Honouring High Places by Junko Tabei

Author:Junko Tabei
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RMB | Rocky Mountain Books
Published: 2017-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

Finalists

May 4, 12:30 a.m. (recap)

First, silence. Then a whole-body vibration, a deafening noise and – WHAM – impact. Avalanche! Before I knew it, I was tumbling fast. Then, stillness, and an unrelenting pressure that pinned me down so I could hardly breathe. I felt suffocated. I desperately sought escape as I reached for my knife.

“Everybody OK?” I yelled at the top of my voice, startled by its loudness. There was no response. I realized that someone was on top of me. It was Miharu, her hair smothering my face.

The night of disbelief unfolded from there, an entire camp wiped out by tons of snow and ice. The saving grace, summarized best by one of the Sherpas, was that “Nobody is die.”

Nearly a week had passed since the avalanche, and timing to reach the summit had become imperative. We had to get a move on. From a recovery point of view, we were steady enough. It was the other calculations that were the threat: the amount of available food and bottled oxygen dictated that not many of us could stay at high elevations for much longer; and the weather forecast reported that India’s monsoon would begin around May 20. Supplies were not the only thing being depleted. The human body is driven to deterioration and exhaustion purely by existing at 6400 metres – slowly, we were wasting away. In all of this, each of us felt the urgency of the final assault on Everest. Whom that would involve was yet to be determined.

May 10

An evening meeting was held to announce the finalists for the summit team. Hisano, with the weight of the world on her shoulders, led the discussion in a slightly tense voice. She admitted to how upset she had been when first informed of the avalanche, and then how her hopes for continuing the expedition plummeted when she saw in person the scale of the disaster. As team members began to recover, and word from the doctor assured her that the injured Sherpa would be fine, the summit assault returned into view. Hisano was convinced a miracle had kept the team alive, and she felt ready to shift that positivity towards the goal and joy of climbing again. “Having considered Tabei’s unwavering request to continue,” she said, “the team is being given one last chance to succeed.”

It was with a deep respect for each team member that Hisano presented her conclusion. Watanabe and I would make the final push to the summit of Everest with Ang Tsering. We would have added support from the Sherpas since, unfortunately, there were not enough resources to fuel the remainder of the team to the South Col.

When a summit team is chosen, it is vital for everyone to remain united in their support, but often it can be the cause for an expedition party to disband. Thinking back to Annapurna III and the upsetting arguments that ensued when the summit team was selected had me in mixed emotions on Everest. I cautiously

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.