Chad Kellogg on Everest – Camp 3 to South Col

I arrived to the South Col 6 hours and 10 minutes after leaving Camp 3. The time was 12:40 pm. May 12th was Mothers Day back home so I put together my SAT phone and called my Mom. The wind was blowing too strongly for a lengthy conversation, but I sent her my love from Nepal and told her that I was thinking of her at 26,000 ft. 

By the time I had finished calling my Mother and Mandy it was time to stash my cache and think about heading down. Rory was still not in sight so I rested and looked at the route going up the Triangle Face, the Balcony and the South Summit. I tried to imagine all of the pieces of the route from Base Camp, Camp 2, Camp3, the Lhotse Face up to the South Summit. I was tired from having put ¾ of the route together in 3 days. Yet, there is a map of the route imprinted in my muscles and years of training that believes I can realize this dream. All of the pieces will come together at the right moment and on the right day!

In the past 6+ weeks I have climbed over 82,000 vertical feet. I believe that I have conditioned myself properly without overdoing it on any one day. We shall find out very soon if I have transformed into the physical and mental solution to the “problem” I am trying to solve, the speed record on Mt. Everest without oxygen.

Read the full dispatch here!