At 3 p.m. on May 24th Marty Schmidt reached the summit of Makalu. "An incredible route to the summit of Makalu, there's not one easy way up... four major ridges... the normal French route is quite challenging... I went solo to the top," Marty said in a phone call.

This was a fitting end to a great adventure. Marty earned this summit. It was not an easy trip. Throughout April, we suffered set back after set back. Our original objective, the unclimbed South Buttress, was in terrible shape, shedding tons of rock a day. The only thing that saved us was the overhanging upper lip of a monstrous crevasse which sent the rocks ricocheting a few feet over our heads.

Hello everybody,

It's Marty, Camp 2 at 6,700m on Makalu. Took off from ABC this morning; made it up here in less than 4 hours and feeling good. We have a game plan. I hooked up with a man named Brad Johnson from the United States and we're going to head off on a variation of the normal French route.

Somewhere near 7000 meters on the SE Ridge of Makalu

The temps dipped well below Zero (F). The winds tore across the face, the ropes twisting in the air. Marty and I were tied to opposite ends of the skinny rope, the distance between us slowly growing. Mentally, it was probably hardest on the belayer. The cold clawed its way into his bones. He could barely move, maybe not even shuffle, since he was tied to a single piton or ice screw, slumped onto a sloping ledge, feeding out the tiniest bits of slack rope. That's all the belayer did, hour after hour: feed tiny bits of slack to the climber, sway side to side to shake the pain out of his harnessed hips and fight a losing battle with the cold.

After a night of high winds 50-70mphs, Chris and Marty managed to keep their tent from flying off the mountain. Only the protection of the crevasse they were tucked into kept the tent on the mountain. Today, they made a strong effort on the southeast ridge, a narrow path of blue ice, achieving a high point of 6800meters.