I thought a lot about Everest in the days that followed.
We had climbed it. But did Kami and I really know the mountain?
Could anyone ever know it, as such?
Probably not. Everest is never the same mountain two days in a row. Minute by minute she rises, forced upwards by the tectonic forces playing beneath our feet. Continents are colliding below the earth’s crust, building stress, thrusting an entire mountain range into the sky and stretching it across a massive swathe of the planet.
Everest doesn’t just rise. She also changes, shrugging off layers of ice and rock in an ever-flowing series of unpredictable events. Earthquakes shake the highest slopes, sending rocks that have been in place for millennia crashing into the valleys. Cornices of ice form with the clamouring wind, defying gravity for a while before they succumb.
Even the innocent snowflake, fluttering down on to Everest’s slopes, can work sinister magic with trillions of its sisters, sending avalanches to cut short the dreams of the strongest men and women.
Tashi agreed to come back to the UK with me. I was planning to spend a couple of years working on my parents’ farm and then make a new application to study at uni. We returned to the refugee centre to say an emotional goodbye, taking leave of the many Tibetans we had grown to know and love during our volunteer year in the camp.
‘We will return next year,’ Tashi told them. ‘Work in the holidays.’
The airport was back in business. As the riots had eased off, international flights had begun to return to Nepal.
Kami and Shreeya came to say goodbye.
‘You must send us a photo as soon as the baby is born,’ Tashi said.
‘For sure,’ Kami said. ‘You’ll be the first to know.’
‘Come to England when you can,’ I urged Kami. ‘The mountains aren’t quite Everest but we can still have some fun in Scotland.’
‘Yes, we’ll apply for a visa as soon as the baby is old enough,’ he said.
Kami embraced me, hugging me hard.
‘My Everest brother,’ he said. ‘We have been touched by the gods.’
‘I couldn’t have done it without you,’ I said.
Kami gave me that world-expanding smile of his. The smile that lifted all who saw it.
‘Keep believing, Ryan,’ he said. ‘Believe in the power of the universe. Believe in yourself.’
‘I will,’ I told him. ‘Everest has given me faith.’
Kami and Shreeya walked us to departures, waving and smiling right to the final moment as we went around the barrier and lost them to view.
One hour later we were on board the flight. The plane was half full and we could choose our seats.
‘You can have the window,’ Tashi told me with a smile.
I took my place. The aircraft taxied out to the runway and took off into the prevailing, easterly wind. We began to climb, the captain’s voice crackling through the intercom as we gained height.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, those of you on the left-hand side of the aircraft might like to know there is a good view of Everest as we climb out of the valley.’
Tashi and I smiled.
‘I just had the strangest sense of déjà vu,’ I told her.
We stared out of the window and there she was.
Everest. Illuminated brilliantly in the early morning sun, standing proud of the clouds that swarmed around her base. Nothing came close to her sheer intoxicating beauty; she was, in every sense, the ultimate mountain.
I thought about Kami’s incredible achievement. Overcoming his paralysis and then climbing Everest. If ever there was a demonstration of the power of prayer and raw determination, then Kami was it. In a very real sense, he had been reborn. He had risen from the shell of a shattered body and achieved a feat that takes the human body to the limit.
It brought a lump to my throat. To gaze on the summit. To think that I too had stood on that highest and holiest of places was almost too much for my mind to cope with. I had left England two years earlier looking for adventure, but never imagining for a moment just how extreme that adventure would become.
And how much Everest would come to mean to me.
Had Everest changed me? Probably, yes. But it would take a while for me to find out exactly how.
‘There’s your route,’ Tashi said. Her head was jammed next to mine, drinking in the vision with just as much enthusiasm.
We could see the whole of the Lhotse Face, the flatter terrain of the South Col, looking ridiculously small at this enormous distance. There was a substantial amount of snow on the range. Everest was completely cloaked, the camps all invisible, buried deep.
‘How long do you think the shrine bell will stay on the top?’ Tashi asked.
‘For ever, I hope,’ I replied. ‘Or at least long enough for Kami’s prayers to take effect.’
‘It will be there for years,’ she said. ‘That should do the trick.’
The aircraft began to bank, circling in a great loop as it turned towards the west.
I craned my neck, watching the mountain until the very last moment.
Then it was gone.
Tashi curled her fingers into mine. Her head rested on my shoulder.
I gently pulled the window blind down.
It was time to go home.
END OF THE
EVEREST FILES TRILOGY
– WITH THANKS TO … –
This is the end of a long journey and there are plenty of people to thank.
The Sheffield-based climbing company Jagged Globe ran the logistics for the two Everest expeditions I joined for research purposes in 2016 and 2017. Thanks to Simon Lowe, Tom Briggs and Stephanie Hopkinson for setting things up so well and to David Hamilton, Dick Gale and Andrew Todd for their competent and inspiring leadership on the hill. Personal thanks also to Matthew Bartlett for joining me on the second trip and Chongma Pemba Sherpa for guiding me so pleasantly to Camp 2.
