Chapter 9 Chapter 7 No. 1 Battalion

△Elevation 5944 meters, April 13, 1996 * But some people always find things that can't be done particularly attractive.They are usually not experts, and their ambitions and fantasies are strong, completely oblivious to the doubts that more cautious people may feel.Determination and confidence are their strongest weapons.Thinking in the best direction, you can only say that these people are weirdos, and in the worst direction, they are crazy Everest appeals to this type of people.Some had little or no mountaineering experience, and certainly none of them had enough experience to make climbing Everest a legitimate goal.They have three things in common: self-confidence, great determination, and endurance.

Unsworth's Mount Everest Walt Unsworth, Everset ∮ I grew up with ambition and determination, and I would be a lot happier than I am now if it weren't for that.I think a lot, and I have developed that distant gaze of a dreamer, and the distant mountains always fascinate and attract my soul.I'm not sure what stubbornness and a little else would accomplish, but I set my goals high and each setback only made me more determined to achieve at least one of my big dreams. Deng Man "Cross Everest Alone" Earl Denman, Alone to Everest □□□ In the spring of 1996, there were no shortage of dreamers on the slopes of Mount Everest.There are many climbers whose qualifications are as weak as mine, or even weaker than mine.When it comes to assessing one's abilities, gauging one's ability to take on the invincible challenge of the world's tallest mountain, half the population of the base camp can seem like a paranoid at times.But that's probably not surprising.Everest has always been a magnet for madmen, fame-seekers, hopeless romantics and people with a shaky sense of reality.

In March 1947, a poor Canadian engineer named Dunman arrived in Darjeeling, India, and announced that he would climb Mount Everest.He didn't have much experience in mountain climbing, and he didn't have an entry permit to Tibet, but somehow he persuaded Andawa and Tenzin from Sherpa to go with him. Tenzin was also the one who climbed Mount Everest with Hillary for the first time. He moved from Nepal to Darjeeling at the age of 17 in 1933. He was full of enthusiasm and hoped that the famous British mountaineer Shipton would lead the expedition that spring. The top expedition that could employ him was unsuccessful, but he remained in India and was finally employed in Shipton's British Everest expedition in 1935.When he agreed to travel with Dunman in 1947, he had already climbed Everest three times.He later confessed that he had known for a long time that Dunman's plan was too reckless, but he himself could not resist the temptation of Mount Everest:

It doesn't make sense at all.First of all, we may not even be able to enter Tibet.Secondly, even if we did go in, we'd probably get caught, and Dunman and us guides would be in serious trouble.Third, even if we reach the foot of the mountain, I don't believe that such a group of people can climb it.Fourth, the attempt is very dangerous.Fifth, Dunman's money is neither enough to pay us a high salary, nor can we guarantee proper subsidies to our dependents in case of accidents.Anyone in their right mind would say no.But I can't say no.I can't not go, the attraction of Mount Everest is greater than anything in the world in my mind.Andawa and I talked for a few minutes, and then we made a decision.I told Dunman, well, we'd like to try.

As the small expedition traveled across Tibet to Mount Everest, the two Sherpas grew to love and respect the Canadian.Although Dunman was inexperienced, they admired his courage and physical strength.To his credit, Dunman was willing to admit when the group reached the slopes of Everest and it proved to be incompetent.Dengman encountered a snowstorm at an altitude of 6,700 meters, admitted failure, and the three turned around and returned to Darjeeling safely after five weeks of departure. Thirteen years before Dunman, a melancholy British idealist, Wilson, who was also recklessly trying to attack Mount Everest, was not so lucky.Wilson's wish was to help his compatriots, but he mistakenly thought that climbing Mount Everest would best promote fasting and belief in the power of God to heal all human diseases.He drew up a plan to fly a small plane to Tibet, make an emergency landing on the flank of Mount Everest, and then attack the summit from there.He didn't know anything about mountain climbing or flying, but he didn't think it was a big deal.

Wilson bought a Gypsy Moth with cloth wings and named it Ever Wrest (Ever Wrest, the same pronunciation as Everest Everest), and learned the basic principles of flying.He then spent five weeks visiting the hills of Snowdonia and the English Lake District, learning the mountaineering skills he thought he needed.In May 1933, he flew a small plane to Mount Everest via Cairo, Tehran and India. By this time Wilson had become a media celebrity.He flew to Portapor, India, but the Nepalese government did not allow him to fly over the Nepalese airspace, so he had to sell the plane for 500 pounds and go overland to Darjeeling.When he arrived there, he knew that the authorities refused him to enter Tibet.He is not alarmed.In March 1934, he hired three Sherpas, disguised himself as a lama, defied the British colonial government, and secretly trekked 480 kilometers through the forests of Sikkim and the dry Tibetan plateau. On the 4th, we came to the foot of Mount Everest.

