Ultimate high : my Everest odyssey by Kropp Göran;Lagercrantz David & Lagercrantz David

Author:Kropp, Göran;Lagercrantz, David & Lagercrantz, David
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sweden, Special Interest - Adventure, Everest, Mount (China and Nepal), Biography / Autobiography, Travel, Sports - General, Travel / Adventure, Biography, Mountaineering, Mountaineers, Kropp, Göran
Publisher: New York : Discovery Books
Published: 1999-08-05T16:00:00+00:00

my course was of inferior quality and outright dangerous. The Expressen reporter who'd questioned the ethics of my Everest expedition just as I set out on my bicycle from Stockholm had suggested that my whole project would be hollow if I made use of the ladders and ropes that others had installed in the Icefall. While bicycling through Europe and Asia, I'd had plenty of time to think about this, and I decided I wanted to prove that I could make it completely on my own up Everest —even up the treacherous Khumbu Icefall.

The first stretch, up a ravine studded with white towers and boulders of snow, looked dangerous. I kept up a fast pace over the rugged terrain until I reached a rock outcrop that gave me some protection. I pressed myself up against it, panting, then I quickly untied my ice axes from my backpack. I solo-climbed up a vertical wall, then reached a place covered with stones and shattered blocks of ice. It looked like a battlefield where snowmen had had it out with each other.

It was still early morning. In the middle of the day, when the sun is hot, huge blocks of ice can break loose, and sometimes avalanches are triggered by the temperature change. The hours around daybreak are safer for climbing—safer, but not safe. The glacier is moving downhill all the time, its confusing and icy landscape changes continuously, and you never pass through the same Icefall twice. Towers of ice can come toppling down in the early morning, too, and snow bridges can break at any time of day. I climbed cautiously up some rocks, jumped between several blocks of ice, and walked over a fragile bridge of snow. In the distance, I could now see a caravan of people beginning their own struggles up through the Icefall.

It is a strange pastime that we share!

Fredrik was not far away, filming me through a telephoto lens. As always, Ang Rita was at his side. Then a third person appeared, a thin man whom I soon recognized as Rob Hall.

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.