A Fond du Lac mountaineer has made it safely to base camp on Mount Everest. Fifty two year old Andy Land was trapped at the the first camp, above the Khumbu Icefall, after the earthquake and avalanche Saturday. His wife Mary Sue talked with Andy Monday morning. She says Andy and the other climbers were rescued by helicopter and flown back to base camp Sunday. “He said that they heard and could feel the shaking of the avalanches,” Land told AM 1170 WFDL’s Between the Lines program. “He says the Sherpas were just freaked out and said if the avalanche had come to them they would have all perished because Camp 1 is surrounded by crevasses. There’s no place for them to go.” Mary Sue says the group will spend the next few days trecking down the mountain to the small village at the base of Everest where their journey began. Mary Sue says Andy told her he will never go back to Everest. “He really was battling a lot of mental anguish about could he do it, was he up to the challenge? I’m sure he was thinking why was he doing this? He had a lot of those conflicting emotions going through his mind,” Land said. “I don’t think he has any desire to ever go back there again.” She says at this point she is not sure when Andy will be able to return home. “I think as the days go on I think its just going to get worse. So I told him if you’re stuck there you can use your nursing skills to help out.” Andy left Fond du Lac March 25th. He was climbing Everest to raise awareness and money for Hospice care.