He climbed up the broken rock and ice of the Rongbuk Glacier on foot. At first, he walked smoothly, but later, because he knew nothing about climbing glaciers, he kept getting lost, frustrated and tired.But he refused to give up. In mid-May he reached the source of the Rongbuk Glacier at an altitude of 6,400 meters, taking for himself a batch of food and equipment that Shipton had hidden after his failed expedition in 1933.From there he began to climb the slope leading to the North Col. When he reached an elevation of 6,920 meters, he encountered a vertical ice wall and could not climb it. He had to retreat to the place where Shipton hid his things.He still refused to give up.On May 28, he wrote in his diary: This is the last effort, and I think it will succeed.Then climb up again.

Shipton led an expedition back to Everest a year later and found Wilson's frozen body in the snow at the foot of the North Col.Warren, one of the climbers who discovered the body, reported that after some discussion, we decided to bury him in the crevasse.We all held our hats up and I think everyone was pretty upset about it.I thought I was indifferent to the deceased, but for some reason, the situation at that time and the things he did were similar to us after all, so we seem to experience his tragedy very vividly. In recent years the Everest slopes have been populated by contemporary Wilsons and Dunmans who, like some of my mates, are underqualified dreamers.These phenomena have drawn strong criticism.But who is suitable for Mount Everest and who is not?This issue is complex and cannot be judged suddenly.Just because a mountaineer pays a lot of money to go on a guided expedition doesn't mean he or she is necessarily unsuitable for climbing.Indeed, under Everest in the spring of 1996, at least two commercial expeditions included Himalayan climbers who still qualified under the strictest standards.

On April 13th, when I was waiting for my teammates at the No. 1 Battalion to meet me at the top of the Khumbu Icefall, I saw two teammates from the Mountain Idiot Team striding past quickly.One was Cliff, a thirty-eight-year-old Seattle construction contractor who had been a member of the U.S. ski team. Although he was exceptionally strong, he didn't have much experience at high altitudes.However, his uncle Peter, who was traveling with him, is a living Himalayan legend. Peter was sixty-nine in two months, wearing a faded, ripping Gore Tex mountaineering suit.He is tall, thin and slightly camel, returning to the Himalayas after many years of absence.In 1958, he promoted the US team to climb the 8,068-meter Hidden Peak 1 in the Karakoram Mountains in Pakistan for the first time.However, what made Peter more famous was his heroic deeds during the unsuccessful expedition to K2 in 1953, the year that Hillary and Tenzing reached the summit of Mount Everest.

Note 1: Hidden Peak is Gasherbrum I, or K5, the eleventh highest peak in the world.Editor's note At that time, the eight-person expedition team was waiting to attack the summit at the height of K2 peak, but they were unable to move when they encountered a violent snowstorm.One team member, Gilkey, suffered from thrombophlebitis, a blood clot caused by high altitude, which was life-threatening.Peter and the others knew that Gilkey had to be sent down the mountain immediately to have a chance of saving his life, so they slowly transported him down the steep Abruzzi ridge in the wind and snow.At an altitude of about 7,600 meters, one person slipped and dragged four others down.Reflexively, Peter wrapped the rope around his shoulders and the ice axe, grabbed Gilkey with one hand, not only stopped the fall of the five mountain friends, but he was not dragged down the mountain.It was an incredible feat in alpine almanacs, and has since been called sure event 2.

