ERIC GAINED THE summit at 5:26 a.m. Three minutes later he watched the sunrise over Nepal and Tibet. He thought of Major Douglas Zembiec (USMC),¹ a fellow Naval Academy classmate, an All-American wrestler, and his best friend. They had talked often of climbing Mount Everest together. Doug had been shot and killed in Iraq while conducting clandestine operations three years earlier. Eric sat on the summit and thought about him. He wept.

Although he had reached its summit, Eric knew that he had not accomplished the mission and could not remain. The mission was to gain the summit and return safely. After six minutes, Eric took one final view from the summit and started back down the mountain, racing against the bad weather expected later that day.

Walking back to Camp 3, Eric had not slept in almost 36 hours and had slept only briefly in the previous five days total. He had eaten less than one thousand calories during that time, while his body consumed ten, fifteen, and twenty times that amount each day. He was exhausted. With the Kangshung Face on his immediate right and his crampons (ice screws attached to the bottom of climbing boots) slipping on the rocky knife-edge ridgeline, he would continuously start to think about food, in particular, the fish tacos that he wanted. Technical sections required him to clip and unclip carabiners to fixed ropes, ensuring that should he fall, at the very least, he would fall only a few hundred feet rather thousands. He was exhausted, but he had to continue to make good mental decisions. He wanted to unclip all his carabiners and just walk down the mountain. Instead, he fell back on his habits while also continuously reminding himself to slow down and remember the mission, not the fish tacos. Mountains are dangerous and can kill you, just not as often as climbers’ own bad decisions do.

Eric gave himself small goals. The goal was not to get back to the safety of Camp 1 8,000 feet below. That was too overwhelming. The goal was to get to “that rock!” That rock might have been 50 feet away. As he continued down the ridge, the new “rocks” became 40 feet, and then 30 feet, 20 feet, and finally, Eric was giving himself goals of reaching points on the mountain 10 feet away in an effort to keep himself “dialed in” and making good decisions. After 3 hours (the average is 7–8), Eric reached Camp 3, and he and Barry immediately continued their descent.

They reached Camp 2 at 2:00 p.m. Although at a relatively low altitude of 24,750 feet, Camp 2 is horribly exposed to high winds. With wind speeds in excess of 40 miles per hour and increasing, Eric and Barry stopped to collect the gear that they had left there on the way up the mountain 24 hours prior and continued to Camp 1, 1,500 feet below. Nighttime was falling. It was bitterly cold and windy as they stumbled down the long, exposed, snowy slope. To sit down and fall asleep in the snow was death. They were exhausted, and if they both fell asleep, they would never wake up; they would die from exposure to the unrelenting wind and cold buffeting them. Instead, they took turns doing so. One climber would sit, while the other stood. They would allow rest stops of no more than three minutes. When it was one climber’s turn to sit, they fell asleep almost before they had completely sat down. After 180 seconds, the standing teammate would force the sitting climber to wake and then both would continue down the slope until the next stop, when they switched responsibilities.

On Mount Everest, at school or at work, and while at play, be sure to associate and team with other great teammates who are physically and mentally tough. We will face adversity throughout our lives and when we do so, tough teammates really help.