Brennan was really suffering. Altitude had undermined all that raw strength and corroded his ability to think straight.
What he had done was illogical and dangerous.
But what could Kami say? He could hardly reprimand the boss.
‘I’m going to set up a new bottle for you,’ Kami told Alex.
‘Go for it,’ Brennan mumbled. Five minutes later it was done; the full bottle clipped onto the line and feeding into Brennan’s mask at two litres a minute. Kami snapped the American’s rucksack straps together and told him. ‘All set.’
‘That’s a bit better,’ Alex commented. He drew deeply on the oxygen, somewhat revived.
Kami pulled his fellow climber to his feet and they climbed around some rocky pinnacles and regained the ridge. Brennan was moving a bit better now he had more Os running into his system, but before long the epic climb entered a more technical phase.
A sheer wall some five metres high.
Kami realised it had to be the famous Hillary Step, the most serious technical challenge on the South East Ridge.
Chapter 10
Kami stared up at the ice wall, feeling a surge of adrenaline course through his body. It looked serious and awkward in equal measure, patches of diamond hard blue ice overlaid with wind packed snow. Dozens of ancient ropes were embedded in the ice or just flapping uselessly in the wind.
This would be a real test, Kami realised, but he knew he could do it.
‘You go first,’ Brennan told him.
Kami could see a solid length of fresh rope had been fixed to the right of the climbing line. He pulled on it hard to test it then clamped his jumar onto the cord.
He started to climb, reaching up with his left arm to whack his ice-axe into the face, gaining a bit of height then sliding the jumar clamp up the rope with his right hand.
After each upwards lunge, he kicked his crampon spikes into the ice surface and rested on his front points. Once or twice the snow crumbled without warning; giving way in an instant, leaving his legs scrambling in mid-air with all the weight on his arms until he could kick them back in to a firmer spot.
Kami’s jumar/ice-axe combination wasn’t the most elegant climbing technique but it was effective; after seven or eight moves he was able to lunge onto the shelf at the top of the Hillary Step. He flopped onto his stomach and lay there for long moments, savouring the satisfaction of the climb and trying to get his breath back.
‘OK,’ he called down to Brennan after a bit, ‘Your turn.’
Alex Brennan waved a hand at him but did not rise to his feet as Kami expected. Instead he just sat there staring out into the billowing clouds which now filled the Western Cwm, spindrift pattering against his wind suit, his shoulders hunched against the wind.
Kami left it for five minutes. Ten. He knew that things were getting really late now; they really had to get moving.
‘You OK?’
‘Yeah. Just taking a break,’ Brennan shouted back.
A few minutes later Brennan got up and started the climb but he looked weak from the start. He wasn’t attacking it as Kami had done. Rather, he was pawing at the face, burning precious energy as he drew quantities of snow down.
But slowly he did manage to make some headway up the ice face, gaining two body lengths and reaching the midway point on the step.
Brennan reached up again with his ice-axe, and plunged it into the face. But there was little power in the strike and the axe was not deep enough to get a true purchase.
Kami watched him struggling, amazed that this Olympic athlete could have been reduced to a shambling shadow of his former strength. He understood it; he was feeling the same effect in that moment – but the young Nepali knew he still had something left in the tank.
And Brennan was running on empty.
Finally, Kami made a decision. He reached down and grabbed hold of the back of Brennan’s wind suit. He gritted his teeth and pulled up with a mighty heave, hauling his fellow climber up onto the snow shelf where they both now collapsed in a heap.
‘That’s a tough one, Brennan gasped, ‘thanks, man.’
They rested for a while, lying flat out on the ridge as Brennan coughed like his lungs were on fire.
Kami had no idea how much time went past as they waited in that exposed spot. Enough time for great regiments of clouds to sweep across the summit. It seemed that Brennan had given up looking at his watch.
Now the ridge was getting perilously narrow and the wind was coming in hard. Kami felt himself buffeted by the blast and he angled his body to prevent himself being blown off his feet, dropping his shoulder into the wind and standing side on.
While he waited for Brennan to catch him up, he stared ahead, realising with some despair that the summit still looked far away.
There was plenty of climbing still to go and all of it along that scary looking ridge line.
Brennan was following on, but in fits and starts. He would take a few miniscule steps, then pause for what seemed to be an age, hunched over his ice-axe and coughing with that deep lung-rattling shudder that had been worsening ever since Camp Two. Kami was itching to push ahead but he knew his duty and he would not leave the boss.
The walkie talkie squawked into life; Brennan fumbled for it in his pocket.
‘We just lost you on the long lens,’ Kurt told them, ‘We got nothing but cloud here at Base, over.’
‘We’re still here,’ Brennan replied, ‘Still on the ridge and heading up.’
‘We got a meteo report and it’s not looking good,’ he continued, ‘Wind’s rising fast. The guys here are saying you should maybe call it a day.’
‘Not now,’ Brennan replied slowly. ‘We’ve come too far to fail.’
