Chapter 6 Chapter Four: The Edge of the Ridge

There is a series of giant icy troughs extending down here, reaching a hundred meters below us, and then disappearing into the clouds.There is no doubt that we are descending and traversing the east wall.The clouds also obscured the deep valley below.The snow has stopped.Traversing these icy troughs is time consuming and fraught with danger.Descending lower also means we get lost in the vast whiteness of the clouds.But we have no other choice.Simon stood up and moved cautiously along the crack that ran parallel to the summit and stretched into the distance.I climbed a little more down the east wall and waited for him to take up any slack.The advantage of moving this way is that if the ledge breaks again, at least I can stop him from falling.But eventually I had to keep up with him and move along the ridge together.

As I climbed back up Simon's line, it occurred to me that a few minutes before he fell, I had a moment of uneasiness.I've noticed this in the past as well and thought about it constantly.This sudden and strong worry has no basis at all.We had spent more than fifty hours on this mountain, and maybe we had become able to sense potential danger, so I had a feeling that something was going to happen, but I couldn't know what.I don't like irrational speculation like this, especially now that my anxiety is flooding back.I could see that Simon was getting nervous too.The descent was far more difficult than we expected.

While paying attention to the cracks, I checked whether I was stepping on the footprints left by Simon, and followed Simon nervously for nearly fifty meters.If he falls again, maybe I can save him if I catch him in time.I can jump to the other side of the ledge and let the rope hang on both sides of the ledge to stop us from falling.But if I fell, it would be very difficult for him, or he would not get any warning at all.Maybe he could hear me screaming, or the sound of the ledge breaking, but he had to turn to see which side I fell before jumping to the other.In my opinion, the most likely accident is that the entire mountainside collapses, and a large-scale avalanche can sweep us both down.

The crack was getting closer and closer to me, and after I crossed it, I breathed a sigh of relief.The edge of the mountain finally became a little safer.Unfortunately, however, the ridge also descends steeply from this position and twists and turns, with huge cornices stretching toward the west face at each turn.I knew it would be easier to go further away, so I wasn't surprised when Simon descended the east wall.He intended to descend far enough to dip directly into the less difficult sections and avoid descending the twisted ledge.That area was more than a hundred meters below us.Before following Simon down, I visually measured how far I needed to descend.

Before we had climbed much, the light became very dim.I looked at my watch and realized that it was past five o'clock.We had left the summit nearly three and a half hours ago and had only come so far.It would be dark in an hour, and to make matters worse, the blizzard clouds were rolling over us again, flakes of snow were flying in from the east, right in our cheeks.The temperature had dropped precipitously, and the wind had picked up with it, and we were chilled to the bone as soon as we stopped. Simon climbed down a ditch between two ice troughs.I followed slowly, trying to keep my distance, and only moved when the rope moved.I climbed down into a white curtain, intertwined with snow and clouds.After a while, I decided we were high enough to move horizontally to the easy area, but Simon continued down.I told him to stop, but only heard a muffled answer.I shouted louder, and the rope in my hand stopped moving.We couldn't hear each other's shouts.I move down to hear better.The gully suddenly became very steep, and I realized I couldn't stop slipping, so I turned to face the slope, but it was still difficult to control my footsteps.

Now I was getting closer to Simon, and when he called out again, I heard him asking why I had stopped.At this moment, the snow under my feet suddenly slipped away, and I fell down immediately.Both of my ice axes went deep into the ditch, but that didn't stop me from falling.I gave a loud warning, and suddenly slammed into Simon heavily, pressing on him, and then stopped. God!I oh fuck!I thought we were done!So fucking stupid! Simon said nothing.I buried my face in the ditch, trying to calm down.My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest, and my legs were shaking weakly.Fortunately, I was very close to Simon when I fell, so I didn't accelerate enough to knock him down with me.

