Facing Up by Bear Grylls

Author:Bear Grylls [Bear Grylls]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780330515399
Publisher: Pan Books

After one of the finest night’s sleep that I had had in Nepal I woke to Mick bellowing, ‘Morning, Oso.’

I replied, as per custom, with a resounding, ‘Morning, Miguel.’

Mick had obviously shared in that good night’s sleep. All our bodies were relishing in the rest and thick air. Today I really would call home. Michael was up the hill and his communications officer let us use it again on the quiet. It still cost us $7 a minute.

‘Mum, it’s me.’

‘Bear … it’s … BEAR!’ she shouted, summoning everyone around.

It was wonderful to hear all their news. All the animals were well, and Mungo my nephew was now walking. Lara promised that he had even said ‘Mamma’, although Dad swore that it was the poor baby just being sick. I smiled.

I told them that we were going to try to reach Camp Three soon, and then it would be the waiting game for the jet-stream winds to lift, before we could attempt a summit bid. I told them about my narrow escape in the crevasse in the Icefall.

‘You fell in a what … a crevice?’ Mum warbled.

‘No, in a crevasse,’ I replied.

‘Speak up, I can hardly hear you.’ She tried to quieten everyone around her, then resumed, ‘Now, about that crevice …’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ I chuckled.

I promised I would call again when we got back from Camp Three in a week or so’s time, then hung up.

When I came out of the tent everyone was laughing, having listened to our conversation. Allen confirmed his belief that poms were mad, and Neil sat there grinning away.

Geoffrey had gone back up the hill with the others on their acclimatization climb to Camp Two – so we missed again. He seemed to be going well, which was encouraging. Scott, our doctor, was recovering from his sprained ankle and was hoping to climb soon, even if only to glimpse the Western Cwm. I admired this courage.

Having spent so much time alone at Base Camp whilst everyone else was climbing, he was beginning to miss his fiance´e desperately. It showed. In many ways, one of the hardest factors of climbing such mountains is the time away from loved ones. These are feelings, though, that everybody knew, and everyone coped with in their different ways.

Henry had also had a bout of some illness that irritated his Scottish temperament; it wasn’t in his nature to be ill. Three days later he was better and had now gone up with Geoffrey to Camp Two. Base Camp was left relatively quiet. We chatted to Charles again, who mentioned that, according to the statistics, only one in four of us would summit. Sitting alone reflecting on this, I thought of who it would be in our team. They were all so powerful: Graham, Neil, Allen – they were amongst the top climbers of their countries. I felt that it could not logically be me. I knew my only hope was to ignore the statistics; it was just that they seemed quite heavy.

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