Glacier-Crevice

The Fed Is Your Enemy, And The Elite Is In-Tow

Envision yourself on the Mount Everest ice field called the Khumbu icefall. You are with a group negotiating a crossing of the ice field on your way to the summit of Everest. You are almost at Camp One, having left base camp and are struggling through the most difficult acclimatization portion of your climb. You are part of a team, the first team up the mountain in this particular expedition, but in this endeavour, you feel alone. You are fighting nature’s forces, all of them — gravity, extreme cold, violent winds, blinding snow storms, thin oxygen, your own contracting blood vessels, cramps, and one step at a time you cross ladders, and you clip onto and off ropes that have been fixed in the ice. You worry each time you unclip your carabiner. Each might just be the moment when ice moves and disaster hits. And then it happens.