Note 2: Belay is a mountaineering term that refers to holding the rope firmly when partners are climbing to protect their safety.author note Now Peter is being taken up Mount Everest by Fisher and his two guides, Beideman and Pokliffe.When I asked Beidleman, a mountaineering pro from Colorado, what it was like to lead a terrific client like Peter, he immediately let out a self-deprecating laugh and corrected me: How can someone like me lead Peter.I just feel honored to be on the team with him.Peter joined Fisher's mountain idiot team not because he needed a guide to take him to the summit, but to save himself the hassle of applying for permits, oxygen tanks, tent equipment, supplies, sherpa manpower and other small logistics etc. After Peter and Nephew Cliff walked to their No. 1 Battalion, their teammate Charlotte showed up.Ms. Charlotte is thirty-eight years old, energetic and graceful like a statue. She is a ski patrol in the town of Poplar, Colorado. She has climbed two 8,000-meter peaks, one of which is 8,036 meters high in Pakistan. The second peak of Gasherbullu is 100 feet long, and the other is Cho Oyu Peak with an elevation of 8153 meters next to Mount Everest.After a while, I ran into Doof's teammate, Gustafsson, a twenty-eight-year-old Finn whose Himalayan records include Everest, Dhaulagiri, Makalu and Lhotse. In contrast, none of Hall's clients had ever summited in the 8,000-meter class.If a guy like Peter were a major league baseball star, then my clients and I were like a bunch of small-town softball players who had to be bribed to get into major league games.Yes, Hall said at the top of the Khumbu Icefall that we are strong.Compared with the hordes of customers that Hall has escorted up the mountain in the past few years, maybe we are really strong.However, I understand that none of Hall's team made it to Mount Everest without the help of Hall and his guides and Sherpas. However, compared with many teams on the mountain, our group is much smarter.An Englishman with no special Himalayan credentials was leading a commercial expedition, some of whom were of dubious competence.But the worst qualifications on Everest are not guided clients, but traditional non-commercial expedition members. As I was heading back to base camp through the lower part of the Khumbu Icefall, I happened to catch a glimpse of two slow-moving, strangely dressed and equipped climbers.It was almost immediately apparent that the pair were unfamiliar with the standard tools and techniques for climbing glaciers.The man behind got entangled in crampons repeatedly and fell down.There is a large ice crevasse with two aluminum ladders connected head to tail as a bridge. I waited for the two to pass first, and found that they actually crossed the bridge together, and their steps were almost closely linked. I was very shocked. This is an unnecessary danger at all. action.From the blunt conversation on the other side of the ice crevasse, I knew that the two were members of the Taiwan expedition team. Before the Taiwanese team came, their reputation had already spread to Mount Everest.In the spring of 1995, the team went to Alaska to climb Mount McKinley to test their skills for the 1996 Everest trek.Nine people climbed to the summit, but when they descended, seven people encountered a snowstorm and lost their way. They spent the night in the wilderness at an altitude of about 5,900 meters. The National Park Service spent a lot of money and took great risks to get them They rescued. At the request of the National Park Inspector, two of the most skilled alpine climbers in the United States, Alex Lowe and Conrad Anker, stopped their climbing plan and climbed from an altitude of 4,390 meters. Catch up to save the Taiwan team, which was dying at that time.Lowe and Anke risked their lives to drag a helpless Taiwanese from 5,900 meters to 5,240 meters, so that the helicopter could take them down the mountain.In total, five members of the Taiwanese team (two severely frostbitten and one deceased) were helicoptered out of Mount McKinley.Anke said that only one person died.But if we hadn't arrived at that time, the other two would have died too.We noticed this Taiwanese team earlier, and it doesn't come as a surprise that they're going to run into trouble because they look really underpowered. The expedition leaders Gao Ming and Le Tian are cheerful independent photographers who call themselves Makalu after Makalu Peak in the Himalayas.Exhausted and severely frostbitten, he had to be helped down the mountain by two Alaskan guides.According to Anke, when the Alaskans took him down the mountain, Makalu shouted victory to everyone who passed by!victory!We are at the top!It was as if the disaster never happened.Yes, I think Makaruna is weird.When the survivors of the McKinley disaster appeared on the south side of Mount Everest in 1996, Gao Minghe was still the team leader. As soon as the Taiwan team appeared on Mount Everest, most of the expeditionary forces on the mountain looked sideways at it.Everyone was genuinely worried that a disaster would happen to the Taiwan team, forcing other expeditions to come to the rescue, endangering more lives, not to mention endangering other climbers' chances of reaching the summit.However, it is not only the Taiwan team that seems to be unqualified.Camping next to our base camp was a twenty-five-year-old Norwegian mountaineer, Unibe, who announced that he would solo the very dangerous and technically difficult southwestern face of Everest, although his Himalayan experience was limited to two climbs next door The 6181-meter-high Island Peak (Island Peak), which is located on the subsidiary ridge of Lhotse Peak, does