Are you OK?asked Simon. fine.Scared that's all. oh. We descended too low. Yeah?I'm still thinking we might be able to climb all the way down to the glacier to the east. What are you kidding!Damn it!I almost killed us both just now.And we have no idea what's going on underneath. But the ridge was terrible.There's absolutely no way we're going to go down the ridge tonight. In any case, we can't go down tonight.Please, it's getting dark now.It is lucky to be able to leave this ghost place, and I want to go directly to the glacier! All right, all right, calm down.It's just an idea.

sorry.I just lost my mind.Can we cut across from here, back to where the ridge drops off? OK, you go ahead. I calmed down my messed up emotions, adjusted my state, and started to chisel the ice ax into the right side of the ice trough.After an hour and a half, I successfully climbed over countless ice-cut ditches and ditches, with Simon following behind, a distance away from me.We hadn't advanced more than sixty meters before the snow grew and the wind blew through our bones.It was also dark and we had to turn on our headlights. I kicked rocks under the snow as I climbed a wall of grains of snow into another ditch.

Note 1: The granular snow with larger particle size is formed by the melting and recrystallization of snow under the pressure of the upper layer of snow.Editor's note Simon!I yelled, don't move yet.There is a small rock here, which is a bit of a hassle to get over. I decided to drive a piton into the snow wall and carefully balance myself around the obstacle.I nailed the piton, but somehow managed to descend without the help of a rope, over the snow wall.Simon also uses the same basic rock climbing technique, using gravity and body weight to jump down from the snow wall. Although he can't see where he will land, he believes that the force of the fall will firmly fix him in the soft snow.I think his strategy is a little flawed in that he doesn't know whether his foothold will be loose snow or hard rock.But by then we were too tired and too cold to care about that.

After the rocks, we crossed an open slope.The slopes are covered with snow powder, fortunately there are no ice erosion ditch.We turned up and headed towards the edge of the mountain in our impression. After climbing a few pitches, we found a huge snow cone close to the rock wall. We decided to dig a snow cave. Simon's headlight was flickering on and off, and it was not known whether it was a bad connection or a circuit failure.I started digging, and soon I was hitting rocks.I struggled to follow the course of the rock, trying to make a narrow hole, but gave up after half an hour.The hole is so porous in it that it's hard to keep out the cold wind.The temperature dropped to about minus twenty degrees Celsius, and Simon had been concentrating on repairing the headlights, exposing his fingers to the cold air, freezing two of them, and digging warmed my whole body, so when I started to dig another During a hole, he lost his temper with me.I thought he was being vexatious and ignored him, and of course it wasn't fair to him to think so.The other snow hole was in a slightly better position, and although it also hit the rock, it was dug out enough for two people.By this time Simon had fixed the headlamp, but his fingers could not be warmed up.Still pissed off, he accused me of being uncooperative.

