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By Andree Lau, CBC News Online
"A barren plateau of bulletproof ice and windswept boulders, the (South) Col sits at 26,000 feet above sea level, tucked between the upper ramparts of
Lhotse, the world's fourth-highest mountain, and Everest....
It is one of the coldest, most inhospitable places I have ever been."
At 8,000 m (26,300 ft), climbers are now in the "Death Zone," an altitude where human bodies begin to deteriorate from a lack of oxygen. The body loses all ability to acclimatize. Bodily functions such as digestion shut down. Wounds do not heal. The longer someone stays here, the more likely they'll be struck by illness or not make it down the mountain alive. The bodies of those who have died trying to get to the top are occasionally buried in tents here. Other corpses are left exposed on the mountain. "Up ahead the route steepened as it climbed the Geneva Spur and I remember saying that I sure would not like to fall here, as it would be next to impossible to stop yourself." The camp is bordered by a 2,100-m (7,000-ft) drop-off known as the Kangshung Face on the east and the 1,200-m (4,000-ft) Lhotse Face on the west. The barren Col is about four football fields long and two fields across. There is no shelter. "The wind was also howling through this high Col (saddle) that separated Mount Everest and Lhotse with tremendous force letting you know that now was not the time to let down your guard. As people were setting up their tents one was ripped from a climber's hands and went flying across the Col." "Bottled oxygen does not make the top of Everest feel like sea level. Ascending above the South Summit with my regulator delivering two liters of oxygen per minute, I had to stop and draw three or four heaving lungfuls of air after each ponderous step."
Most climbers rely on tanks of supplemental oxygen by Camp III. At Camp IV, it's critical. A regulator controls the flow of oxygen, which comes at about two to three litres per minute. Climbers sleep with their oxygen masks on. It helps keep their outer extremities warm and their minds clearer. On a smooth summit bid a climber could consume up to three tanks of oxygen ascending to the top and climbing back to Camp IV. On the descent, climbers may use an additional two bottles of oxygen for sleeping on the South Col. On Byron's ascent, each team member will have the standard three tanks -- two in their backpacks and a third stashed just below the summit. The team plans to climb down as far as Camp II after summitting, but they are prepared to stop and sleep at Camp IV if necessary. "Everyone retreated to their nylon domes the moment they reached the Col and did their best to nap, but the machine-gun rattle of the flapping tents and the anxiety over what was to come made sleep out of the question for most of us."
"Above the comforts of Base Camp, the expedition in fact became an almost Calvinistic undertaking. The ratio of misery to pleasure was greater by an order of magnitude than any other mountain I'd been on; I quickly came to understand that climbing Everest was primarily about enduring pain. And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium, and suffering, it struck me that most of us were probably seeking above all else, something like a state of grace."
Everybody is on their own, independant, and each person clips into rope which is "fixed" by ice screws and ice pickets to the mountain. Once the rope is fixed it cannot be easily removed. More ...
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