“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, and catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover.” Mark Twain.

I couldn’t express my feelings any better. So, next year, at age 70, I plan to return to Mt. Everest to finish my quest for a double summit. This time, I plan to start on the South side in Nepal and then move to the North side in Tibet. This is because the lines are fixed much earlier on the South than on the North.

I have given this a lot of thought, although some of you may feel this is an obsession with the mountain. Maybe so. But, this year, I was within 1,000 feet of the summit, moving strong and feeling good, when I was turned around by what I feel was a miscalculation by my Sherpa. I just can’t bear to give up my dream on those terms. If I don’t succeed next year, I’ll probably declare victory based on my summit in 2009 and move on to other adventures:

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.” W.C. Fields.

Those of you who follow my blog know that, in March of this year, on behalf of a client, I filed a Petition in the United States Supreme Court asking the Court to hear a very important case. If the Court grants my Petition and decides to hear the case, it will schedule the case for argument in 2012. If the case is not scheduled for argument before April, I will need to move the Everest expedition to 2013. I’ll let you know once the Court acts on my Petition.

Filmmaker, Allan Smith, the owner of documentary award-winning DreamQuest Productions, will be traveling with me to film the expedition. He plans to produce a documentary titled “8 Summits: The Bill Burke Story.” The poster he has prepared is depicted below. Allan has secured sponsorship from Nokia, and both Allan and Nokia are very excited about the project. So am I.

I am back into full time training. I have a long way to go to get back into fighting form, but, with help from Ollie, I know I can do it.

I will keep you posted as developments occur.

I hope you are all having a great summer.

Bill Burke

8_Summits_poster