by R Arundel
“We can definitely do that, but we can’t predict the weather. We’re not experts. Without Larry, we need to get off this mountain as soon as we can.”
Sarah looks at Matthew.
Matthew says, “There’s probably no way we would be able to carry him off the mountain anyway.”
“Even with the map, our chances of making it back aren’t good.”
“Let’s do it.”
Sarah slowly lowers the telescopic pole with the razor sharp knife on the edge. She is worried that the wind will blow the knife into the rope and cut the rope above the map, taking the map and Larry away. She is careful to angle the pole and knife away from the rope as she lowers it.
Matthew says, “Go right down to just above his head. We don’t want to cut the rope above the map.”
“That’s what I’m going to do. I’m just about there.”
The wind blows the pole, and the knife cuts Larry’s head. His hand jerks up.
Sarah asks, “Did you see that?”
“He’s not dead.”
Sarah brings up the pole.
Sarah and Matthew work with renewed energy. Although lifting the dead weight is much harder than when he was conscious, they pull relentlessly. Slowly he makes his way up. The wind dies down and they are able to move more quickly. Sarah and Matthew take no rest.
Sarah says, “I think he moved again.”
Matthew calls, “Larry.”
No movement.
“Larry, If you can hear us move your right hand.”
Larry raises his right hand slightly.
“He’s regaining consciousness.”
Sarah and Matthew stand and begin pulling furiously.
Matthew says, “Another three feet and I’ll be able to stretch over and pull him up.”
“Can we rest?”
“No, he’s nearly up.”
Matthew is exhausted. He tries to grab the collar of Larry’s jacket. The loose rock causes him to fall forward and lose balance.
“Sarah!”
Sarah lunges forward and grabs Matthew and Larry. They all fall on each other. They slide toward the edge, but the anchored rope holds.
Matthew says, “The map.”
When they all fell forward, someone dislodged the clip holding the map. The map drifts slowly down wafting on the air. Matthew and Sarah watch the map slowly float down and out of sight.
Larry lies face up while Sarah examines his head. He asks, “What happened?”
Sarah soothes him. “You’re fine.”
Matthew asks, “What do you remember?”
“Last thing I remember, we were walking on the mountain here. I was in the lead. That’s it.”
“You fell off the side of the mountain.”
“Never a good thing.”
Sarah says, “You got hit on the head. You were knocked out. Good news, no skull fracture. You’re going to be fine.”
“That laceration is going to leave an ugly scar.”
“I actually feel pretty good, just a little woozy.”
Matthew says, “It’s one of those good news, bad news type of things.”
Larry asks, “What’s the bad news?”
“While we were pulling you up, we lost the map.”
“That was our only map.”
Sarah says, “We know.”
Larry asks, “Do we turn back?”
“Why?”
“I know this mountain like the back of my hand. I can get us to Michael’s cabin and down the other side. But if something happens to me now, there is no way you two can get off the mountain without a map. Especially as we go farther up.”
Matthew looks at Sarah.
Sarah says, “I guess from now on we’re going to have to take extra good care of you then.”
They can taste the cold, and the air feels thick. With the colder conditions, the mist clears. They walk a step and then pause briefly before taking the next step. Every muscle aches. Matthew’s legs feel like lead balloons. Each step is more difficult than the last. Eventually they all grow too tired to continue.
“We’re almost there. Look,” says Larry.
When Matthew and Sarah look ahead, they see a sheer cliff of mountain. It rises like a wall directly in front of them.
Larry says, “We set up camp at the base there and begin the climb in the morning.”
The site of the three-thousand-foot vertical wall not too far in the distance gives them the energy they need to reach it. They pitch the tent and all three fall into a deep sleep.
***
The climb up the rock face is initially not so bad. They climb in very short segments. At each point they stop, Larry hammers in bolts and a safety rope. If they fall this rope will save them from falling very far. As they climb higher, this process is repeated. Matthew loses his footing during the climb. The ropes hold and he feels like he is attached to an elastic band. He is unhurt and they continue the climb. “Concentrate, stay focused,” says Larry.
“Okay,” says Matthew, regaining his footing on the rock. The cold saps his stamina.
Sarah says, “I think we’re about nine hundred feet up.”
“Probably about right,” says Larry. “Just look up.”
Matthew looks down. “Even with the safety ropes, it’s a little weird.”
“Just look up.”
They can hardly hear each other, the wind is blowing so hard.
“It’s just gray rock hour after hour,” says Sarah.
“Welcome to my world,” says Larry, hammering in a bolt to the rock face.
“It’s pretty dreary,” says Matthew.
“This is the most technical aspect of the climb. Just keep concentrating.”
Matthew says, “We need to rest.”
“We’ve made pretty good progress. Let’s push a little more.”
Matthew says, “I can’t go on.”
Larry asks, “Sarah, how you holding up?”
“I’m wiped.”
“You’ve both done good. You’ve earned an extra long rest.”
“Good.”
Larry, “We’ll complete the final part of the vertical ascent after we rest. We’ll be in the death zone by midnight before the final push to the summit.”