not require much skill, as long as you have strong feet, you can reach it. Note 3: Although Nibe was declared to be a solo expedition, he hired eighteen Sherpas to carry his bags, set up ropes, build a camp for him, and guide him up the mountain.author note And then there's South Africa.The team was sponsored by the Sunday Times, a major newspaper in Johannesburg. The whole country was proud of them, and President Mandela personally blessed them before the trip.They are the first expedition team in South Africa to be awarded the Everest Permit. They are composed of a mixture of different races and hope to send the first black man to the summit.The team leader is 39-year-old Woodall, with facial features reminiscent of a mouse, and very talkative. He loves to talk about his heroic deeds as a military commando behind enemy lines during the long and fierce war between South Africa and Angola in the 1980s. Woodall recruited three of South Africa's strongest mountaineers to form the core of the team: De Clerk, Hackland and Fabruary.The mix of black and white has special significance for Fabruary, a soft-spoken forty-year-old paleoecologist and internationally renowned black mountaineer.He explained that my parents named me Edmund after Sir Hilary.Climbing Mount Everest has been my childhood dream.More meaningfully, though, I see the expedition as a powerful symbol of an emerging nation trying to shake off its past misfortunes and unite toward democracy.From a young age, I was especially resentful of the shackles of apartheid that had been put around my neck in every way.But now we are a whole new country.I strongly believe in the direction our country is heading in.It would be a great thing to see us black and white South Africans climb Everest together and reach the summit together. The whole country mobilized in support of the expedition.De Clerk said Woodall came up with the plan at a lucky time.Apartheid is over, South Africans are finally allowed to go where they please, and our sports teams can compete all over the world.South Africa has just won the Rugby World Cup.The whole country is jubilant, the sense of pride is welling up, isn't it?So when Woodall suggested forming a South African Everest expedition, everyone was in favor.He raised a lot of money, equivalent to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and no one questioned it. In addition to Woodall himself, three male South African mountaineers and Herold, a British mountaineer and photographer, he also wanted women to take part in the expedition.Before leaving South Africa, he specially invited six female candidates to climb the 5,895-meter-high Mount Kilimanjaro, which is physically demanding but technically not too difficult.After the two-week test, Woodall announced that only two people will be left for the finals. One is a 26-year-old journalism lecturer, Casey, who is white and has limited mountaineering experience.The other is Dexun, a 25-year-old physical education teacher, a black man who grew up in a segregated town and has no experience in mountaineering.Woodall said both women would go with the team to base camp, and during the hike he would evaluate their performance and select one to continue climbing. On April 1st, the second day I went to base camp, I happened upon Fabuluri, Hackland and Deklerk on the trail below Namche Bazaar, heading out of the mountains to Kathmandu.De Klerk is my friend, he told me about three South African mountaineers and team doctor Charlotte.Norbert gave up his expedition before reaching the foot of the mountain.De Klerk explained that the lead Leddar turned out to be a big bastard, a tyrannical monster.You can't trust him, we never know if he's bullshitting or telling the truth.We don't want to put our lives in the hands of such a guy.So we left. Woodall told De Klerk and others that he often climbed the Himalayas, including peaks above 7,900 meters above sea level.In fact, Woodall's mountaineering experience in the Himalayas is only in 1990 when he paid to participate in the commercial expedition to Annapurna Peak led by Duff, and he only climbed to an altitude of about 6,490 meters. Moreover, before leaving for Mount Everest, Woodall also boasted about his illustrious military career on the expedition team's website, saying that he had a high rank in the British Army, commanded the elite Changling Mountain Reconnaissance Army, and had done a lot of training in the Himalayas .He told the Sunday Times he had been a lecturer at the Royal Military Academy in Mount Hess, England.In fact, the British Army did not have a so-called Changling Mountain reconnaissance unit at all, and Woodall had never been a lecturer at Mount Hess, let alone fought behind enemy lines in Angola.According to a British Army spokesman, Woodall was a cashier. Nor did Woodall tell the truth about the names listed on the Everest climbing permit issued by the Nepal Tourism Department.From the beginning he said that both Casey and Dekaur were listed on the permit, and that the final decision on which one would be invited to climb would not be made until base camp.De Klerk only found out after he left the expedition that the license had the names of Casey, Woodall's sixty-nine-year-old father and Frenchman Rayner (who paid Woodall $35,000 to play on the South African team) is also on it, but Dexun is not on the list, and she is the only black member of the team after Fabreuy's withdrawal.De Klerk believed that Woodall had no intention of letting Dexun climb Everest. Note 4: Only climbers listed on official permits ($10,000 each) are allowed to climb above base camp.This regulation is strictly enforced, and those who violate it will not