The Climb [antikvár]

PROLOGUE In ancient Buddhist scriptures the Himalaya are referred to as the "storehouse of snow," and in 1996 the storehouse was filled again and again as unusual amounts of snow fell in the mountains. In the early evening of May 10, 1996, a particularly vicious storm blew into Mount Everest and lingered at its highest elevations for more than ten hours. Twenty-three men and women, mountaineers who had climbed the mountain that day from its southern side in Nepal, could not make it to the safety of their highest-altitude camp. In a virtual white-out, battered by hurricane-force winds strong enough to blow over a semi-trailer truck, the climbers fought for their lives. The mountaineers had been caught in the Death Zone, the elevations above 8,000 meters where extended exposure to sub-zero temperatures and oxygen deprivation combine and kill, quickly. As the climbers fought for survival, they were often blind but for an arm's length. Sometimes there were ropes to secure and guide them. The pressure gauges on their oxygen tanks fell to zero, and the raging confusion of hypoxia began to conquer mpst rational fig-urings. The foretelling numbness of frostbite pushed