Acclimatising · Eleven Steps From the Edge · Pulse Beat
For two weeks they walked up and down, learning what the body can bear. It is the dull part of a mountain, and the part that matters. Sleep high, climb low. Drink until the water tastes like nothing…
For two weeks they walked up and down, learning what the body can bear.
It is the dull part of a mountain, and the part that matters. Sleep high, climb low. Drink until the water tastes like nothing. They made the Khumbu rotations, up to Camp One, back to base, up to Camp Two, back to base, and every night in the mess tent Tashi counted heads, and watched the oxygen numbers on the little finger-clip devices, and listened to the cough that told him who was getting sick.
Peter had it first, a dry hacking cough that Tashi disliked. He sat with him in the tent, and checked his lungs with an ear to the chest, and said, "You are tired. Rest a day."
"I paid forty thousand dollars," said Peter, wheezing.
"The mountain is not a refund office."
Peter laughed, a short, scared laugh. "I know. I know." He looked at his hands. "I don't think I'm very good at this."
Tashi didn't say anything. He had a rule: never tell a man he can't. Only tell him what the mountain will say.