A Night on Everest
This climber was lifeless, as I now
believe the other was. And then,
just minutes later, another motionless
climber was lowered down by multiple
Sherpa. Pega and I continued climbing,
not saying a word.
After a while of steep terrain, it became
rocky as well. That just compounded
the difficulty and slowed us down. It
also jacked my heart rate as I tried to
move over rocks. When it’s just ice,
even steep ice, it’s easier to just move
smoothly up. Take two steps, slide the
ascender and then repeat. With rocks,
it’s a large step up, pull on the ascender,
one or two steps, pull on the ascender,
take another large step or two, pull
on the ascender. It’s more disruptive
and more physical.
Luckily, the rocky area ended, and we
were back on plain old steep ice, with
a light snow covering. Ahead of me
I could see the glow of other climbers’
headlamps. I was trying to see where
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the Balcony was. We would stop there
and swap out my oxygen tank for a
fresh bottle and I would get a break.
Nobody behind or in front of me was
talking. Because I didn’t have my
watch, I couldn’t tell if we had been
climbing two hours or four hours.
Each time it would look like we were
coming to a crest, I would expect to
be at the Balcony. Each time it would
be a false landing and the climb
would continue in silence. I knew
I was supposed to eat and drink, but
there was nowhere to stop. I decided
to pull out an Espresso Cliff Shot, rip it
open and squeeze the contents into
my mouth. At least that’s what I
intended to do. What really occurred
was that I had trouble opening the
Shot pack because I wasn’t willing to
take off my mitten liners. When I couldn’t
open the pack with my hands, I resorted
to tearing it with my teeth. I was able
to get a small opening and attempted
to squeeze it in my mouth while we
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
were still moving uphill. Because the
climbers ahead would take a few
steps and then stop, those of us
behind would do the same. I thought
that I could suck down the Cliff Shot
when we paused. I didn’t get much in
my mouth, but I did notice that I had
more on my gloves and on the outside
of the package. I managed to put the
sticky pack into my right outside
breast pocket. I would realize later
that I also had my camera and
emergency medicine in that pocket.
I had a similar problem when I
climbed Cho Oyu. The result was
a sticky mess all over my camera.
I concluded later that no matter how
hard I tried to plan I was still stupid
at altitude.
We passed more climbers that had
stopped as we did earlier in the night.
I could not tell if they were done with
their summit attempt or if they were
resting. We kept moving.