Canadian Mt. Everest 2005: Sean’s spirit continues to live.

Update: Saturday 30th April, 3pm. Everest Base Camp
(EST is 9 hours 45mins behind Nepal)

Diary by Harold Mah

Thank you to everyone.

I am trying to respond personally to the many, many emails of condolences that the expedition has received over the last 24 hours. Thank you to the school boards, our friends, family, work colleagues and complete strangers who have been following us over the past weeks. Your words and energy are everlasting at a time like this. Here at Everest Base Camp, for some reason, there are no Kleenex tissues, so I've managed to go through at least three to four rolls of toilet paper as I read your e-mails and messages of support.

Base Camp, as you can imagine, is very quiet and sombre. Many of the other climbing teams have dropped by to offer support and kind words and everyone is talking about the huge puja to ward off any bad karma. They think that 500 climbers and sherpas will take part. I will not be here though as I have packed everything up and I will start my hike back to Kathmandu tomorrow. I will meet up with Sean’s children, Anna and Seamas, who are flying out to Kathmandu to bring their father home. Then we start the final stages of grieving and recovery.

Sean's spirit continues to live as he kept me up last night making the glacier crack as I tried to sleep. He just loved this mountain. For some reason we have become joined in a spiritual way because of the challenges we faced together in climbing Everest.

Sean was an inspiration to me and to everyone he met. He loved his family and his life partner deeply. You learn this about a person when you sleep in the same tent freezing and shivering at Camp 1. We talked, through chattering teeth, about the challenges of the next day and our family matters. We even had a contest to see who loved their life partner more, which went on in to the night! Neither of us gave an inch and we decided that it was a tie.

Sean had a huge zest for life and a determination to prove to himself that there were no boundaries on his life. He died doing something he loved. He died doing what he had trained to do for the past 2 years. He died pursuing a lifelong goal. He knew the risks and I am sure that even if he had anticipated this tragedy, he would still have continued.

Don't hold back from pursuing your own goals whether it’s running 5km, or climbing a mountain. Life can be short and by the time you realize this, it's too late to turn back.

On behalf of Sean and me, thank you for taking a small part of your day and sharing our journey.

I hope to send you some more information on my journey back to Kathmandu.

More later
Harold (and Sean in spirit)

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