The Sherpa

The Sherpa

The climb

I was dangling in the crevice .It was bottomless, I looked up for help nothing was visible in the blizzard; it was certain death for me. Like a slide show, my whole life whizzed past in my mind starting with my school days in Nikkaduokta and college days in mining engineering college in Kiruna, my climbing expedition of Sweden’s tallest mountain Kebnekse , my failed marriage and finally my this attempt to climb Mt.Everest. My backpack was still there but my Oxygen mask with the cylinder had torn off. I was gasping for oxygen , I was hanging there with the support of my climbing harness which was tied to my mountaineering axe through my climbing rope. I shouted , “Help,help!” in vain.

Suddenly I felt the rope was sliding down, I got ready for the end, the axe could not take my weight any longer, I closed my eyes, I don’t believe in God but at that last second in my life I started hoping for a miracle.

I felt a jerk, I found I was slowly going up, finally God has sent a help or he himself had come. I could not believe this miracle, I was hallucinating, I have read somewhere that when death is very near then people start imagining all kinds of positive things. I have read some near death experience where they have felt as though some angel was leading them through a cave , there was light at the end of the cave.

Slowly I too could see a hazy light at the top, the rope was slowly pulling me up. I too put my climbing boots on the wall of the crevices and slightly inclined my body forward so that I can put my ebbing strength in the work of climbing up. It was too much, I blacked out.

With a jerk, I opened my eyes, it was dark but I could breath. I realized that I was wearing an oxygen mask; I tried to get up but a hand restrained me from getting up. The owner of the hand was messaging my calves, palms; I realized he was trying to normalize my blood circulation. I wanted to get up to see the stranger who saved my life or is it that i am dead and was in afterlife station?

 

     I tried to remember the sequence of events which led to my this predicament.

I was trying to enjoy the scenic beauty of Lohtse so came out of camp 2. It was plain surface of ice at the foothill of Lohtse at 8000 meter.There were climbers with us who were to attempt climbing Lohtse. The snow peak of Lohtse with setting sun ray bouncing on it was a mesmerizing sight with iridescent colour display. I was told the climb to that mountain is pretty steep and requires more climbing technique than climbing Mt.Everest. It was afternoon so I had planned with my Sherpa to climb to Camp 1 next day and then attempt climbing the summit of Everest. Before us already a few groups have hurried forward in excitement of climbing Everest. A long queue of climbers were trying for the final assault. At the base camp, we were told that in that year of 2017 Nepal government had issued license to some 3580 groups to attempt climbing Everest from the South side, with death rate of 1.2 percent people have become bold. No wonder there were so many tents in camp 2.Most of the Indian climbers were sponsored, one climber told me that something like 30 to 40 lakhs Indian rupee he raised for his climb. I too raised money from some commercial firms for my equipment but mostly it was my own money. The bad marriage forced me to take this break.

While I was strolling towards Lohtse I was careful enough to take all my climbing gears along. The temperature of my hometown Nikkaduokta goes down to minus 30 degree so the temperature of minus 18 was not much for me. I had watched how the Indian climbers were wearing tons of woolens.

While taking a stroll alone I did not notice how far I had gone. In the month of May I was not expecting any avalanche or blizzard but then suddenly there was blizzard and it was so unexpected that I stumbled forward and stepped in that damn crevice. I hurriedly hammered down my mountaineering axe at the lip of the crevice and tumbled down with my climbing rope, my oxygen mask tore off.

I kept the weather bitten grey diary on my night table and started thinking about the adventure of the climber, whew, it was quite a harrowing tale. I was reading the diary of Liam Johansson a climber from Sweden. Babulal had recently gone to Varanasi and managed to get this diary from a boatman. It appears that climber has by mistake left his diary in the boat. The boatman had the diary with him for more than a year. No one came to claim. While Babulal was going to Dashawamedh ghat by boat from Assighat then boatman Ganesh told him about the diary. Babulal knew that I was interested in this kind of odd things so got the diary after paying Ganesh some handsome money.

I had randomly opened the diary, started reading, it kept me glued. After reading, this portion decided to watch Discovery Channel on Mt.Everest ascent next day to visualize the climb. The Ascent of Everest by John Hunt was side book in our Delhi Higher Secondary course, i could co relate the events described.The two factors, altitude and the weather, tend separately and together to defeat the climber. The height weakens, slows him down ; The weather ,besides adding to the demands on his energy and moral fortitude, conspires to deny him the time he needs to complete the mission. The mission of climbing Everest is daunting and arduous task no doubt. 

I hit the bed and decided to read the rest of the diary next day to know about the mysterious helping hand. Was that yeti or God?