Chapter 16 Chapter Fourteen

△Elevation 8848 meters, PM1:12 on May 10, 1996 * Not only did my willpower fail when I climbed up, but also when I went down.The more I climbed, the more I felt that the goal was unimportant, and the less I cared about myself.My concentration has weakened and my memory has deteriorated.At this moment, the mental fatigue exceeds the physical.Sitting doing nothing is comfortable, and therefore dangerous.Dying from exhaustion is like dying from freezing. It is a comfortable and pleasant way to die. Messner's "Crystal Horizons" Reinhold Messner, The Crystal Horizon □□□ In my backpack I had a strip of Outdoor magazine, a little flag with an eerie lizard pattern hand-stitched by my wife Linda, and a few mementos.I originally planned to take a few victory photos with these things, but I knew that my oxygen reserves were getting low, so I didn't take these things out. I only stayed on the roof of the world for a while and snapped four photos of Harris and Polk in a hurry. Photo of Reeve standing in front of the summit survey marker.Then I turned and went down the mountain, walked down about eighteen meters, and passed by Beidleman and Fisher team client Adams who were about to climb up.Beidleman and I gave each other a high-five, then grabbed a handful of small gravel from the wind-eroded shale as a souvenir, put it in the pocket of the down jacket, zipped it up, and hurried down the ridge.

I had noticed a few sparse clouds earlier, and now the valleys to the south are shrouded in mist, with only the highest peaks visible.Adams was a short, impulsive Texan who made a fortune selling bonds in the good 1980s.He, too, was an experienced pilot who used to look down at the cloud tops from his plane, and later told me that once he reached the summit he recognized that these seemingly innocuous wisps of water vapor were actually the tops of powerful thundercloud bands.He explained that when he saw a band of thunderclouds on the plane, his first reaction was to run away.So I just ran away.

But I am different from Adams. I have never looked down at the cloud cells of cumulonimbus clouds from an altitude of more than 8,800 meters, and I know nothing about the raging snowstorm at that time.On the contrary, my concern is that the oxygen in the cylinder is getting less and less. Fifteen minutes after leaving the summit, I came to the top of the Hillary Stairs and encountered a large group of people climbing up a rope rustlingly, so I had to pause my descent.While waiting for the crowd to pass, Harris, who was about to descend the mountain, came up to me and asked: Qiang, I don’t seem to be getting enough air.Can you see if the inlet valve of my oxygen mask is frozen?

I checked quickly and found that the saliva had formed a ball of ice the size of a fist, blocking the air through the rubber valve of the mask.I chipped off the ice with the tip of the ice axe, then asked Harris to do me the same favor and turn off the regulator for me to preserve the oxygen until the Hilary Step blockage cleared.But instead of turning off the regulator, he opened the valve by mistake, and after ten minutes my oxygen was completely exhausted.What little cognitive function I had left immediately plummeted at this moment.I felt like I had been sneaked an overdose of strong tranquilizers.

I vaguely remember that while I was waiting, Sandy walked by and headed towards the summit. After a while, Charlotte also walked, and then Jiang Bu.Yasuko then appeared at my precarious feet, but the final and steepest section of the Hillary Step left her at a loss.She tried desperately to climb to the top of the rock, but was too tired to do so, and I could only watch helplessly for fifteen minutes.Finally, Madsen, who was directly below her, got impatient and finally reached out to support her hips and pushed her hard to the top of the rock. Hall reappeared shortly afterwards.I concealed the growing panic in my heart and thanked him for taking me to the summit of Mount Everest.He replied: Yes, the expedition turned out not bad.Then it was mentioned that Fishback, Withers, Kasisker, Hutchison and Tusk all turned back.Even though I'm sluggish from lack of oxygen, I can still see Hall's disappointment that five out of eight clients on the team have given up, especially since Fisher's team seems to be heading for the summit, and I think that's It heightened his sentimentality.I just wish we could help more clients get to the top.Hall sighed and moved on.

Adams and Pokliffe, who were about to descend, then arrived and stopped directly above me to wait for the crowd to clear.A minute later, Gao Minghe, Anji and several Sherpas climbed up along the rope, Han Sen and Fisher followed behind, the top of Hillary's steps became more blocked, and then Hillary's steps were finally cleared, and I have wasted more than an hour at an altitude of 8,800 meters without supplemental oxygen. Parts of my cortex seemed to shut down completely at this point.I was groggy, afraid of fainting, and only wanted to reach the South Peak, where my third tank of oxygen was waiting for me.Stiff with fear, I weakly descended the fixed rope.Just below the Hilary steps, Pokliffe and Adams hurried past me and hurried down.I was very careful and continued down the high-rope down the ridge, but the rope died fifteen meters above the oxygen storage point.To continue on without oxygen, I flinched.

