New Journey to the West
Kennedy School , Von Hauswolff Juhlin , Alicia -10
On the icy peak of Mount Everest , the three exhausted climbers watched the snowman , which seemed to be waiting to kill them , and they asked themselves , why had they wanted to climb Mount Everest ? Was it really worth risking so much ?
It all started when a little girl called Sam was bored . It was raining outside , and her parents made her stay inside . As Sam paced her bedroom trying to think of something to do , an old book caught her eye . She pulled it out of her bookshelf- boxes stacked on top of each other with books inside- and saw that the book was about Mount Everest . The book had details on how to climb it and advice if they were caught in a blizzard , had lost all their warm clothing or- Sam reckoned this was impossible-encountered an abominable snowman . As the years went by , Sam never forgot that book and she promised herself that when she was old enough , she would climb Mount Everest and reach The West- Europe , the way the ancient Chinese monk , Xuanzang , reached the West – India , to pursue his Buddhist studies .
One day , while Sam was buying groceries , she met Tenzing Norgay . He was dressed in what a comedy penguin might wear while on tour . He was looking around and Sam thought he looked rather lost . He walked up to her and asked “ Miss , could you tell me where the climbing gear is ? My friend advised me to come here and buy us climbing gear , but I think he gave me the wrong address , so I am very confused ,” he probably would have made a detailed speech about how very confused he was , but Sam stopped him . She bought her groceries and brought Tenzing Norgay to the mountaineering shop , where she helped him find what he was looking for . He thanked Sam and invited her to his house , because he wanted to discuss something with her .
When they arrived at the penguin ’ s house , Sam was shocked . Tenzing Norgay lived in a mansion ! She had been expecting an aquarium filled with other penguins , but of course she was wrong . He led her into the dining room , which was bigger than her whole house ! The furniture looked like it was worth at least $ 10,000 . The walls were decorated with pictures of mountains of all sorts . Sitting at the end of the seemingly endless dining table was a man dressed exactly the same as Tenzing Norgay . When he saw her , he smiled and declared “ How wonderful of you to join us , Samantha Rose Edgewood . I have heard that you would like to climb Mount Everest ? Well , your time has come . I , Sir Edmund Hillary , have decided that we shall climb Mount Everest , and we shall reach Europe !”
They wasted no time . In 2 days they were staring up at Mount Everest . The whole thing left Sam so dumbfounded that the only thing she was thinking was “ comedy penguin ”. However , since the penguins had done so much for her , she thought she ought to thank them , but all she managed to say was “ th ....” before Edmund interrupted her . “ Your welcome , Samantha . Now , shall we begin ?”
Edmund thought it best if he took the lead , and the others thought it best not to argue . However , they had only been climbing for 2 days when disaster struck . There was a blizzard as strong and cruel as a giant , which took them completely by surprise . They had been climbing when a great gust of wind knocked them over , spraying snow everywhere . Edmund landed headfirst in the snow on the right of their “ path ” and Tenzing landed on the left . Sam had somehow been propelled forward , and was desperately trying to pull her head out of the snow . When she had managed that , she realised that the others ’ coats had flown away . They would have to suffer the bitter cold .
They climbed on through the blizzard , desperately trying to avoid being knocked over . It wasn ’ t working that well . They were moving very slowly . The blizzard clearly was not being kind . When they were too exhausted to even move a muscle , much less climb , they stopped and Sam realised that the others were shivering . Their penguin outfits clearly were not warm enough , so Sam decided to let them wear her coat . That was a bad decision , because Sam ’ s coat wasn ’ t big enough for 2 people , so now all 3 of them were freezing cold . They couldn ’ t climb for much longer ...
Luckily , they didn ’ t have to . After a few more days of suffering , they reached the top !