Dinner is prepared by me.Food is already scarce.We ate some chocolate and dried fruit, drank a lot of fruit juice, and by this time the anger caused by fatigue had gradually subsided, and we both regained our senses.I was as cold and tired as Simon, and I just wanted to dig a snow hole so we could slip into our sleeping bags and have some hot drinks.Today is another long day.The beginning was very smooth, and I was in a good mood when I came down from the west wall, but the difficulty of climbing down became more and more difficult, which made people tense.The fall from the cornice hit us hard and we were exhausted later.We've all fired at each other so many times today that it doesn't help anymore. Simon showed me his fingers, which have gradually recovered, but the index fingers of both hands are still pale and stiff from the root to the first knuckle.It looked like he had frostbite.I hope his hand doesn't get hurt again tomorrow.However, I'm sure we're almost over the more difficult part of the ridge and will be back at camp tomorrow afternoon.There's only enough gas left to heat two drinks tomorrow morning, but that's about it.I lay down to sleep, but the fear of traversing the ridge was still in my mind.The sight of us both being roped together and falling helplessly down the east wall almost became a reality.I shudder to think that I might end my life in this way.I know Simon feels the same way.He had witnessed such a horrific accident a year earlier at the Croz Spur in the French Alps.Two Japanese climbers fell to their deaths just a stone's throw from him, barely one step closer to the summit. At that time, the snowstorm lasted for three days, and the climbing conditions were very dangerous.The rock face was slippery with rime, and a thin layer of brittle ice covered the pivots and filled the cracks.Advancement became difficult and slow, each fulcrum had to be excavated with tools, and the originally low-difficulty areas became extremely difficult.Simon and his partner, Jon Sylvester, have been camping on the face for two nights.In the late afternoon of the third day, another snowstorm hit and the temperature dropped sharply. Thick clouds isolated them from the outside world, and the first batch of snow powder rushed in on the wind. The two Japanese climbers followed closely behind them.The two teams slept separately, had no communication with each other, no sense of competition, and no one suggested merging into one team.In the face of difficulties, both sides performed equally well.Every now and then someone falls, often in the same place.They watch each other climb, fall, and try again on the face. When they reached the back wall of the ice cirque at the summit, Simon saw the Japanese pioneer climber leaning back, flailing his arms in panic, and falling outward.Through the gaps in the clouds, he could see behind him a terrifying drop of seven or eight hundred meters.What made Simon even more terrified was that he saw the pioneer climber spin and fall rapidly, and before he could make any sound, he pulled his companion down the deep valley.The pitons they used to secure came loose, and the two fell helplessly in an instant, the climbing rope still tied together. Simon, unable to see Sylvester above him at the time, scrambled to his side and told him what had happened.The horrible accident just happened next to the two of them. They stood silently on a small rock shed, trying to calm down their emotions.At this time, the snowstorm was about to cover the mountain, and they couldn't help the two Japanese climbers. There was almost no chance of surviving the fall, and the fastest way to inform the rescue team was to climb over the peak and go down to Italy. They were about to resume their climb when they heard from very far below a dreadful cry, a voice of anguish, despair, loneliness, and terror, which made the heart shudder.They looked down and saw two climbers sliding down the alpine ice sheet about 200 meters below, and the speed was increasing.The climbing ropes were still connected to the two of them, and various pieces of equipment and mountaineering bags rolled around them together.All Simon could do was watch helplessly as the two little figures slid down the ice.And then they were gone, vanishing over the edge of the ice sheet and down into the terrible abyss of the glacier. At least one of them was lucky enough to be alive when he fell onto the ice sheet.For some reason, they stopped, maybe the climbing rope caught the overhanging rock but they were not rescued.Such a turn of events was terrifying, both for the victims and for the witnesses from afar.The probation lasted only a short time, about five minutes.One of them tried hard to find a fulcrum to stabilize and get out of danger.But he was seriously injured and it was difficult to do it.Maybe he slipped, maybe the rope came off the hook; whatever the cause, the end result was brutal. With their confidence shattered and their minds blank, Simon and Sylvester turned around and struggled to reach the summit.The accident happened too suddenly.They haven't talked to the two Japanese, but they have understood and respected each other.If they all make it down safely, they'll talk and share food on the long walk down the valley, meet in town bars and maybe become friends. Their camp was on the outskirts of Chamonix.I still remember the way Simon walked slowly into the camp when he came back.He was very depressed and looked haggard and tired.He sat there numbly, asking the same question repeatedly: Why did the same piton that had prevented his fall earlier come off when the Japanese fell?He returned to normal the next day, learned from this incident, and then shelved it in the depths of his memory, understood, accepted, and finally let it go. Drowsiness set in quickly, and I tried to forget that we had almost come to the same horrible end as those two Japanese.No one was looking at us this time, I thought, what difference does it make. I turned up the fire next to me, and looked over the flames and through holes in the walls of the snow cave.The vent I had