On the South Peak, I saw Harris sorting out a pile of orange oxygen tanks.I yelled: Hello, Harris!Can you bring me a fresh canister of oxygen? He replied loudly, there is no oxygen here, and these tubes are all empty!The news is disturbing.My mind kept screaming for oxygen.I don't know what to do.At this time, Glenn came down from the peak and caught up with me.He climbed Mount Everest without oxygen in 1993, so he is not worried about lack of oxygen.He gave me his oxygen tank, and we quickly walked towards the South Peak. When we got there, we checked the storage and found at once that there were at least six more canisters full.Harris couldn't believe it, and still insisted that it was all empty. No matter what Glenn and I said, he couldn't convince him.

The only way to know how much oxygen is in the tank is to plug it into the regulator and look at the gauge, which Harris probably used to check the tank on South Peak.After the expedition, Beidleman pointed out that if Harris's regulator had frozen and malfunctioned, the gauge might show an empty tank even though it was full. No wonder he was so stubborn.If Harris' regulator malfunctioned and wasn't sending oxygen into his mask, that would also explain why he was confused. It all seems self-evident now, but neither Glenn nor I thought it was possible at the time.In hindsight, Harris was acting irrationally, clearly beyond the normal hypoxic state, but my own brain was so dysfunctional that I didn't notice it.

The most obvious signs I failed to detect, more or less based on the agreement between the guide and the client.My physical fitness and climbing skills are almost the same as Harris. If I and he climbed together without a guide and were equal in status, I could not ignore his plight.But on this expedition he acted as a powerful guide, looking after me and the other clients, and we were all especially taught not to question the guide's judgment.It never occurred to my paralyzed mind that Harris might be in dire straits, that the guide might need my help. Harris still insisted that all the oxygen tanks on South Peak were empty, Glenn and I looked at each other, tacit understanding.I shrugged my shoulders back, turned to Harris and said, No big deal, Harris.Everything is asking for trouble.Then I grabbed a fresh canister of oxygen, screwed it on to my regulator, and headed down the hill.I just gave up my responsibility with peace of mind, completely ignoring the possibility that something serious happened to Harris, and comparing the situation in the next few hours, I may never be able to let go of this mistake in my life.

At about 3:30 in the afternoon, I left the South Peak one step ahead of Glenn, Yasuko and Harris and walked down, and almost immediately fell into the dense clouds.Little snow began to fall.The light gradually dimmed, and I could hardly see where the mountains ended and the sky unfolded.It is easy to slip and fall off the ridge at this point, never to be seen again.I climbed down the peak and it got worse and worse. At the bottom of the southeast ledge, Glenn and I stopped to wait for Yasuko, who didn't seem very good at using fixed ropes.Glenn tried radioing Hall, but his transmissions came and went and he failed to reach anyone.With Glenn taking care of Yasuko, and Hall and Harris accompanying Han Sen, the only customer still above us, I thought the situation was under control, so as soon as Yasuko caught up with us, I asked Glenn to let me continue down by myself.He replied: OK, but don't fall off the eaves.