Kurt started to reply but Brennan terminated the call. He clicked off the walkie talkie and stuffed it back into his pocket. Then he succumbed to another of the coughing fits and Kami couldn’t help noticing flecks of blood in his saliva as he spat.
‘You cool to keep going?’ Brennan asked Kami.
‘Yes, sir.’
A new gust of wind suddenly ripped across the ridge, sending them both crashing down for cover. Kami thrust the tip of his ice-axe in as an anchor, holding on to Brennan’s harness with his other hand as the violent blast threatened to blow them down the Kangshung Face.
The gust whipped away, taking a vast amount of ice particles with it. Kami got to his feet and surveyed the situation; he was shocked to find that none of the subsidiary peaks were now visible. Pumori, Ama Dablam, Changtse; all were smothered in cloud.
‘We should keep moving, sir.’
No response.
Was he asleep? Or was cerebral oedema shutting down his brain?
Kami decided he would radio down to Base. The whole situation was way beyond his experience and he needed some advice from Tenzing or Lopsang. Should he try and persuade Brennan to turn around? Or was his condition more or less normal on a summit day attempt?
‘Sir!’ Kami gave the boss a gentle knock on the shoulder and he came around with a start, ‘I want to use the walkie talkie sir.’
Brennan shook his head; ‘No time for that. We’ve got climbing to do. Time is rolling on.’ Brennan tried to rise, but slumped back. Kami clasped his hands, pulling him upright. He clipped both of their karabiners onto the frayed safety line, figuring that even doubtful protection was better than none.
Ten minutes’ more rest. Brennan’s flask giving them both a precious mouthful of sweet tea. Then back to the climb and the technical challenges of the ridge and the ever deteriorating weather.
Now Brennan was crawling more than walking. His breathing was definitely stressed. Kami could tell that every upwards movement required prodigious amounts of will.
How much longer could the American keep going? Kami was thinking about the dead bodies they had passed earlier.
A further assault began from the wind, the force sufficient to make Kami wonder if his goggles would be ripped away from his face. Small stones and rocks were actually moving he realised as he stared downwards at his feet, prised out of the mountain’s icy clutch and spun away down the Kangshung Face.
‘Hell, Kami!’ Brennan called out, ‘we’re so damn close! We can almost touch it from here.’
Brennan bent over as another feverish round of coughing set in. Kami didn’t know what to say, unsure whether he should be encouraging the boss to go further or advising him to give the whole thing up and turn back for the col.
Brennan got himself upright, again with Kami’s help. Over the next hour he made it about another ten metres along the ridge line, pulling himself along the fixed rope in a despairing manner which was devoid of conviction or strength. Every step cost him a five-minute rest.
Then he folded up. Just collapsed with nothing left to give, lying awkwardly with his thigh on a painful looking rock. Kami helped him to shift into a better position, knowing in that moment, instinctively, that the summit quest was absolutely over.
And that Brennan knew it too.
‘You know what makes me more sad than anything?’ the boss rasped.
‘No sir.’
‘All the people who’ve put so much into this. People back home, people down at Base. It’s not just for me, this whole thing, you do know that don’t you?’
The clouds had darkened. Kami sensed the wind was intensifying again, that a full-on storm was now brewing to the north. He flexed his fingers inside his gloves wondering if they were really as frozen as they felt.
‘I think I understand, sir.’
‘Hell, we’re pretty much on the summit anyway.’
No we are not, thought Kami. We are still very far from the summit. Far enough that you will not make it.
Kami’s hand moved to the shrine bell where it sat nestled safely in his breast pocket. He looked up the ridge line, longing for the freedom to leave Brennan and complete the promise he had made to Shreeya.
To put the shrine bell in the true home of the gods. The real summit of the world.
He knew that he had the strength to make it. There was no question of that. A half hour more of effort would get Kami to that sacred spot. He could scrape a little hole in the ice and place the shrine bell reverently inside before covering it up. The sins of the past would be forgiven and he could return to Shreeya with his head held high.
But abandoning the American would be a cardinal sin. The boss was already disorientated and confused. He needed Kami with him and there was no getting around that.
‘They don’t deserve us to fail, Kami,’ Brennan said, ‘we owe it to them … even if we have to ... ’ his words tailed away as fresh snow began to be driven through the air.
‘What did you say, sir? I am sorry I could not hear you,’ Kami bent down closer.
Brennan was hit by more coughing. Each attack seemed to be deeper, inflict more pain.
‘Maybe we can still make give this some kind of happy ending? You know what I’m saying?’
‘I don’t understand, sir. I am sorry. We have to turn around now.’
‘What do you say we make this the summit?’
Brennan’s desperate, bloodshot eyes burned into Kami. The young Sherpa did not know where to look.
‘Take a photo or two ... make it seem ... ’
It was an excruciating moment and he wasn’t entirely sure he really understood Brennan’s intention. Was he proposing to pretend they had reached the top? That was how it seemed.
Kami was utterly lost. What should he do? How should he act?
‘Everything is your decision, sir,’ he said. It was the only thing he could say.
‘There’ll be an extra bonus for this,’ Brennan told him. ‘But you’ll have to back me all the way.’