I ran several student focus groups during the drafting stage of the book. It is always useful to get critical feedback and the story changed in some interesting ways and was improved greatly by the students’ comments.
At King James’s School in Knaresborough, Librarian Lisa Bryden and Assistant Librarian Susie Chapman gave copies of the second draft to pupils Phoebe Carmichael, Tabitha Gibson, Millie Jones, Anna Liptrott, Hannah Lee, Alex Owen-Hughes, Esme Slater, Arthur Watson, Ellie Wilson, Sam Wilson and Jess Whittaker. Their analysis was very useful indeed.
Duke of Kent School has also participated enthusiastically in my focus groups and given excellent feedback under the guidance of teachers Tom Southee and Katharine Brookes; thanks to Lexi Botting, James Ebers, Guy Rudman and Siena Taylor for their response.
Cara Keyman at the excellent Robert College in Istanbul also set up a focus group amongst the pupils. Their comments were brilliant and I would like to thank Beril Babatürk, Ayda Çolakoglu, Ata Engin, Azra Haseki, Yigit Kılıçoglu, Zeynep Kızmaz, Serra Koçoglu, Elifnaz Önder, Yagmur Öztürk, Selin Pınarer, Lara Sakarya, Melis Sezginel, Sezen Zeynep Sümer and Deniz Yagmur Ürey for reading and reporting on an early draft.
At Shrine Bell and Vertebrate Publishing, Camilla Barnard, Jon Barton, Jane Beagley, John Coefield, Lorna Hargreaves, Nathan Ryder and Susie Ryder and have been hugely supportive throughout the Everest Files adventure. Thanks team V, you have, as ever, done a great job – as did Sarah Darby with the excellent chapter heading illustrations that have accompanied each of the books in the series.
My heartfelt thanks also to Alice Williams and Marco Zadnik, and finally to my fellow author Ruth Eastham for being the perfect travelling companion on this long and exciting journey.
– ABOUT THE AUTHOR –
Matt Dickinson is an award-winning writer and filmmaker with a passion for climbing and adventure. During his filmmaking career he has worked as a director/cameraman for National Geographic television, the Discovery channel, the BBC and Channel 4. His film projects have taken him to Antarctica, Af
rica and the Himalaya, often in the company of the world’s leading climbers and expeditioners. His most notable film success was Summit Fever, in which he reached the summit of Everest via the treacherous North Face. His book The Death Zone tells the true story of that ascent and has become a bestseller in many different countries.
Matt is currently patron of reading at Eltham College and continues to climb and explore. In January 2013 he summited Mount Aconcagua, which, at 6,965 metres, is the highest peak in the world outside the Himalaya. In 2016, and again in 2017, he was back on Everest as a writer in residence with Jagged Globe’s South Col Expedition. Currently, he is planning an ascent of Denali in Alaska, one of the ‘seven summits’.
Recently Matt has started writing fiction for teenage readers. His debut thriller series Mortal Chaos was well received by critics and readers alike. Matt has followed this up with the Everest Files, a dramatic and popular trilogy set on the world’s highest mountain. Lie Kill Walk Away is his latest teen thriller. Matt tours the UK, speaking at schools and colleges and inspiring a new gene ration of adventurers.
– ALSO BY MATT DICKINSON –
Mortal Chaos
Black Ice
The Death Zone
The Everest Files
North Face
Lie Kill Walk Away
Fascinated by Everest?
Want to know more about the world’s highest peak?
The Everest Files website is packed full of fascinating facts and features.
• Find out about Everest, the Himalaya and the effect global warming is having on the area. Geographical facts with study guides for teachers.
• Watch the summit footage taken by the Everest Files author Matt Dickinson after his epic North Face ascent.
• Discover more about the Sherpa people and their way of life.
• See an interview with Jordan Romero, the thirteen-year-old boy who became the youngest person ever to summit Everest.
• Learn more about the Everest Files trilogy, including a video message from author Matt Dickinson.
If you would like an author visit from Matt Dickinson for your school or club, contact details can be found on the website.
www.everestfiles.com
– COPYRIGHT –
Killer Storm
Matt Dickinson
First published in 2017 by Shrine Bell, an imprint of Vertebrate Publishing.
Shrine Bell
Crescent House, 228 Psalter Lane, Sheffield S11 8UT UK.
www.shrinebell.com
Copyright © Matt Dickinson 2017.
Matt Dickinson has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
Cover design by Nathan Ryder.
Chapter illustrations © Sarah Darby.
Author photograph © Matt Dickinson collection.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978–1–911342–37–3 (ebook)
ISBN: 978–1–911342–36–6 (Paperback)
All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic, or mechanized, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems – without the written permission of the publisher.
www.shrinebell.com
Killer Storm Page 18