A Night on Everest
I also used some hot water to have
another cup of Ramen. I was double-
checking my pockets, boots and headlamp
when Pega came to the tent and said,
“Let’s go.”
I still hadn’t found my watch, but
I assumed it was 7:30 p.m. I said my
farewells to Huey. He had decided that
he would leave in an hour and go as
high as he could comfortably and
return when needed. Chris was right
behind me. As I was leaving the tent,
Chris’s Sherpa came to get him to
leave our tent.
Once outside I noticed that the winds
had died down. It was dark and there
was a light snow, but otherwise the
air was calm. With my headlamp on
I secured my crampons. As usual, Pega
double checked. We did a quick check
of items that I needed to have on me.
I left the tent and my partial bottle of
oxygen. I brought my mask outside,
but it was five minutes or more before
Pega helped me with my backpack
and connected my mask to the new
full bottle inside my pack. I stood there
and could feel a warm comfortable
feeling as the oxygen entered my brain,
muscles and other tissues in my body.
Around me were my teammates in
different states of readiness. Beyond
them were other teams getting ready.
Looking up at the triangle face that
leads climbers to the summit out of
Camp 4, I could see about a dozen
headlamps of those that had already
started for the summit. As I was getting
ready to leave Camp 4, Harry came over
and said, “You have this!” Funuru was
also nearby and said, “I know you can
do this!” And with that, Pega, Dawa and
I left Camp 4, headlamps on, oxygen on.
18
As we left Camp 4, I again noticed
how calm the night air was after such
a blustery day. Because I was focused
on my own status, I had not seen who
was ahead or behind me other than
Pega in front and Dawa behind me.
Dawa was carrying an extra bottle of
oxygen for me to use when I arrived at
the South Summit. I had arranged with
IMG when I signed up in October to
have an extra bottle of oxygen. I didn’t
know that it would follow me to the
South Summit until that day, but it
made sense that no one would go to
the South Summit early just to leave
oxygen. Cost: $6,000.
We walked into the night. Nobody
was talking, everything was so quiet.
The first part of the climb out of Camp
4 is pretty flat. Quickly that changes
and it gets very steep. I had seen that
earlier in the day and worried that it
would be hard. Now that I was on the
Triangle Face, I felt good. The pace was
perfect with the three liters-per-minute
of oxygen I was getting. Because I
couldn’t find my watch before I left my
tent, I now had no idea what time it
was. Maybe that was better.
As the slope got steeper I could see
that a group ahead of us had stopped.
As we approached, I could see two
climbers in down suits above another
climber. The two had ropes and were
basically lowering the third person
down the mountain. With the darkness,
oxygen mask and goggles, I couldn’t
tell what was wrong with the injured
climber. He was on the ground sliding
down the steep slope, not moving. Was
he/she conscious or unconscious? Was
he/she dead or alive? As they passed
by us, the group ahead began to move
and so did we. Fifteen minutes later the
same thing happened again - a climber
was being lowered down the mountain
as we continued up.
JA NUA RY/F E B R UA RY 2020 | P EN N S YLVA N IA D EN TA L J O U R N A L