Chapter 47 46

May 5, 1924 2nd Battalion, 19,800 feet Tibet, East Rongbuk Glacier * The sun crept up the valley walls, and the top of the fifty-foot ice cliff, which dwarfed the camp, shone brightly.Climbers sat in a circle of crates, breakfasting on hot tea and tinned biscuits, while pyramid-like green tents swayed in the wind.Ashley took a bite of the biscuit and marmalade.His throat choked and he gulped down a can of coffee with milk to help him swallow.Next to him, the colonel was writing a press release in a notebook in small, clear letters. Price and Mills ate the cookies quickly.Price went on to test the oxygen equipment, looking eccentric in his visor, goggles, and rubber face mask.He inhaled the gas, gripping the hose, while Mills watched the pressure scale on the glass cover.Mills twists the turntable on top of the cylinder.

Sixty barometric pressure.Only half of it was missed, which is amazing.Do you feel any difference? Price held up a hand tentatively.He shook his head, sucking in more air. What witchcraft.Ashley said in a hoarse voice. The Colonel looked away from his notebook. You know, Worthingham, the last time we were here, Price was talking about a good friend of his all the time.It was a mountaineer with various adventures in Arabia.I swear I heard Price say he discovered the Pyramids of Giza. Really? As a result, we hear Knoll's damn stories over and over in this place thousands of miles away from civilization, and I don't hear you mention the desert very often.I promised the Times of London to send them twenty stories from the hills, as far as profiles from Price to those goddamn shoemakers.So give me some facts.have you ever been there

have. Where? Ashley coughed hard to clear his throat. Go everywhere.From Syria to Aden.Also came into contact with some Persian culture.But the interesting place is to the south, near the edge of the Rub Khali Desert.The name of the desert means empty quarter. The Colonel copied the words into his notebook, carefully spelling the word Rub Khali correctly. very good.what are you doing there?Archeology? I wouldn't say that.It should be more correct to say that it is the study of epistemology.There is also some metaphysics. The colonel waved the pencil menacingly. Don't play me!

The problem is hard to explain. You tell me the facts and leave the explanations to me.First of all, why are you going? I went to Arabia, Ashley sighed, more like getting away than wanting to go somewhere.I'm tired of Kenya and don't want to go back to England.When I went to Arabia, I didn't know anyone, didn't speak the language, and didn't know what I was looking for. However, the Colonel's tone was very insistent that you were indeed looking for something. Later it was.I am looking for Iram, said to be a city of a thousand pillars, lost somewhere in that empty quarter.Mentioned in both the Arabian Nights and the Qur'an

Slower.I have to write it down. have nothing to say.Ashley complained.I found nothing.Just a farce. You don't have to be so impatient.I just want to hear the facts. fact.Ashley repeated with a grimace.The truth is, I went after something that wasn't there.It's like we went through all the trouble to climb this mountain, nearly killed ourselves, and spent a lot of money, and when we got to the top, there was no peak at all.Not even a mountain.Not only is the summit gone, but it never existed, a product of someone's vanity.I know I'm a goddamn fool and should just keep climbing.It's hardly a reportable story at all.

The Colonel closed his notebook.His fingers tapped on the tarp cover. I'm not going to the third battalion today.He said abruptly: You go with Price and the porter and Corporal Tejer.Mills and I will be over tomorrow.For goodness' sake, don't let the porters break the equipment with their crampons.Watch their steps. yes. The colonel squinted at the sun, then pulled up his coat cuffs to look at his watch. You better get moving.In this light, you will reach the trough by noon.The timing of getting there was terrible, but I figured it couldn't be helped. The colonel looked suspiciously at Ashley's wide-brimmed hat.

You should be wearing a sun hat. This barely works.I've been to glacier troughs before. But never been to this one.There's not much air in there.The trough absorbs the midday sun and reflects it directly on you.There is no air at all.It will make you have strange reactions. All right. One more thing, the colonel added: You want me to put something in the paper and have it out the next time the messenger comes.If you don't want to talk about Arabic, that's okay.But you gotta give me something, whether it's growing coffee beans in Kenya or collecting some goddamn postage stamps.

Ashley and Price unpacked their gear boxes for the trip to Third Battalion, counting ropes, red flags, and hollow stakes.A Gurkha corporal summoned the porters, and a line of short, stocky men stood with their heads upright, ready for inspection.Many were short of equipment, and supplies had been lost or stolen hundreds of miles earlier in snowy passes or wet jungles.The two porters did not have goggles.Several people didn't wear socks in their boots, and a skinny Bodhiya stood barefoot in the snow.Ashley distributed new equipment from the reserves, and also gave everyone a pair of steel and leather crampons.

Standing on a box, Price demonstrates fastening his boots with crampon straps, while a Gurkha interprets.All the porters fastened their belt buckles in unison.Ashley circled around to check on everyone.He knelt down and pulled Lapa hard.Quedy's crampons were strapped, showing a dissatisfied expression.Lapa.Chodi is one of the tigers, one of the strongest porters, and is responsible for bringing things to the highest camp.At this height, Lapa.Chodi was better at climbing mountains than Ashley, and they both knew it. Ashley made a twisting motion with both hands.Lapa.Chodi smiled kindly.

