hike up to Camp 1 ( 3rd attempt through Ice Falls)

Sunday April 25th 1st trip to Camp 1
We left camp about 6 am on our way to camp 1. It was Jim, Nima and I, who quite frankly was a little nervous for many reasons. The fact that I hadn’t done much in the last 6 days due to the sickness, the horrible experience that I had encountered the previous Monday trying to get to camp 1 and the fact that the Ice Fall scares me to death was enough to make me a little apprehensive about the day.
I started good and we were making good progress as we progressed through the part called the “popcorn” but I felt myself start to slow down. We had been in the Fall about 3 hours and after we exited the “popcorn” section( 4 hrs) Nima left Jim and I to go on up to camp 1.I thought this was a good sign and we were making progress but then it seemed like it would never end. We kept moving and I saw 2 sets of ladders at the rim of the Ice Fall and Jim said we had those 2 sets left and then a “short” walk to camp 1. These ladders were both the same. They were 3 10’ alum ladders (30’ high) mounted completely independent of each other, with the middle ladder mounted offset about 4-5” and reinforced on the mountain face with rope (so they were flexible) with a good 1.5 ft overhang of snow and ice. (Don’t worry I will get pictures the next time through if they haven’t changed). They both were definitely not put there using any sound physics logic (just Ice Doctor knowledge of 20 + years of doing this) but it seem to hold all the other climbers I have seen go up so far but it still didn’t make me feel easy about being on them because where there were located meant some serious physical damage if you fell. Any way we finally made it out of the Ice Fall in 7 hours and I was happy we had only a short walk left (wrong). It was about a 1.5 mile winding through crevasses, ladders and hills. I had my doubts if I was going to make it. I kept looking for the trail ahead but I couldn’t see it and about that time I saw some people way in the distance and the people looked like they were ants (which mean a long way) but I saw no tents. At that moment of weakness, I thought it was no way that I could keep walking that much longer and then all of a sudden I walked on top of the ridge and saw tents in the valley. I cannot describe the feeling that I felt at that moment. I had only about 100 meters left and I would have a tent to sleep in for the next 2 nights. I got in to my tent and went right to sleep. Jim had got there just before me and he had gotten in his tent. We had finally made it after 8 hours of constant push. After a few hours I awoke and Jim made me some rice to eat and I ate it plus some coke. I had a “2 man tent” and Jim had the “3 man” because he had to cook for us. It was cold (below 0) and I just wanted to get warm in my sleeping bag. It was all I could do and I went back to sleep. What a day it had been and I was a bit disappointed in the time it took me to get to camp 1 because I had felt so good earlier in the day but we made it and that was all that mattered on this day. The night was good, I slept well and my health was still good but I was tired.