Leaving Everest

by Westfield, Megan

  I shook my head.

  She clucked her tongue, yet she looked proud of me. “Come on, let’s go find Jim before you change your mind. It would be a great opportunity for you, and I’d love to have you here with us this season.”

  Doc walked me through Global City. I kept my eyes peeled for Luke, as it would be really bad timing to run into him right now. Doc left me inside Global’s enormous communications tent, standing in front of Jim in his Yellow Yeti fleece and matching hat, wishing desperately I’d insisted on taking a few minutes to plan what I was going to say.

  “Uh, hi,” I said.

  “Hi, Emily, what’s going on?”

  I swallowed my urge to run away. Here goes nothing. “I heard you have more people up on the mountain this season than you’d planned.”

  “True.”

  “I know Global Adventurers advertises the lowest Western guide-to-client ratio of all outfitters here, and I was curious if the additional climbers will affect that?”

  “Did Greg send you up here to do some reconnaissance?” He threw his head back and laughed. “Don’t tell me he’s going to run a smear campaign for us not sticking to our advertised ratios.”

  “He didn’t send me. I’m asking for myself.”

  “For yourself?”

  “Well, I do have my Wilderness First Responder and Avalanche II certifications.”

  “Don’t you work for Greg?”

  “It’s a long story, but no.”

  “And so you’re here looking for a job?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, I’ll be darned.” He pulled on his chin. “Now that I know you’re not here as a spy—”

  I shook my head earnestly.

  “I’m just joking, Emily. But, yes, you guessed right. Our low ratios are one of our major differentiators, and breaking that is not something corporate is interested in doing. But they’ve yet to find me a suitable extra guide who is already acclimatized. So it’s been a bit of a thorn in everyone’s side. How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “Twenty.”

  He frowned. “That’s young.”

  “I may be young, but I bet I have more Himalayan summits than your entire guide staff combined,” I said boldly.

  He laughed. “I don’t know if that’s true, but I’ve seen you here so many years that I don’t doubt that you have more Everest summits than any single Global guide. How many, exactly?”

  “Six.”

  He whistled.

  “Five of those were here in Nepal, on the South Col Route. One was from the Tibet side, and a total of two were without oxygen.”

  “Well, we do have Luke on the mountain this year, and he’s only twenty-two.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I wouldn’t necessarily advertise your age to our clients. Not that I’m telling you to lie. Maybe just make a point not to bring it up.”

  “We do that at Winslowe Expeditions, too.”

  “Perfect. So when can you start?”

  Oh my god! I’d done it! He was offering me a job!

  “Right away,” I replied.

  “Right away as in today? Our first rotation is in a few days, and I’d like to give you as much time as possible to get to know the clients beforehand.”

  “Today is fine.”

  He chuckled and cracked his fingers. “This is almost too serendipitous to be true.”

  It was too serendipitous to be true. Tashi.

  “Go grab your stuff,” he said. “Welcome to Global Adventurers.”

  Chapter Ten

  I stood outside Global’s communications tent for a few seconds, stunned and blinking in the bright sunlight. Just like that I had a job—my first job ever—and my chance back of summiting Mount Everest a seventh time, with all the doors that might open along with it.

  Dad found me as soon as I returned to our camp. I braced myself, at first thinking the news of my new job had already gotten to him, but then I realized he looked excited, and there’s no way he would be excited about what I’d just done.

  “So…I just got off the phone with your grandpa,” he said. “We’ve got everything taken care of.”

  What? “Why did you call Grandpa?”

  “I’d been trying to get through to the Townsend College admissions office, but I kept getting booted off the phone because of the holds. So I called your grandpa and asked him to make a few calls from his end.”

  No.

  “The bad news is that you truly cannot start this school year. They don’t make exceptions, even for the girl who is the youngest in the world to climb Mount Everest without oxygen and is the only woman to ever repeat Rosso Messina’s Gray Spider route. Starting winter term is an option, though you will probably have to resubmit your application.”

