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Dispatch
8: Sliding Down the Crevasse
August 27, 2001 Rongbuk Glacier
Yesterday
the camp was awake at first light. After a quick
breakfast of sweet tea and soup, we needed to deal
with the crevasse. The oldest Tibetan, who could have
been 40 —or 60 — years old, chose the most likely
ice bridge and climbed down, calling his three yaks to
follow behind him. They just followed him into the
hole like puppy dogs, slipping and sliding down the
ice on one side and scraping and clawing up the other
side.
The
fourth yak got one look at the crevasse and said
"no way." It did a turn around and started
to fall into the deep hole. Our Sherpa friend, Pemba,
saved the day by holding onto the animal, saving it
from falling into the deep crack.
Finally,
with some key ropes to make the yaks stay on the ice
bridge — and almost starting a stampede — all the
yaks crossed safely. The next crack in the glacier was
deeper but not as steep. At the bottom was a
fast-flowing creek. Three yaks lost their loads in the
water. It was a big hassle to retie everything. One
yak could not continue and its load was split up among
the Tibetans. From that point the glacier was clear
all the way to our goal at 21,000 ft.
For
six miles, we traveled a medial moraine covered with
stones. We passed through 100 ft. tall ice pillars on
each side of the path. The summit of Everest hung over
this yak train, which was spread out over a mile long.
These native people are not immune to the extreme high
altitude and several had to turn back because they
felt ill. One Tibetan boy, about ten years old, was
always at the front of the yak train. He did not seem
to mind climbing to over 20,000 ft.
By
about 4 PM, we had reached our goal. Loads were
dropped, and we all turned around and headed back down
the glacier. We spent that second night at the
'crevasse camp' and then walked back to the basecamp
today.
--Brian
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