Kami remained silent. He was bewildered by the unexpected direction the conversation had taken.
‘Will you back me all the way Kami?’
Kami nodded uncertainly. ‘Of course, sir, that is my job.’
Brennan handed Kami his digital camera.
‘Get a good shot,’ Brennan said, ‘make sure you get me in the middle of the picture, right?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Close to their position was a prominent fang of rock and ice. Brennan crawled over to it and managed – with some considerable difficulty – to get himself upright. He struck a weary but victorious pose with his ice axe in the air, the wind and snow raging about him.
‘Take a few,’ he told Kami, ‘might as well get a good one.’
Kami clicked away. Brennan checked the images and tucked the camera back in his pocket. At that moment the walkie talkie ripped out a bleep; it was Kurt.
‘Base Camp to summit team. Base Camp to summit. You guys are scaring us now. Please God tell us you’re on the top of the world.’
Brennan thought for a few moments then replied, ‘We’re here. Job done.’
‘You say job done! You’re on the summit … ?’ Kurt’s voice was filled with instant joy.
Kami watched Brennan closely. The American turned his face away ...
‘We just kept going ... just kept moving and fighting and Kami’s been a star, man, he’s kept me going all the way.’
‘They made it! They made it!’ Jubilant cheers broke out thinly from the walkie talkie. ‘Congratulations Alex and well done Kami you two are amazing do you hear me amazing! This is just so cool.’
‘It’s all down to Kami,’ Brennan replied. ‘I wouldn’t have had the strength myself.’
‘You’re a force of nature, Alex. The world is yours from now on, you know that don’t you?’
There was a brief pause, then a Sherpa voice came on. It was Tenzing. ‘Kami? The gods are smiling on you!’ he said. ‘You’ve done us proud and you’ll be a great Everest man! This is the first of many, many ascents to the top.’
Kami wanted to take the walkie talkie but Brennan didn’t offer him the handset. Instead he asked ‘Have you got the radio link lined up?’
‘You bet we have,’ Kurt responded, ‘hold the line.’
Brennan was connected to an interviewer at an American radio station. Kami heard him describe the climb, the weather, the pain, the joy of taking those few final steps onto the top of the world … As the chat droned on, Kami felt his eyes drawn irresistibly up the ridge. To the real abode of the gods. How long would the interview last? Could he steal away and place the shrine bell there while Brennan was …
Too late.
‘I feel this is a gift from God,’ Alex concluded. ‘We’ve been blessed to reach this place.’
Kami noticed something unusual. Two narrow filaments of ice were growing out of the lower plastic rim of the boss’s goggles.
He was crying. Those thin rivulets of ice were actually frozen tears.
‘One last question, sir. Are you ready for the Primaries? Do you think you can win the nomination?’
Brennan’s piercing eyes were invisible behind the mirror glass.
‘Well they say every great journey begins with a single step. Maybe I just took that step here on the summit of Everest.’
‘And a final word?’
‘God bless America. I’m on my way home.’
The interviewer signed off and Kurt came back on to conclude the radio link.
‘You have to come back safe now! Remember you’re only halfway there!’
‘We got that. Over and out.’
Brennan clicked off the walkie talkie and stood staring out into the clouds. His head suddenly flopped forward, as if all the tendons in his neck had just been severed. He put his weight onto his axe, half falling before Kami caught him.
‘I’m so tired, Kami,’ he muttered. ‘I hardly ... ’
He wanted to sit but Kami wouldn’t let him. ‘No more rest, sir. Now we have to get back to camp.’
The retreat began, hauling themselves back down the ridge line, picking footfalls with infinite care, praying that the fixed lines would hold as the wind continued to rip across the peak.
Kami had Jamling’s warnings in his mind. ‘Coming down more dangerous,’ Jamling had said time after time. ‘Seventy per cent of people die coming down.’
Kami kept that in his mind, ultra-aware that he was responsible not just for his own safety but that of his fellow climber as well.
Just above the Hillary Step, Kami turned for one last view of the summit ridge. He had the crazy urge to shout ‘I’m sorry’ to the gods. Sorry that he had got so close and had not given them the devotion that they deserved. Sorry that he had failed to place Shreeya’s tribute in their safe keeping.
Sorry also that he had failed to get Brennan to the top.
But a dense cloud had claimed the mountain. The ridge was all but lost to view and he could not bring himself to cry out as he wanted, knowing that Brennan would fail to understand.
Besides there was still so much to do.
Kami now had the responsibility of getting Alex Brennan back to safety. The boss’s life was in his hands and there was a long, long way to go.
Three days later, Alex Brennan and Kami made it back to Base Camp. The mountain had stamped its mark; they stumbled with zombie steps, faces seared by ultraviolet assault, bloodshot eyes dulled with the impact of extreme physical exhaustion.
Kami couldn’t believe how drained his body felt. Not even on the most punishing tree-cutting days with his father had he experienced anything like this bone-crunching fatigue. Every sinew in his body felt like it had been given the work out from hell.
The Everest Files Page 16