I arrived back in the UK on 6th of June. I had lost a lot of weight during the expedition and can't stop eating now. I ran into some problems on the push for the summit. We had got up at 4am at camp 2 but didn't start to move till 6am, my hands were starting to get cold then. We headed up to camp 3 and as we reached the Lhotse Face I had lost all feeling and use of my hands, unable to hold the jumar i had no choice but to turn round. I headed back to camp 2 on my own, once there the sherpas tried to warm my hands up ( this hurt). An hour or to later i decided to head back down to base camp, this ment abseiling down through the icefall on my own. I got to base camp at 6pm. I checked in at the Everest doctors and they confirmed that there was no lasting damaged but they would be susceptible to freezing quicker in the low temperatures.
All is well and I live to climb again. This year there was 6 deaths on the south side of Everest, out of nearly 400 climbers.
I would like to say thank you to every body who sponsored & supported my expedition especially Dawn (my wife), I tried to keep in touch with the sat phone but its not always possible and she would worry about me, so for your sleepless nights darling I am sorry.
Thanks to Slavi for maintain the website.
Thanks to everyone at Broughton Fire Station for helping with fundraising.
Click to see my equipment
