The next banner was an Eagle Scout
Explorer banner. Both were held up and
waved in the wind. Each time I waited
and asked Pega if everything looked
good, and each time, he said yes. The
last banner was for my Boy Scout Troop,
Troop 181 Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, of
which I am Scoutmaster. I held out the
banner and asked Pega if looked good
and he said yes. When I looked at the
photo later, I realized that it was
backwards. Altitude makes you stupid!
I hugged my teammates who were on
the summit with me. It was probably no
more than 15 minutes later that Pega
said we should get going. It was getting
more crowded. I never removed my mask
even though my backpack was off and
next to me. I did take a drink and eat
some candied pecans before I had Pega
help me get my backpack on.
In an instant it was over. I had made it
to the summit of Everest and now it
was time to descend. Many accidents
happen on the descent. Climbers can
expend all their energy to get to the
summit and run on adrenaline rather
than food. After they leave the summit
their bodies “bonk” like a marathoner
with two miles to go. In 2011 I helped a
20-year-old man from S. Africa descend
from Mt. Elbrus in Russia.
He was passing out and acting drunk.
We gave him some candy, but he never
really felt normal. It took three of us to
hold him as we climbed down from the
summit. While the terrain allowed us to
get this young man down on Elbrus, it
wouldn’t work on Everest. In 2012, while
on Aconcagua, a woman with our group
had similar symptoms of confusion and
lack of motor control consistent with
altitude sickness or low blood sugar.
She was fine on the summit, but as we
began to descend, she collapsed. We
helped her down as well. I added her
backpack to mine as we descended.
Again, this would not have been possible
on Everest. The route from the North
Summit to the South Summit was too
steep and narrow to allow three people
across. There were also steep ups and
downs and one rope. That is why the
unfortunate are often left on the mountain.
The fixed rope was our lifeline.
If connected you were safe, but
unconnected you could fall more than
12,000 ft. When you and another
climber meet, one must unclip their
safety line from their harness and then
reconnect after they pass. The pass
must be done with care. Because both
of us are wearing backpacks and bulky
down suits we must face each other
and hug or do what I called “Everest
Dirty Dancing” as we passed. If you were
unclipped, you would hold the person
passing very tightly. This could go on for
twenty or more people, making the
process very slow.
I still didn’t know what time it was.
I think someone told me that we made
the summit around 5:30 a.m. As we left
the summit there was little traffic coming
toward us. We traveled quickly toward
the top of the Hillary Step. When we
arrived, we could see many more
people on their way up. We now were
clipping and unclipping from the fixed
rope as we passed those coming up.
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