  I turned away. He shouldn’t have gone behind my back like that.

  “Your grandparents are happy to have you stay with them while we figure out what will happen with your admission. I did mention that you may decide not to attend at all, so they know that’s a possibility.”

  I hadn’t been to that house in almost eleven years, but I could still see every detail as if I were standing there right now, my underclothes soaking wet from the rain after being lost in the dark woods. I could feel the suffocating bulk of those two police officers filling up the living room before they led Amy and her shirtless boyfriend out of the guest bedroom in handcuffs.

  “Amy lives there now,” I said. “No way.”

  “Emily—”

  “I won’t do it. You shouldn’t have talked to them!”

  “We’ll get this figured out, but in the meantime you have to go back to the U.S. The time to change the plan is after you get there.”

  “I told you, I’m going to get a job. And I did.”

  Dad raised a dubious eyebrow.

  “I’ll be guiding with Global Adventurers. Starting today.”

  “You’re going to work for Jim?”

  “Yep. See? It all worked out.”

  Dad was speechless. The fish-mouth kind of speechless, where he kept trying to form words but nothing came out.

  “Jim never said anything about that to me.”

  “Why would he? It just happened.”

  “You’d be jumping in mid-expedition. And you have no experience working for Global Adventurers.”

  “They’re a legit outfitter despite their size. You’ve said that yourself.”

  Dad rubbed his forehead. “This is all my fault. You shouldn’t have to do this. Do you mind if I go up and talk to Jim?”

  Let him go talk to my new boss like I was a child enrolling in nursery school?

  “No, please don’t,” I said.

  From the look on his face, I was willing to bet he’d go up there anyway. If there was ever a time to be assertive, it was right now. “I got lucky with this job,” I said. “It’s an opportunity to get something real on my résumé and to earn some money. Maybe even get that seventh summit. Even if it’s not with Winslowe Expeditions, the previous six summits were, and any publicity that would come from that will be good for the company, too.”

  “I don’t care about the publicity or—”

  “We both know I need this job, and it’s a done deal.”

  After a long, seemingly eternal silence, Dad relented. We went to my tent, where he helped me pack my things. He hugged me good-bye, and before I knew it, I was walking up the Base Camp trail, all alone.

  With a lump in my throat, I realized I’d just left home.

  For good.

  Tears pricked my eyes. I twisted around back toward camp.

  Dad hadn’t moved. From the look on his face, I knew he’d have an even harder time sleeping tonight than he had last night.

  Could I do this? Could I really leave?

  Whether I wanted to or not, I had to.

  I lifted my hand to wave good-bye. After a moment, he raised his arm and did the same.

  Chapter Eleven

  Walking into Global’s big-top ten
t was like walking into a different world. Everything was bigger and fancier. The tent was light and bright, with a ceiling that was six feet higher than Winslowe Expeditions’s and had sections of clear plastic that served as skylights. There were two central dining tables with a whole row of small tables along one wall and a line of yellow plastic Adirondack chairs with footrests along the other.

  Unlike Winslowe Expeditions, where our kitchen tent was separate from the main tent, Global’s kitchen was open-concept inside the main tent. On the enormous counter that separated it from the rest of the tent was an astonishing display of steam trays heaped with lunch entrees and side dishes. Off to the side was the PB&J bar and a self-serve toaster with bagels, butter, jam, and squeeze packets of cream cheese. For drinks, there was flavored water, three kinds of juice, soda, and an array of protein shakes in addition to coffee and tea.

  Noticing me standing near the door, Doc jumped out of her seat and rushed over. “So I presume it all worked out?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Congratulations!”

  Someone coming inside the tent bumped into Doc. That someone was Luke in his Yellow Yeti jacket. He did a double take at seeing me.

  “Give us a minute, bud,” Doc said, shooing him past us. My eyes followed him to the lunch line where he dished up a plate of food.

  “Dad thinks it’s a bad idea,” I told her.

