Chapter 32 Between Life and Death (Part 2)
The Sister Mountaineering Team, a total of four men and two women, is a bearded Sister, 42 years old this year. As the captain, this is his fourth time to organize a team to conquer Edgar. Edgar is located in the Gongga Mountain area south of Kangding, Sichuan Province, with an altitude of 6,618 meters. Although it seems not high enough, much lower than the world-famous Mount Everest, it is actually higher than Mount Everest. Because it is steep and difficult to climb, and lacks the roads opened up by predecessors, it is regarded as the real object of mountaineering challenges by experts among professional climbers.
Sister failed the first three times, and lost two friends one after another, both of whom died on the way to climb Edgar Peak. This time he was determined to succeed. After making huge investments, he prepared a series of equipment and set off again.
After going through a lot of hardships, they finally arrived less than 200 meters away from the peak. The other five people who were traveling with them all smiled. But Sister looked serious, and his two friends were killed one after another during this distance.
This distance is very close to the peak, but it is even more steep. There are hidden glacier cracks in many places. The so-called hiding means that these cracks are covered by ice and snow, but once they step on them, they will fall immediately. It is one of the huge tests nature has given to climbers. Without excellent patience and eyesight and rich experience, it is difficult to escape these cracks. Once they fall, they will rely entirely on their own luck and timely rescue from their companions.
Many times, people who fall down rely on the help of their backpack to get stuck in their own life and can persist in being saved.
This is why mountaineering teams often need local guides. Only after years of exploration can they know where these traps are and eliminate risks in advance. The reason why Edgar is more difficult to climb than Everest is that there is no guide here. Compared with the world-famous Everest guide Sherpas, there are no locals here who will take people to climb Edgar.
Sist took a deep breath, recovered his strength, and was about to call his companions to set off. Suddenly, a blond woman, who was walking with him, suddenly couldn't suppress her tone, her voice was a little high, and she stretched out her hand and pointed it in a direction, shouting, "Look, there is someone climbing on it!"
"Speak softly, Katie!" Sister's face darkened. How could he speak loudly on the snow-capped mountains? It's not possible to be big at all, but then he knew why Katie was about to exclaim.
He looked up at the direction of the other person's fingers and saw a clear and small figure climbing more than a hundred meters in front of them.
Sister is a professional mountaineer with more than 20 years of mountaineering experience. He could tell at a glance that the man's movements were very irregular, but they were extremely flexible and relaxed, just like the legendary snowman.
He was stunned, standing still, right there, looking up at the other party climbing, less than 200 meters away, in his opinion, it took at least twenty minutes. Every step must be carefully considered, while the other party easily and flexibly crossed the cracks of glaciers and climbed on the cliffs.
"Ah, he didn't have any of the various equipment he used to climb the mountain, nor did he have backpacks, he was completely empty-handed?" He discovered this terrible fact, and when he saw his companions again, he was stunned.
Because he exercises in this wilderness all year round, his eyesight is very well exercised. Although he wears mountaineering glasses, it is less than 200 meters away. The background of the snow-capped mountains is too prominent, so he can see the man's movements clearly.
He couldn't imagine how this man came here, without supplies, no hiking poles, steel cones, and no hiking ropes, and appeared in this place.
Compared with this terrible fact, the other party's behavior of climbing to the top did not surprise him.
They stood there, looking up at the man on the top, and three or four minutes later, the man quickly went down the mountain.
At this time, the man walked towards them, and as the distance approached, they saw the other person's front.
He is a young and handsome man. He doesn't wear any professional equipment at all. Apart from a pair of sports shoes, he is just a warm down jacket.
When both sides approached, they could still hear the man sighing and say, "This so-called mountain that is harder to climb than Mount Everest, is just like this. I don't feel any crisis at all."
Sister can understand Chinese because he often comes to China to climb mountains, and there is also a Chinese man in his team.
When he heard this, he felt that his worldview was challenged. It was so easy that he would not pay the price of his two companions' sacrifice.
"Hello, can you ask, how did you climb to the top of the mountain?" Sist called out to the young man and wanted to go over.
This young man was Zhuo Chuan who came to climb the mountain and looked for a breakthrough in the crisis of life and death. He also saw the group of climbers and heard the other party call him.
He was about to speak when his eyes suddenly froze and he waved his hand, "Don't come here, there is a crack under your feet."
Sister was startled and quickly used the hiking pole in front of him carefully. As the ice and snow peeled off, a twisting crack appeared.
He felt a terrified. In fact, this is still good. What he feared the most was the kind of crack that could not move the ice and snow, which seemed solid and normal, but once he stepped on it, it collapsed. That was the most terrible trap.
"Thank you for your reminder, can you answer my question?" Sister carefully crossed the crack and walked to the young man.
"Haha, you can't use my experience, so you should go forward step by step. But I just got down and my footprints are still left. You can mark them with a rope. It will be much easier to climb the mountain." Zhuo Chuan looked at these people and shook his head. He had his own secret. This dangerous peak that seemed difficult to climb was not the same.
"Thank you," Sist looked ahead, a shallow footprint was left on it, but soon there would be a storm passing by, burying the footprints. "Hi," the blonde woman also came over. She took off her mountaineering mirror and revealed her charming blue eyes. She asked in confusion, "Don't you need this? This is a mountain, and it's easy to be blind." Zhuo Chuan smiled. The other party was speaking in English. If it were before, he could only watch it, but could not hear it too clearly, but now there is no language barrier at all. What I remembered after watching is that any words I heard can be remembered instantly and then slowly played back.
No matter how fast you speak, you can understand it. "NO, I don't need this," "You are very awesome, you are simply a child of this snow mountain." The blonde woman spoke with admiration, "My name is Katie, he is Sister, our captain. We want to climb this mountain and also want to come down safely. Can you help us? Of course we will pay you enough rewards." Westerners have very open feelings and are very straightforward. Zhuo Chuan just saw this from the Internet and books. If it were an oriental woman, it would be difficult to directly show this to a stranger. Zhuo Chuan was about to refuse, but then he thought about it and agreed.
It's not difficult when you're alone. If you add some people, isn't it equivalent to increasing the difficulty of the scene? "OK" Zhuo Chuan doesn't care about any rewards, but it's good to add some supplements by the way. After all, he's time tight now, and he often has to spend money to save time. "That's great, if you're here, we don't have to worry this time." Katie was very happy. Although she is only twenty-six years old this year, she has a ten-year history of mountaineering and knows the dangers of mountaineering, especially when going down the mountain, when people consume too much energy, they are often more likely to have accidents. In May 1998, an American female mountaineer
Chapter completed!