At about 4:45, I arrived at the terrace, which is the 8,413-meter-high cliff on the southeast ridge where Angie and I sat watching the sunrise. I met Withers standing alone on the snow and shaking very badly. , I was shocked and exclaimed: Withers, what the hell are you still doing here?I thought he had been down to Camp Four hours ago. Withers had radial keratotomy1 years ago to correct her vision.At the beginning of his climb to Mount Everest, he found that the low pressure on the mountain made his vision poor, which was a side effect of the operation.The higher he climbed, the lower the air pressure and the worse his vision. Note 1: Radial keratotomy (radial keratotomy) is a surgery to correct myopia. A series of spoke-shaped incisions are made from the outer edge of the cornea to the center to flatten the cornea.author note The previous afternoon, after he went from Camp No. 3 to Camp No. 4, he revealed to me that my vision had become so poor that I could only see within a meter or two, so I followed Tusk closely, and he held up a Feet, I immediately put my feet in his footprints. He had spoken to the group earlier about his vision problems, but he had been remiss in not telling Hall or anyone else about his worsening condition as the attack was approaching.In addition to his vision problems, he climbed the mountain better than before and felt that he was in good condition. He explained: I don't want to be out too early. He climbed over the South Col all night, trying to keep up as he had done the previous afternoon, that is, following in the footsteps of the man in front of him.When he got to the terrace and the sun came out, he noticed that his eyesight had gotten worse, and he accidentally rubbed some ice crystals into his eyes, scratching the corneas of both eyes. He said: At that time, one eye was completely blurred, and the other eye was almost invisible, so I could not judge the distance.I felt that my eyesight was really poor, and I would hurt myself or become a burden to others if I climbed up again, so I told Hall about the situation. Hall immediately announced: Sorry, friend, you go down immediately.I'll send a sherpa to accompany you down.But Withers wasn’t about to give up hope of reaching the summit: I explained to Hall that my pupils would shrink and my eyesight would likely improve when the sun rose.I said I'm going to wait a little longer, and if the line of sight starts to improve, I'll climb up behind everyone. Hall considered Withers' suggestion, then ordered: Yes, it makes sense.I'll give you half an hour.But I can't let you go down to Battalion 4 alone.If your eyesight hasn't improved after thirty minutes, I want you to stay here so I can find you.When I come back from the peak, we will go down the mountain together.I mean seriously, either you go down now, or I promise you will sit here and wait for me to come back. We stood in the snow and the twilight, and Withers said to me kindly: I cross myself, and I will keep my promise to the death.The reason I'm still here is because I keep my promises. Shortly after noon, Hutchison, Tasker, Kasisker, and Cammy descended past the terrace, and Withers decided not to follow them.He explained: "The weather was fine and at the time I saw no reason to lose faith in Hall. But now it was getting dark and it was getting dire.I begged him to come down with me, and Hall would not show up for another two or three hours at least.I will be your eyes.I'll take you down, no problem.Withers almost heeded my advice, but then I made the mistake of mentioning that Glenn and Yasuko were coming down, only a few minutes behind me.Among the consecutive mistakes made on May 10, this was the more serious one. Withers said: Thank you.I think I'll wait for Glenn.He has a rope and can drag me along. I replied: Well, it's up to you to decide.I thought, let's meet at the camp.I secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The following problematic slopes are basically not roped. It is a tricky challenge to bring Withers down the dangerous slope. Now I don't have to do it, so I can rest assured.The light is getting weaker and weaker, the weather is getting worse, and my physical strength is almost exhausted.But I still didn't realize that disaster was about to happen.Seriously, after talking to Withers, it even took me a while to find the air tank I stashed in the snow on my way up the mountain ten hours ago.I wanted to take all the rubbish I made down the mountain, so I stuffed this empty tube into my backpack, put it together with the other two (one empty, one half full), and hurried to the 488-meter Go down to the South Col. I walked down a wide and gentle snow ditch for more than 100 meters from the terrace, nothing happened, and then I was in trouble.The route winds through outcroppings of broken shale covered with fifteen centimeters of fresh snow.Navigating this vexingly unstable terrain requires undivided attention without a moment's distraction, and in my current state of disorientation, that's an incredible feat. The wind has already wiped out the footprints of the mountain friends who went down the mountain first, so it is difficult for me to determine the correct route.In 1993, Glenn's partner Putiya (a skilled Himalayan climber and Nogay's nephew) took a wrong turn at this place and fell to his death.Desperately trying to maintain consciousness, I started talking to myself aloud, chanting like a mantra, calm down, calm down, calm down.Fuck it here and you're done.It's serious.calm down. I sat on a wide sloping rock shed to rest, and a few minutes later, there was a deafening bang!Scared me to sit up.The fresh snow had piled up thickly, and I was afraid there would be a big avalanche on the slopes above, but when I turned my head, I saw nothing.Then there was another bang!Then there was a flash of light that lit up the sky for an instant, and I realized that what I heard was thunder. When going up the mountain in the morning, I deliberately studied this part of the route along the road, kept looking back and looking down to find useful landmarks when going down the mountain, and memorized the terrain: remember to turn left at the buttress that looks like the bow of a ship.Then follow the narrow snow line until it turns sharply to the right.I trained myself to do this years ago, forcing myself to do it every time I go up