  “He would. Like I said, he’s a helicopter parent. But you’ll be okay. There’ll be a lot of new faces for you to learn, but you’ll get to know everyone with time. I think the plan was to put the new guide with A-Team. Some of the A-Teamers are a little obnoxious, but they’re all good men. And you’re really going to like your fellow A-Team guides.”

  Luke, now seated at the far table with that behemoth, linebacker-sized guide who had come to Winslowe Expeditions the other night, eyed Doc and me curiously and then made a goofy face. I laughed. Perhaps it would be okay with both of us working for Global. That is, if I could manage to keep my feelings in check.

  Jim walked in. “Hey there, Emily. You’re here already. Good. Come with me.”

  He escorted me over to the food, introducing me to Randall, the professional chef from San Francisco, as well as his Sherpa assistant, whom everyone called Cook-Phurba.

  Jim and I sat down at the large table next to Norbu, Global’s head Sherpa. Luke was at the table, too, but on the opposite end. Looking around at the dozens of people in this tent, the enormity of what I was embarking upon hit me like a wrecking ball. I couldn’t get my head around an expedition this size. Dad was right about it not being a good idea to jump in last-minute like this with a completely unfamiliar company. I didn’t know anything about any of these clients, other than that to be able to afford a full-service guided trip like this, most of them were wealthy beyond my wildest imagination.

  At Winslowe Expeditions, I was just the tagalong daughter—I always exceeded expectations because there were no expectations. But here, I needed to be a leader and, with this many people around all the time, if I showed any cracks, I would be found out right away.

  Luke caught my eye and raised an inquisitive eyebrow. I needed to go tell him why I was here. But just as I was standing up, Jim stood, too. He clinked his metal coffee mug with a fork to get everyone’s attention.

  My heart sank, realizing Jim was about to introduce me to the whole company.

  “Everyone, this is Miss Emily Winslowe,” Jim said. “She’s joining our team as a guide. She’s the daughter of Greg Winslowe—you might recognize that name for his first American ascent of Annapurna without oxygen and for being the expedition leader over at our frenemy, Winslowe Expeditions.”

  Luke’s expression went from shock to accusation to hurt to anger. My heart thudded in nightmare slow motion.

  “Emily has summited Everest six times, twice without oxygen,” Jim continued. “Please make the time to introduce yourself over the next few days. She’s one you want to be nice to because I hear she makes a mean high-altitude peanut butter fudge cookie.”

  I waved to everyone, then quickly sat in the chair next to Jim, my cheeks hot. I purposely avoided looking in the direction of where Luke was sitting, even though I could feel his eyes boring into me. The fleeting hurt that had crossed his face made my heart ache, but the anger that followed crushed me.

  He was mad that I hadn’t told him the news personally, and I didn’t blame him. My mind churned, trying to figure out what I should do. Walk straight over and talk to him? Wait for him to leave, and then catch him alone later? Or—

  Luke stood, stopping my thoughts in their tracks. Before I could act, he put his dish in the wash tub and stalked out of the tent without a word.

  Chapter Twelve

  I needn’t have worried about being in close quarters with Luke: Global’s large size and the separation of the four different teams into sub-camps made it so Luke and I wouldn’t cross paths that much. In fact, in the past twenty-four hours we hadn’t crossed paths at all. I was content to let this be, but at the same time, I couldn’t stop replaying the expressions on his face at lunch yesterday. No matter how well everything else was going, I would not be at ease working for Global Adventurers until I patched things up between us.

  I’d spent the rest of yesterday moving into my Global tent and filling out new-hire paperwork with the base camp manager. Today, I’d been stuck in the command center tent all morning, going through a mandatory company training, followed by a live-chat session with the human resources department to set up my accounts and finish the hiring process.

  It was midafternoon by the time I caught up with the rest of the expedition out at the Nuptse ice field. All forty clients and a few of the yellow-jacketed guides were fanned out across the slope practicing self-arrests with their ice axes. Some of the Walkabout crew were out on the slope with cameras, and their big drone was flying overhead.

