By Jacob E. Osterhout

Maoist uprisings and national strikes in Nepal, along with sickness and injuries within the group, slowed the expedition. But, like most athletic ventures, the biggest obstacles were psychological.

"It's a big mental game," Parmenter says. "Because you're hanging out for so long just waiting and watching the other teams to summit, you start to wonder, 'Oh God, are we ever going to get the chance?' And that starts playing mind games on people. It's not always the strongest climbers who end up summitting."

Even though she was halfway around the world, Parmenter kept in close contact with her teams throughout the expedition. "I was sending blogs back everyday," she says. "The kids were following my progress and writing emails."

Parmenter thought about bringing a field hockey stick on her second ascent, but eventually decided against it. "Two years ago, I was there when two people thought they were going to be the first to hit a golf ball off the summit," she says. "They carried their damn golf club everywhere and then neither of them summitted. I'm just not into all these people who are into being the first this or the first that. Trinity was good enough to give me the time off, so the only extra thing I carried up to the summit was a Trinity College banner."

On May 25th, the coach's patience and determination finally paid off. At 7:20 A.M., Parmenter reached the summit of Everest. Due to unusually mild weather, she was able to chill out at the highest perch in the world for almost an hour. "Most people tag the summit, take a photograph, turn around and get the hell out of there," she says. "I was actually on the summit for 50 minutes. It was an incredible day. There was very little wind and we just happened to really luck out. I even had my gloves off."

After descending the mountain and returning home, Parmenter found herself faced with a question few have had to answer: What do you do after you've scaled the world's tallest mountain?

Keep coaching, of course.

"The kids on my team have just been so great," Parmenter says. "I'm really looking forward to seeing them all and sharing this with them. You get a natural high whether you are on the top of a mountain or standing on a field. It doesn't get much better than that. I'm pretty excited about the upcoming season."

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