Mount Everest North Side Expedition
Zeddy!!!

Everest conquered by Zeddy!!!

Zed Al Refai, a 36 year old Kuwaiti, is believed to be the first Arab to Summit Everest. Zed, has climbed several of the Seven Summits to date. This was his second attempt at Everest via the Tibetan side of the mountain. You might recall we covered him in 2001. You might also recall others falsely reported him dead that year!!! He did have some problems but was e-mailing us while others were calling him dead!

If you are wondering if Saeed Toossi, the Iranian climber (who was living in American) that we covered in 2000 year would have been the first Arab. Zed tells us, "Iran is not part of the Arab world, they are Persians and they speak farsi which is totally different and never considered close." sincerely yours, Zed

Anyway, Zeddy made it this time!!!!!!!

He send us this: "A long hard day, especially for non pure mountaineers and non athletes. Without sherpa assistance and team support this mountain is impossible to achieve. If you lack the mental and physical strength you cannot make it. I was surprised how many old oxygen bottles are on the mtn. Its difficult to control who has taken what bottle. I started to run low on oxygen after the 3rd step and my sherpa was looking for another bottle which he found. I summited around 11:30am. There was no one on top when I arrived, I had passed Gernot and Matt as I went up. Then lots of others arrived, Rumanian, Japanese etc. Tsring my sherpa was looking into Nepal longingly and we saw climbers coming up from the south side. I took a few digi photos, bowed to Allah, placed my Kuwaiti national flag on the summit of Mount Everest and started to descend."

"My goggles and glasses were icing up, this had been a problem coming up. I had decided to risk snow blindness. I knew getting down would be slow, because I have very bad knees. The weather cleared and so I could see all the heights and since I am scarred of heights, it was difficult crossing the exposed ledges. On the way down, I do a deal with Frenchman, trade oxygen bottles. Purbar checks all is all right and puts it in my pack. Purbar also helps me abseil down the 2nd step, which was very scary. Eventually I see 8300 camp and was so relieved. As I walked along the ridge I caught my down suit in the crampons of a dead man. I saw the rest of the team and was exhausted. I was still worried something might happen. The next day, I was snow blind. It was very painful. This was a gamble and I took it.. If you paid me a million dollars to go back I wouldn't." Zeddy

We hope to get a complete report from him when he has time...