inadvertently dug in the snow cave just framed the east face of Yalu Pahal.The morning sun casts shadows on the ridgeline, and the blue light flickers between the icy grooves on the mountain wall.For the first time in four days, my strained concentration relaxed.The uneasiness and struggle of last night have been forgotten, and the memory of almost falling to death has gradually faded.I take it easy and enjoy the moment, congratulating myself on my good fortune.Smoking addiction committed. The snow cave is narrow, but definitely much warmer than the last one.Simon was still fast asleep, lying on his side next to me, facing the other way.His hips and shoulders are close to mine, and I can still feel his warmth through the sleeping bag.Even though we lived and died together on the mountain, there was something odd about being so close.I moved my body carefully, not wanting to wake him up.Looking at the east wall through the circular hole, I suddenly found myself smiling.I think today will go well. The gas ran out while cooking breakfast.That is, there was no water to drink before we reached the lake beneath the moraine.I got dressed and equipped first, then climbed out of the snow cave and walked towards the first snow cave I dug yesterday.Simon's assembly was very slow, and I didn't realize that his hands were frostbitten until he also came to the huge platform formed by the collapsed snow cave.When he held out his finger to show me, my good mood disappeared and I became worried.One of the fingertips had turned black, while the other three were whitish and looked as stiff as wood.Oddly enough, I was less concerned about his injury than whether he would be able to continue climbing after he descended. Simon stayed below to protect the rope while I headed for the sun-bathed crest of the ridge half a pitch away.We are all worried about the snow cornice collapsing again.As soon as I reached the ridge, I was discouraged, because there were twisted cornices and razor-thin powder snow in front of me.I had been hoping to find a way around this section, but my hopes fell through.I warned Simon loudly, and he agreed to follow me as soon as the climbing rope was let down. Although we took extra care, we still couldn't avoid slipping and falling in the most difficult areas, and we still couldn't fully stabilize our feet.I try not to stray too far from the top of the ridge.The mountain ridge twists and turns, and drops suddenly from time to time, forming a series of short steep walls.During the climbing process, I gradually forgot that the snow cornice might collapse and began to slowly accept the helpless situation.I'm almost certain it would be worse to walk the lower glacial troughs on the east face.A fall from an ice trough is as dangerous as a collapsing cornice.But if you need to be held by a rope when you fall, the odds are absolutely too low, and neither of us will have a chance of surviving.However, whenever I come to a steep section, I will slip from time to time.The snow powder is too weak, no matter how hard I kick the crampons in, as long as I remove my body weight from my arms, I will immediately slide down one or two meters.For some reason, every sudden and frightening fall seems to stop automatically.The problem is that the stop is no firmer than when it slides down.It's really frustrating. I slipped again, but this time with a scream.The steep slope of the slide is not high, and the bottom is just on the edge of the 180-degree turn of the mountain ridge.Turning my face to the slope, I saw a huge cornice of powdered snow jutting out from below the turn, and from below the cornice, the west wall dropped steeply down to the glacier, with a drop of several hundred meters.Simon was a whole pitch behind me, out of sight, and he had no way of getting any warning or knowing which side I'd fallen on.I fell in a puff of snow powder, so fast that I only had time to let out a scream of panic, not a warning at all.Simon didn't see me fall, and he didn't hear anything. Then, I stopped suddenly, and my whole body fell on the snow, with my head buried in the snow, and my limbs stretched out like crabs.I dare not move.It seemed that I was able to stop on this slope by sheer luck.I curled up as I felt the snow move and slide down my stomach and thighs. I raised my head and glanced sideways to the right.I parked right on the edge of the ridge, right on the turn.My body leans to the right so it looks like I'm hanging from the west wall.At this moment, I concentrate all my thoughts on staying still.I exhaled hurriedly, not daring to inhale forcefully.But I didn't move.On closer inspection, I realized that I was not actually out of balance, it was just the impression my fleeting glance had given me.It's like seeing through the tricks of optical illusions and suddenly seeing something you've been staring at but couldn't.The ridge turned to my left and rear, and my glimpse to the right of the cornice protruding from the underside of the buttress made me think I was lying on the sagging part.The truth is, my right leg is already through the cornice, and my left leg, while stopping my fall, also pushes me sideways, so I feel off balance and sinking on my right side.I scratched at the snow to my left, trying to pull my weight over there while pulling my right leg back up the ledge.Finally I managed to move away from the edge of the ridge and back around the turn. Simon appeared above me, moving slowly, looking down at his feet.I had moved to a safe position and yelled at him to keep to the left on the descent.When I shouted, I found that my whole body was shaking violently, and my legs were shaking suddenly and involuntarily, and it took a long time before I stopped.During this time, I watched Simon face the slope, come down in two steps, and then inevitably slide down quickly.He turned and walked in my footsteps, and I saw his nervous expression.The day was neither enjoyable nor fun.When he came to me, we shared each other's fears.In trembling voices we kept telling our panic, with curt expletives and a lot of profanity, before we calmed down.