a mountain, and on Everest it might have saved my life.At 6 o'clock in the afternoon, the wind and snow expanded into a super snowstorm with a speed of more than 110 kilometers per hour. I saw the ropes tied by the Montenegro people on the snow slope 180 meters above the South Col.I woke up in the growing blizzard, knowing that I had almost walked down the most difficult and dangerous section. I looped the fixed rope around my arms and descended, continuing to descend through the snowstorm.A few minutes later, the familiar feeling of suffocation sets in, and I know I'm running out of oxygen again.When I connected the regulator to the third and final tank of oxygen three hours ago, I noticed that the scale was only half full.I thought it was enough for me to walk most of the way down the mountain, so I didn't bother to change a full one.Now the oxygen is gone. I took off the oxygen mask and hung it around my neck, advancing all the way, unexpectedly calmed down.However, without supplemental oxygen, I walked more slowly and stopped to rest more often. Hallucinatory experiences due to lack of oxygen and fatigue are ubiquitous in Everest literature.In 1933, at an altitude of 8230 meters, the famous British mountaineer Frank Smythe saw two strange objects floating in the air directly above, (one) with what seemed to be underdeveloped thick Short wings, another with pointed peck-like protrusions.They hover motionless, but seem to vibrate slowly.In 1980, when Messner climbed the mountain alone, he imagined that there was an invincible partner climbing beside him.Gradually, I found myself in the same mess in my head and saw myself slipping away from reality, fascinated and terrified. I was so tired that I experienced a weird out-of-body feeling, as if I was watching myself descend from two or three meters above.I picture myself wearing a green cardigan and oxfords.Although the gust of wind was blowing a chill below minus 50 degrees Celsius, I felt unusually warm, uncomfortably warm. At 6:30 in the afternoon, the last ray of sunlight emerged from the sky, and I had come to a place less than 60 meters vertically from the No. 4 Battalion.There was a bulging ice slope, slippery and hard as glass, and I had to climb down without ropes, and as long as I got over this obstacle, I was safe.The 130-kilometer-per-hour wind blew snow particles, stinging my face, and the exposed flesh froze in an instant.The horizontal distance of the tent is less than 200 meters, and most of the time it is hidden in a vast expanse of whiteness.There is no room for error at this time.I was worried about making a major mistake, so I sat down and regained my strength before continuing. Once you stop, you never bother to move again.It was easier to go on resting than to brace myself for the dangerous ice slope, so I sat there with the storm howling all around me and my thoughts racing and doing nothing for about forty-five minutes. I pulled the hood cord tight enough to expose only a small hole near my eye, and I was about to remove the frozen useless oxygen mask from under my chin when Harris suddenly appeared in the shadows beside me.I shone in his direction with my headlamp, and when I saw his terrifying face, I flinched instinctively.His cheeks were covered with a thick layer of frost, one eye was closed with cold, and his speech was slurred.He was clearly in bad shape.How about the tent?Harris wanted to reach the shelter, and blurted out. I pointed in the direction of Battalion 4, warning him that there was an ice slope below.Fighting to drown out the sound of the blizzard, I shouted, the ice slope is steeper than it looks!Maybe I should go down first, get a rope at the camp, halfway through the sentence, Harris turned abruptly, stepped over the edge of the ice slope, leaving me sitting there dumbfounded. He slid forward on his buttocks, rushing down the steepest part of the ice slope.I yelled behind him: Harris, you're crazy!You're bound to have an accident!He said a word back aloud, but I couldn't hear the wind howling.A second later he wobbled, slipped headfirst, and rushed headfirst to the bottom of the ice slope. I could only vaguely see Harris fall to the foot of the ice slope sixty meters below, his body motionless.I believe he broke at least one leg and maybe a broken neck.It was unbelievable that at this moment he stood up, waved his hand to indicate that he was fine, and then staggered towards No. 4 Battalion, which was clearly visible 150 meters away. I saw three or four figures standing outside the tent, headlamps flickering on and off in the snow.I watched Harris walk across the flat toward them, a distance he covered in less than ten minutes.A moment later the cloud came in and obscured my view, and he was only eighteen meters away from the tent, maybe less than eighteen meters.I didn't see him again after that, but I believe that he has arrived at the camp safely, and Qiudan and Alita must have prepared hot tea for him.Sitting in the snowstorm, thinking that I had to climb that ice slope to reach the camp, I was jealous and angry that my guide didn't wait for me. I didn't have much in my backpack except for three empty oxygen tanks and half a liter of frozen lemon juice. It only weighed seven or eight kilograms, but I was very tired and worried that I would lose my leg when I went down the ice slope, so I put the backpack on the ice. Throwing it over the edge, hoping it lands where I can pick it up.Then I stood up and walked down the ice, which was so slippery and hard that it was like walking on the surface of a bowling ball. I walked for fifteen minutes with my crampons. I was frightened and exhausted all the way, and finally reached the bottom of the ice slope safely. I picked up my backpack and walked for another ten minutes to enter the camp.I couldn't wait to take off my crampons before rushing into the tent, pulling the zipper door tight, and laying down on the hoarfrost floor, too tired to sit up straight.For the first time, I felt so weak. I had never been so tired in my life.But I'm safe.Harris is safe.The others were about to walk into camp.We've done it.We climbed Mount Everest.There was a bit of a downturn there at one point, but the end result was great. It took me many hours to learn that it wasn't good. Nineteen people were trapped on the mountain by the snowstorm, struggling for life.