only have to pay a fine, but will also be expelled from Nepal.author note Before leaving South Africa, Woodall had warned De Klerk, who is married to an American and has dual citizenship, that he would not be allowed to join the expedition unless he agreed to enter Nepal on a South African passport.This adds fuel to the fire.De Klerk recalled that he made a fuss because we were the first South African Everest expedition or something.It turned out that Woodall himself did not have a South African passport at all.He wasn't even a South African citizen, the guy was a Brit, and he entered Nepal on a British passport. Woodall's innumerable scams became an international scandal, with newspapers across the Commonwealth of Britain reporting on the front pages.Negative reports slowly came back to him, but he was too arrogant to pay any heed to the criticism, trying not to keep his team in contact with other expeditions.He also expelled Vernon, a Sunday Times reporter, and Shorey, a cameraman, from the expedition, although he had signed a contract stating that the terms of accepting the newspaper's sponsorship would allow the two reporters to accompany the expedition at any time, if he did not comply conditions, the newspaper party may rescind the contract accordingly. Owen, the editor of the Sunday Times, had arranged a hiking holiday with an expedition to Mount Everest in South Africa, and was heading to base camp with his wife, guided by Woodall's young French girlfriend.Arriving in the village of Perize, Owen learned that Woodall had driven out his writers and photographers.Startled, he sent Woodall a notice saying that the newspaper had no intention of removing Vernon and Shurey and had ordered the two reporters back on the expedition.Woodall was furious after receiving the notification, and rushed down the mountain from the base camp to Perizet Village to find Owen's theory. According to Owen, he was open and honest during the meeting, asking if Toukoun’s name was on the permit.Woodall replied: None of your business. Owen said that Dexun had been reduced to a black woman's guise to create false South Africanism for the expedition, and Woodal threatened to kill the Owens.At one point, the overexcited South African leader declared, I'm going to cut your fucking head off and stuff it up your asshole. Reporter Vernon arrived at the South African base camp a short time later. He used Hall's satellite fax machine to send out his first report, only to be informed by a grim Ms. Casey that I was not welcome at the camp.Vernon later reported in the Sunday Times: I told her she had no right to ban me from camps funded by our newspaper.When I further questioned the reason, she replied that she was acting on Mr. Woodall's instructions.She said Shuri had been expelled from the camp, and I should go too, because there was no room and board for me.I had just walked a long way and my legs were still feeling weak, so I asked for a cup of tea before deciding whether to resist or just leave.The other party replied, don't think about it.She went to Dorje, the Sherpa leader on the team, and said loudly: This is one of the two people we told you about, named Vernon.Can't give him any help.Dorje is tough as hell, and we've shared a few glasses of local spirits.I looked at him and didn't even give him a cup of tea?He exhibited the best and most commendable tradition of Sherpa hospitality, looked at Kathy and said, shit.He grabbed my arm and pulled me into the dining room tent, where he brought out a hot cup of tea and a plate of biscuits. After what he described as a blood-cold conversation with Woodall in the village of Perizet, Irwin became convinced that the mood at the expedition had broken down and that the lives of Vernon and Schurrey, employees of the Sunday Times, could be in danger.So Owen instructed Vernon and Xiu Rui to return to South Africa, and the newspaper issued a statement announcing the withdrawal of sponsorship. However, since Woodall had already received money from the newspaper, this move was purely symbolic and had little effect on his actions on the mountain.Indeed, Woodall refused to relinquish the leadership of the expedition, and he also refused to make any compromises. Even after President Mandela sent a letter asking him to reconcile for the benefit of the nation, he remained indifferent.Woodall stubbornly insisted that the Everest trip would go according to plan, with him at the helm. Returning to Cape Town after the expedition's collapse, Fabruary describes his disappointed state of mind.Maybe I'm being naive," he continued, in an emotional tone.But I hated growing up under apartheid.Climbing Mount Everest with Hackland and others is a great symbol, showing that the old system has collapsed.Woodall couldn't care less about the birth of a new South Africa.He took over the dreams of an entire nation to achieve his selfish goals.Leaving the expedition was the hardest decision of my life. After Fabruary, Hackland, and De Klerk withdrew, none of the team members who remained on the team had a minimum of mountaineering experience (the Frenchman Renner was not counted, he brought his own Sherpa to climb the mountain independently, and did not go with others. Participate in an expedition only to be listed on the permit).At least two of them couldn't even wear crampons, De Klerk said. Solo climbers from Norway, the Taiwanese team, and especially the South African team are all topics that are often discussed in Hall's cafeteria tent.One evening at the end of April, Hall frowned and said: There are so many incompetent people on the mountain.I think this climbing season, we are unlikely to have a smooth sailing on the top.