The three of them are tied together about twenty feet apart. They hammer bolts into the rock and attach sacs. Each person slowly wiggles themselves into their sac. The plan is to eat and sleep for at least twelve to eighteen hours so they will be ready for the final push.
Sarah is excited about erecting her sac. She bolts the sac into place and crawls in. It is the most incredible thing she has ever done. They had practiced fifteen feet off the ground. But to erect a sac on a sheer vertical piece of mountain at an altitude over twenty-three thousand feet—incredible is the only word to describe it.
She is very sorry she doesn’t have a camera. She peeks out her sac and sees that Larry is using his cell phone to snap pictures of her sac. Sarah feels safe, curled up in her sac. The wind roars outside, but the sac quickly warms up. Sarah’s really not been bothered by the ALS. She’s not sure if it’s the cold or the other stress. She’s sore all day, but that’s the same as everybody else due to the constant exertion.
Larry had gone over the plan: Eat as much as you can. Sleep as much as you can. Sarah has a dinner of dried beef, two energy bars, cheese, and sunflower seeds. She drinks a few cups of water and falls into a restful sleep.
Sarah wakes after a bit. She doesn’t feel like sleeping anymore, too much adrenaline. She has time to think. How in the world did it all come to this, how in the world? She is being hunted, has nearly been killed on more than one occasions. And she is now dangling twenty-three thousand feet on the side of a mountain. There is no point in overthinking it—she just has to keep going.
They begin the final part of the sheer upward climb. The rest did them good. Larry is surprised at how quickly they finish off the last part of the climb to reach the next ridge of mountain. They cheer when they climb off the
vertical cliff around midnight.
Larry gives them a moment to celebrate and then says, “And now for the death zone.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
It is just past midnight and the moon at this altitude looks enormous and bright. A massive yellowy white globe that is right in front of Matthew’s face. The sky is radiant, shimmering with stars. There is no artificial light to block the view, so the stars illuminate the white snow and crystals on the ground. The sky looks alive. Matthew has looked up at the sky many times in the city. This view, at this altitude, is completely different.
Larry interrupts Matthew’s thoughts. “This is the death zone. Just remember, no stopping. Put one foot in front of the other.”
They begin the death zone march. Sarah feels like she is breathing through a straw.
“26,900 feet,” says Larry.
He doesn’t have to tell Sarah. She feels the lack of oxygen. “I feel like I’ve just run a race, but the burning in my lungs won’t stop.”
The pace is very slow. At sea level this mild ascent to the summit would take two hours tops. Here they plan to do it in six hours, if all goes well. Slowly, they plod on.
“Remember if the weather comes in, we turn back, so keep moving,” says Larry.
Upward they continue. The pace is not quick, but it is relentless. Every step is now like moving a thousand-pound weight. Matthew’s legs refuse to respond. His chest burns. He looks at Sarah, sees she is trembling a little with each step. The landscape is very similar and even with the beautiful stars shimmering, it is a grind.
Matthew tries to focus his mind on things he cares about. He realizes that Sarah is always in his mind. Not necessarily at the front of his mind, but she’s always there somewhere. A constant as all else swirls around him. Matthew remembers he saw some beautiful purple flowers on the way up to the base camp. He immediately thought how they looked like the flowers Sarah and he passed in the park when they were on the run with Kevin. Almost everything he thinks about these days seems somehow to relate back to Sarah. She is smart, funny. She displayed incredible resilience when she was kidnapped.
Matthew senses that she is keeping some distance between them, keeping him out of the most intimate parts of her life. She is also very stubborn. She is keeping that window firmly shut. What will she do when this is all over?
Matthew is drained. He looks at Larry, who is in the lead. Larry’s face is covered in sweat, and he is breathing rapidly. Larry is laboring, something Matthew thought impossible. As long as they keep moving, they will make it. That’s what Matthew keeps telling himself. At this point it is a personal challenge for each of them. They do not talk to each other; they just keep walking. Avoid the odd crevasse. One foot in front of the other.
Matthew loses track of time. They still are roped together. Larry shields them from the winds, which are howling, and the snow. Their helmets provide some warmth and protection.
Sarah’s head feels like it is about to pop off. The pain is searing, like an iron clamp squeezing her head. It will not let up. Her vision begins to go in and out. She is nauseated. Her steps become more and more labored. She stops and vomits. Then she just begins shuffling. She stops again. Sarah begins coughing uncontrollably, bringing up bright red blood.
Larry runs to her side. “How are you holding up?”
“Great, can’t you tell?” Sarah vomits blood.
“It’s the altitude.”
Sarah seems not to hear.
Larry asks, “Do you have a headache?”
“Do I ever—my whole head is pounding and I don’t feel good.”
Sarah vomits again. There is no food in her stomach, and only green bile comes out.
Matthew says, “Altitude sickness.”
Larry agrees. “Her brain is swelling. The small vessels in her lungs are bursting.”
“Do we turn back?” says Matthew.
Sarah says, “No way, we keep going.”
“If your brain swells too much, you die.”
“Keep going.”
“I’m not sure you are in a position to make the decision,” says Matthew.
Matthew turns to Larry. “What do you think?”
