Dear friends! With extreme happiness, with great satisfaction, I write you from Base Camp, after seven days of intense activity in the high altitudes of Everest and Lhotse. To know that I am in a safe place, far from the furious winds, well down from thin air, brings me an immense calm, and to Irivan too, I am certain.

We were welcome with enthusiasm, today at 15 hours, by our friends here at Base Camp, after a long descent from Camp 2, with an extremely heavy back pack. Marcelo Bonga, Alir Wellner and Paulo Máfia, hugged us with emotion, to the end they also lived every second of our adventure and had each one their important participation in this great victory.

Yes, my friends, a big and unforgettable victory for Brazilian sports was achieved with the great efforts of these last days. We climbed Lhotse, the fourth biggest mountain of the world, one of the most respected 14 Eight Thousands, one of the most difficult (there are only 14 mountains in the world taller than 8 thousand meters).

Yes, sadly we didn't climb Everest. We tried, with a lot of will, but we understand that the conditions on Everest were out of our control, when we were swept by an avalanche. The amount of snow accumulated on the route offered an imminent danger of new avalanches, a risk we preferred not to take again. And also, it is very probable that just Irivan and I alone could open the route to the summit through so much fresh snow, after our teammates and also our Sherpas were not in conditions to help us, because of their health.

The Japanese expedition, whose chief is Katayama, formed by 3 climbers and 3 very strong Sherpas, made an attack of Everest yesterday and returned exhausted, without achieving the main summit, they bravely made it to the South Summit, at 8,751m.

And today, as if the gods were just waiting for our descent, dark clouds covered the atmosphere. When we reached Base Camp, it started to snow. We took advantage of a window of good weather, we were in the right place at the right time.

In the following days, we will tell you more details of our climb. Today I leave you the pictures we shot from the summit of Lhotse, with a lot of pride, my sixth Eight Thousand meter peak. The picture where I am shows the Nepalese side of the Himalayas in the background, in the picture where Irivan is, you can see the Tibetan plateau. In the third picture, the east view, that proves we made it to the summit, where you can see Makalu (8,464m) and, in the background, Kangchenjunga (8,598m).