed numerous porters heading up the valley with huge loads. We continued to drop and cross huge suspension bridges and were at last on the Lukla hill but frustratingly it was all up hill. Henry's agent in Lukla at the Paradise lodge was soon sorting out our flights and at 9am we were in the air to Katmandu. It was a huge treat to have a bath and shower at the Yak and Yeti hotel and for once feel clean. We all over indulged at lunch and I struggled to walk out of fire and ice the pizza restaurant. I spent the afternoon in Thamel doing some shopping and trying to change my flight. 

As the expedition is now over, I want to thank all my family and friends for their support and encouragement during this expedition and most importantly my wife who believed in me throughout. Also to Henry, Karme and the Sherpas who planned and ran the expedition superbly and enabled us to be ready for the small weather window. It was all made harder this year for them and us with the restrictions imposed by the Nepalese/ Chinese authorities over the Chinese taking the Olympic torch to the summit.

A huge thanks to everyone who has kindly donated to the Royal Marsden Cancer campaign and donations can still be made online. I will be planning some talks over the coming months and will update the website with these dates in due course.

It was a shock to get up at 3.30am after the previous 7 days and we were soon on the trail out of base camp and it felt good to be leaving. We passed a number of porters who were on route to base camp to collect the heavy loads to be taken to Namche.

We arrived at Lobuche at 7am and the helicopter was due at 7.30am, however, the weather did not look good with low cloud and snow. After numerous phone calls, it looked unlikely that any helicopters would fly and we made a decision to head lower down the valley and gauge the weather. At Pheriche it was just as bad and we knew we would have to walk out and set off for Namche - which proved to be much further and longer than any of us thought and hoped.

The walk was hard work but also enjoyable as the landscape the lower we got became more green, at debuche the rhododendrons were in full bloom and the trees covered with lichen. At around 8pm we were still on the path to Namche in the pitch black and were hugely relieved to eventually see the lights of Namche.

We all had stiff muscles from the 25 miles up and down the valley and knew it would be an early start if we hoped to catch the 9am flight to Katmandu from Lukla.

I could not sleep as I was so wired after the previous days and was anxious to get through the ice fall. We had planned to leave early but at breakfast there was lots of radio communication and worryingly Jobey had ran out of oxygen about 200 meters from the south col and was struggling. We radioed the South Col and one of sherpa's who had turned back with Ran Fiennes spotted Jobey and was soon on his way with hot water and oxygen. Jobey, recovered well and amazingly was back at base camp that evening. We soon set out on the Western cwm and it was a beautiful morning and we thought of the second team who would be approaching the summit soon. The Cwm was covered in fresh snow and we all took it slowly, taking lots of photos. We eventually got to the ice fall, the sting in the tail and it was worse than ever, the route had changed over the last week with a number of snow bridges collapsed and anchors and ropes moving and being stretched. I was soon down the steep vertical ladders and was on the four piece horizontal ladder, which was now horrendous, the ladder wobbled more than ever and on the other side i noticed one of the ice screws used to anchor it had come away. After a few dubious steps, I managed to regain my concentration and was over it. I was now in the popcorn section the most unstable area and moved as fast as possible. Eventually, I was at the lower section and on my last ladder and it was a great feeling. We still had another 45 minutes to get over the lower section of the ice fall and on two occasions I heard huge rumbles underneath my feet as the ice was moving and breaking up. I eventually got to the last wall and at that moment I was overcome with emotion as I was now off the mountain safely and thanked God, Lame Gese and my mother who I know was with me in spirit on the mountain. 

Henry was delighted to see us and had made us all cold drinks to celebrate the occasion and was keen to hear what happened on the mountain. We had planned to leave early the next morning as we wanted to catch a helicopter to Katmandu, the rest of the afternoon was spent packing up my climbing kit for freighting and sorting out my tent.

Sleeping with oxygen on is a quite suffocating experience and especially when it runs out in the middle of the night. I eventually connected my mask to the splitter that mark and Travis were sharing and suddenly felt comfortable again. We were woken by a strong wind on the South col and my thoughts were with the climbers who had gone for the summit the night before. After a few cups of tea, which took forever to boil we eventually packed up and got ready to descend to camp two. My pack felt extremely heavy with sleeping bag and all my high altitude kit inside and I was soon on the South col and had a last look at the route I had climbed the day before, it was a relief to be leaving this desolate place. On departing, we were saddened to hear of a Swiss climber who had collapsed on his way down to the Col, his team had managed to get him to his tent but he later died. The liaison officers at base camp were insisting they bring down his body, not realising that from this altitude it would be a monumental task and could easily risk someone else's life. 

The ground to the Geneva spur was now covered in fresh snow and I immediately found the ground much harder to cover because of this and also I was not using oxygen. The top of the spur was very exposed and I abseiled about 50 meters of the ground and was totally breathless at the bottom of the rope, I continued with Simon who had some oxygen left from the night before and was moving well. We were now on the traverse to the yellow band and at the top of the band was a delay with climbers coming up the limestone. I was soon descending, when the climber in front an Indian lady got her crampon twisted in some old rope and soon feel backwards in an awkward position with her head looking down the Lhotse face. I tried several times to release the rope to no avail and i could see the panic on her face. I was also precariously positioned on the yellow band and knew I had to move quick to release her, I remembered my penknife was in my top pocket of my rucksack and I quickly took it off to find it. Before I cut the rope, I warned her that we would soon slip down the rope until we  were stopped by the anchor. I held on to my rucksack with one hand and cut the white rope and immediately she was released and we soon both slipped towards the anchor ( which I prayed would hold), it was all rather concerning as below us was the Lhtose face with a drop of over 1000 meters. The Indian climber was in a state and hyperventilating after this ordeal but hugely relieved to be off the yellow band.

I continued to traverse the face and it was nice on the way to see our 2nd summit team on route to the summit which included Ran, Kenton, Rob, Trompie and Tanner. The last section of the Lhotse face to camp three is a steep face and it takes a huge amount of effort to down climb this ground, I was now exhausted and started coughing and I really could notice the difference in not using oxygen.

I stumbled in to camp three and in the tent found an old oxygen bottle with a small amount of oxygen left and fitted my regulator to the bottle and instantly noticed the difference. After a short break, I was eager to get down to camp two and continued to head down the face, a number of sections needed to be abseiled and with tired legs it was much safer doing this than relying on a hand wrap. At last I was off the face and now headed across the upper cwm to camp two. It was a huge relief to see our tents and I received a great welcome from Jobey, Ray, Greg, Mike and Nadar. Pasangtemba our cook at camp soon brought me some dhal bat and a hot drink and I could not stop consuming water all afternoon after the last few days of dehydration. The guys were keen to know all the details about the summit push as they were heading up later in the afternoon as the weather window was closing with strong winds predicated in a few days.

Jobey left at 4pm, on his way to the summit continuing non stop attempting a speed ascent and was planning to be back at camp two early the next morning.  It was a huge relief to be back at camp two, but I could not thoroughly relax as I still knew i had to get through the ice fall one more time.