(May 24 , 2001 8.45PM Nepal, 5.15PM UTC, 1.15PM EST). The NFB expedition left the South Col 5 minutes ago. Their website will be updated every hour from now on.

 (6.30a.m Nepal) The NFB team is approaching the South Summit just as the sun is beginning to rise. After hours of fighting the cold, of stamping feet and beating hands and swinging arms to keep the circulation flowing, they suddenly see the thin line of light on the horizon, a single morning star floating in the wash of blue. Dawn! They are too exhausted to say anything. Erik turns his face towards the warmth. If they are lucky, they will see the fabled mountain ghost. The mountain projects itself onto the morning fog. It towers in front of them like a massive shadow. Beneath them, the world in all its glory, glowing in the rising sun. And with the sun, warmth and hope are returning.

NFB team approaching South Summit 

(7.10am Nepal) Team member Sherman “Sherm” Bull (New Canaan, CT) is preparing the lines at the Hilary Step just above the South Summit. Erik is about half an hour below the South Summit, with a team member just ahead of him shaking the bell, dangling from a wrist loop. “Big E,” his climbing partners call him. And right now, he’s on his way to the top of the mountain known as "the Big E"... 

The South Summit is a tiny platform, where climbers usually rest and change the oxygen bottles they picked up at the Balcony. Some bottles are also left there for the return down. Now the team will step down onto a steep, sharp ridge (and maybe it's just as well that Erik can't see it...). It looks terrifying (pic), but feels better once they are on it. They will climb on the ridge toward the Hillary step. Once there, yellow rocks and boulders will require some technical skills and good rope. After the step they will emerge on a gentle, snowy slope. Still not there, though. A cautious climb up the slope for another hour or so will be required before the summit is within reach.(Average time SS to main summit: 2-3 hours)

(approx. 9.30am Nepal) Finally able to touch the top of the world, Erik kneeled in the snow and touched the pile of summit artifacts. The knotted mass of prayer flags, the faded photographs and memories of a lifetime, the survey tools and instruments of science. “A summit is so much more than the view,” he explains in his book, Touch the Top of the World (Dutton, 2001). “No one suffers the way one does on a mountain simply for a beautiful view. A summit isn’t just a place on a mountain. A summit exists in our hearts and minds. It is a tiny scrap of a dream made real, indisputable proof that our lives have meaning. A summit is a symbol that with the force of our will and the power of our legs, our backs, and our two hands, we can transform our lives into whatever we choose them to be, whatever our hands are strong enough to create.” Congratulations, Erik! In touching that pile of things on the summit, you have touched the hearts of the whole world. Go carefully down now. We are all praying for your safe return.