Too tight.Ashley grunted: It constricts the blood flow.frostbite. Ashley loosened the stiff belt, lowered a few eyelets and refastened the buckle.Ashley looked up at Lapa.Chodi's shiny black pupils and smooth tawny face were completely undamaged by the sun. When you lost your toes, Ashley gasped and said: You won't be able to laugh. Price ordered the porter to remove the colored garters from his legs.In public, he mixed the garters into a pile in an empty box, and put a garter on each pile.The porter tried to lift the items to be brought, and then suddenly put the large canvas bag on his shoulders, then squatted down and put the belt around his forehead, and then moved the box on his back to maintain balance.The barefoot old porter sang softly.Price shouted to Ashley from the front of the line:

I will lead the team.Your Queen. The colonel shouted words of encouragement in Nepali and brandished an aluminum battalion spike like an officer's cane.Ashley stood beside him watching the long line pass, the khaki-colored figure disappearing into a crack in the ice wall. Have you ever thought, Ashley asked the colonel, that they know something we don't? For example what? Hard to say.But they seemed certain of something. What else could they know? They have all kinds of ideas.They said Price was marked for death.Only Sembridge dares to walk behind him, and it's because he's crazy enough Nonsense.The colonel retorted.Even you should know not to spread such stupidity, not even as a joke. Yes. The colonel clutched the baton spikes behind him and began to walk towards his tent.He stopped suddenly and looked back at Ashley. worthingham. sir. The porters knew they were doing it for a paycheck.The colonel said: "But we do it for sport. The team of porters zigzags through the valley, a place like the teeth of a great white shark, a perfect pyramid of sun-whitened ice.Ashley walked behind the swinging basket of the last porter, and the box of items swayed up and down with his steps, making the already small porter even smaller.They had entered the trough, and at the top of the valley, the ice spiers began to look like felled stumps of tree trunks; the ice towers flowed down, shaped by the sun and the wind, evaporated and sculpted into standing pinnacles, their blue-green hues Light was originally invisible to humans. A group of people struggled to find a way.In the suffocating air, they groped for their way, and stopped in front of a bottomless chasm.They marched in single file across what seemed to be oval churches built of emerald spires, the mirrored floor reflecting everything back to them.Everyone stopped suddenly, Lapa.Chadi was out of breath and ran along the team to Ashley. Mr. Price wants you to come over. Ashley doubled his speed and his heart beat violently.The porters stood with their loads on their backs, sweat streaming down their cheeks, their eyes following Ashley passing by.Price waited in the shadows, next to a tall toothed iceberg, Corporal Tejer panting beside him. The porter had gone far enough, and Price said: What do you think? That's right. Price turned to Tijer. Porters can rest here.Walsingham and I will mark the rest of the trail and come back.Be careful not to make them too lazy. Price and Worthingham set off alone.They followed the path through black moraines and then a field of powdery snow.Finally their crampons landed on the still glacier, a long blue tongue of ice.Ashley reached out a hand to touch a small spire, and his wet fingers got stuck in ice.Beneath the crystalline surface, there are numerous opalescent supports.He wondered if these were the beams holding up the minaret, or just cracks, representing the infinite weight on the valley.Price pointed his ice ax at the center of the two large ice towers. It should work here. They tied each other with ropes, Price in front, Ashley securing the rope around his waist.Suddenly, Ashley grinned. The trouble is, I left everything to you in my will.if you drag me into the chasm hush. They push forward, finding their way through a maze of obstacles.A large iceberg in the middle of the path stopped them; they climbed the ice cliff with extraordinary enthusiasm, rejoicing at the rare opportunity for such a real climb.They hammered wooden stakes into the ice, threaded rope through the holes, and nailed red flags to mark their course.The flag hung in the still air. A glare of light bounced off all the ice, and the light shone through Ashley's tinted goggle lenses, squeezing his brain, followed by a violent high-altitude headache, until the two sensations merged into one.His head was buzzing.It felt like melting over time with thousand-ton seracs, dripping with giant icicles, drifting with imperceptibly sliding glaciers. They rested in a forest of giant seracs, and Price untied the rope and took off his hat.Ashley stuck his ice ax into the snow and sat on a dark moraine. You have something on your mind.Price said: You don't talk much after breakfast. There is nothing to talk about. Oops, Price insists, you're upset about something.What is it? Ashley greedily drank the water in the bottle.He corked the bottle, wiped his brow, and whispered in a dry voice: Do you remember the first time you went to a lecture on Triangle Street in Kensington?During the war. Price looked at Ashley in surprise. Can't remember much. You were on vacation at that time.After the speech, you introduced me to a pair of sisters.Soames︱Anderson.I chatted with my sister.It was just before I went to France. Ashley put one foot on the other knee, chiseled off the ice on the sole of the boot, and tried to see if the crampons were sharp with his fingertips.He didn't go any further.Frowning, Price looked up at the glacier, where pyramidal peaks loomed above. What's wrong with her?You never mentioned it to me. Did not continue.We were only together for a week, and we wrote letters every day after I went to France.She also visited me in Alberta's hospital when I was injured.We had a fight and she left England.She will leave to avoid me.It was eight years ago. Ashley wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his windbreaker. I've always wondered what it would be like to have that relationship go on like this every day.I wondered if living that kind of life would become a habit, taken for granted, until it wasn't love anymore. Price shrugged.like this place.Sometimes it feels deadly familiar.Sometimes it feels strange and surprising. Ashley shook his head. What a waste, right?Want what you can't have.And don't want what you already have. You'll get through it. The two stood up and picked up the ice axe. Continue to pull the rope?Ashley asked. probably not Then let's get out of the way. Price looked up at the glacier. I don't know that girl at all.what is her name? Yin Mozhen. Price nodded.You never told me.