“I’m not sure she will make it.”
Matthew says, “I’d like to get to the cabin. It’s very important I get some answers there, but not if it’s going to cost Sarah her life. If you say turn around, we turn around.”
Larry looks at Sarah. He brings out his compass and fumbles with the altimeter. He looks at the sky, then the altimeter, then back at the sky. Then he does it all over again.
“We go on,” says Larry.
Sarah is standing. Larry unties her rope and then ties her directly to his side. He carries Sarah for an hour until they get closer to the summit.
Not having to expend so much energy has an effect. Her headache, while not completely gone, begins to ease and she coughs up less blood.
Sarah says, “This is the worse hangover ever.”
“We need to keep up the pace. As soon as you get to a lower altitude, it will pass.”
Larry is not as confident as he sounds. If the brain swelling progresses, she could just stop breathing and die. They are too far forward to turn back. The quickest way to get Sarah’s brain to stop swelling is to get down the mountain to a lower altitude. To get down they have to go up—they cannot go back. Each time she coughs, more blood vessels in her lungs burst.
By carrying her, the pace is now slowed at least by half. The little mishaps are adding up. Larry grinds his teeth. This is how people die on the mountain. Most people think it is one big event that kills you—a fall into a crevasse, an avalanche takes you out. That is not how people die, not often anyways. The most common way to die is what Larry likes to call death by four cuts. A series of small problems each mounting on top of the other. In Larry’s experience when he reviews mountaineering accidents, usually four minor but distinct mishaps occur before the fatal event. All of a sudden these small problems lead to a big problem. At each step if the climbers had turned back, they would have lived. The inexperienced climber is always unhappy when a guide turns back for a seemingly minor problem. What the guide knows is that they are, in all likelihood, to have two or three more of these “‘minor mishaps.” If the first one occurs early, the later ones could prove catastrophic. All together these events lead to death. Larry is now seeing this in his expedition. The weather is making things worse.
“What’s up, boss?” Matthew watches Larry quizzically.
Larry is turning over the options and does not even hear Matthew. Finally, Larry makes his decision.
“Isn’t it too cold for snow?” says Matthew.
“No. No talking.”
Larry pushes the pace. He is dragging Sarah.
***
Sarah does not mind the death zone. If this is death, it’s not that bad. Her lungs burn and her head throbs, but things seem mellow. If this is death, so be it.
They are all left to their own thoughts. The howling of the wind never ceases. It is now like a sweet melody to Sarah, soothing. Climbing season has ended, and they have the mountain to themselves. They come around a curve and see a man. He has a great big smile on his face. His jacket and mittens are off, and he is sitting in the snow on a small rock. He looks like a king on his throne. His white teeth glisten under the starlight. Icicles make his hair stand up. It is a shocking sight, but at this stage they just keep walking. Sarah knows the man will sit here for eternity. No one will bring him down; his partners left him. He knew the rules and took his chance. He lost. As they pass him, Sarah thinks about his smile. When his brain froze and he was about to die, he was hallucinating. It was probably about a happy place, probably about something good in his life. In his final moments, he felt warm. That’s why he took off his jacket and mittens. Maybe death was not so bad after all.
They move ever upward for another hour. Sarah has improved and is now walking on her own. Finally, they see the sun come up. They turn a corner,
not caring about anything, just remembering to put one foot in front of the other.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
They reach the top. A clear blue sky replaces the darkness. The mist swirls around the peak. They can see for miles. Matthew remembers Larry’s words and pushes on.
Sarah has regained much of her energy. She turns to Larry and looks at him. Sarah looks around at the beautiful view. She looks at Larry again.
“Five minutes max,” says Larry.
Sarah and Matthew take their backpacks off. They walk around the peak. Larry takes pictures of each separately and together at the summit. Matthew takes photos of Sarah and Larry. It is truly an accomplishment to climb this peak—what it took to make it. Larry opens his backpack. He takes out some sparkling apple cider. He has three plastic wine cups and pours them all a glass. They cheer as they drink the apple cider. They are giddy. The sun rises higher in the sky; they put their backpacks on and begin the descent, moving down the ice path.
As suddenly as if they cross an invisible line, it happens. They can breathe.
“You just survived the death zone.” Larry smiles, looking at his altimeter.
He quickens the pace. They are now heading down the Bhuitan Pass. With each step, the burning in Sarah’s lungs decreases. She can feel her legs; they are no longer lead. Her mind becomes clear, and she realizes how close to death she has come.
Larry stops and takes out a compass. He looks for a second and guides them to an area where two large snow mounds loom about twenty feet above them. They appear to be a snow wall, but as the climbers get closer, it is clear there is an opening. They step over a four-foot crevasse and pass between the two snow mounds. A gentle downslope is seen. There is a little ice, but it is a clear straight path.
“We made it,” says Matthew.
Larry says, “If something happens to me, remember you head down now.”
Matthew says, “Nothing will happen to you.”
“You take the point.” Larry unropes the group.
***
A twenty-foot rock lies directly in front of them. The wind has polished the rock face smooth. It seems to be a piece of yellow-brown marble.