  I walked toward the circle of guides gathered at the edge of the slope. Even though I now wore a handsome new Yellow Yeti jacket like the rest of them, it was going to take a long time to kick this feeling of joining a circus on opening day instead of traveling and training with the crew. Luke, I noticed, was not in the circle.

  “Welcome to Global, Emily,” said a man with a blond beard who was standing next to Norbu, the sirdar. “I’m Thom, the lead on-mountain guide.” Unlike Winslowe Expeditions, where Dad was a part of the summit team, at Global, Jim stayed down in Base Camp to keep command and control of all four teams, hence the on-mountain lead guide position.

  Thom introduced me to the rest of the guides and Sherpas in the huddle. It was one big blur of men in yellow jackets. By the time he finished, I was seeing double.

  Literally.

  Tyler, the last guy introduced, could be Thom’s twin.

  The man next to me laughed. He was the one I would be able to remember—Luke’s behemoth friend who Thom had introduced as Hulk. Like me, he was one of the A-Team guides.

  “Yes, they’re twins,” Hulk whispered as I looked back and forth between Thom and Tyler. “Tyler guides A-Team with us.”

  Of the Sherpas who were standing in the group, there were two Phurbas, plus a Dawa Lama and Ang Dawa. I’d have to ask the base camp manager for a roster to help me memorize names and faces.

  “Phurba Sherpa is with A-Team, too,” Hulk said, indicating the younger of the Phurbas, the one with the megawatt grin and the NASCAR bandana around his neck. “Phurba Lama is with the UW team.”

  I nodded to the Phurbas, then listened to the guys’ conversation for a while as I scanned across the hill to figure out which of the guides up there was Luke. He was the one farthest from us, going over the avalanche probing steps with a bunch of purple-hatted clients.

  “Are all four groups going to be together on the mountain like this when we start rotations?” I asked Hulk.

  “Kind of. The Cuban team will always be first because their climbers are fast and that keeps everyone else out of the way so the Walkabout crew can get their shot
s. The fourth team is the low-support group. They paid less, have fewer guides, and operate independently, though still under Jim’s watch. A-Team and the UW team are the ones that have the most overlap on the mountain.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught one of the clients sprinting down the slope and then jumping onto his bottom to go flying the rest of the way down the hill. I panicked for a second because he didn’t have an ice ax in his hands, but then I realized his yells were more like whoops, and he was doing it on purpose. He was glissading, which is basically sledding without a sled. He wasn’t gaining speed this way, so he tried rolling over to his stomach, looking like a penguin on a Slip ’N Slide.

  If he had been trying to show off for the drone that had been overhead, it didn’t work, because the minute he started messing around, the drone flew in the opposite direction.

  “Meet Glen,” Hulk said, nodding toward the client. “He’s on A-Team.”

  “Glissading Glen,” I said.

  “Yep, that pretty much says it.”

  Hulk pointed out a few of the other A-Team clients, starting with the group of four businessmen who were all on second or third attempts to climb Everest. And then there was John Smith, which Hulk pronounced Johnsmith, who was “somehow related” to Global Adventurers’s chief financial officer. Old Man Phil was the only client up on the hill who seemed to be taking the exercise seriously. “Cancer survivor,” Hulk said. “He’s a little off, but a nice guy, and he’s worked hard to get here.”

  Jim arrived then from Base Camp and gathered everyone in. After a break to reapply sunscreen, he talked the clients through what to do if they fell into a crevasse while on the fixed line. Each of us guides took three clients and spread out along a practice crevasse that, unlike most real crevasses, had an actual bottom. While the clients put on their harnesses, I twisted some ice screws into the glacier and set up an anchor.

  Luke’s group was one away from mine, and I stealthily watched him for a minute as he finished building his group’s anchor.

  I guess I wasn’t as stealthy as I thought because he looked directly at me. And even though his dark, side-paneled glacier sunglasses blocked his eyes completely, there was no mistaking that the anger was still there. My stomach churned.