Everest

After packing dozens of kilograms of luggage, it was almost nine o'clock, and there was light snowfall in the sky. Geng Aiqing wrapped her body tightly with a backpack on her back and joined her teammates. Everyone packed their things and was standing Talking about something, Shen Biwen and Pei Lei stood aside, and Luosang followed them, gesticulating and talking, with anxious faces, Pei Lei and Shen Biwen didn't look very good either, Lin Sheng and Yong Ke looked at them worriedly.

"What's the matter?" Geng Aiqing walked over, feeling that the atmosphere was not right and asked in a low voice.

Yong Ke patted him and explained briefly: "It's snowing, and Lausanne thinks the weather is not suitable for traveling, so we'd better wait a day and then start tomorrow."

"Such a little snow can't do it?" Geng Aiqing was speechless, "It will melt when it hits the ground!"

"Turn a fart." Lin Sheng wiped off the small layer of snow that had accumulated on his shoulders, "It will be even more troublesome if it melts!"

"..." Geng Aiqing glanced at Shen Biwen who was pursing his lips, and asked Yong Ke hesitantly, "Sister Yong, what do Shen Biwen and Uncle Pei mean? Do you want to stop?"

"Yes." Yong Ke's face was a little ugly, "Our time is too late. What Brother Pei means is that the snow is not too heavy today. We will go all out to climb the North Col camp and set up a camp there. It's better than staying here all the time, Xiao Shen also means the same."

Luosang's murmuring voice was a little louder, mixed with some substandard English and Chinese. He seemed anxious, but Shen Biwen still shook his head. Pei Lei's expression didn't look relaxed, but in the end it seemed that Shen Biwen Wen persuaded Luosang, Luosang muttered a few words dejectedly, and then came back here, Geng Aiqing guessed that he was still in accordance with the plan, but how did they deal with the problem that Luosang was worried about?

Thinking of this, Geng Aiqing glanced at Shen Biwen who was still talking to Pei Lei. Shen Biwen frowned, and kept his mouth shut when he was not talking. It seemed that he was not in a good mood. The two of them said something and then ended After finishing the conversation, Geng Aiqing walked towards them one after the other. Geng Aiqing looked at Shen Biwen worriedly, and noticing his gaze, Shen Biwen smiled at him comfortingly.

"How?" Yong Ke asked, "Continue?"

"Yes." Pei Lei's expression was very serious, "Lausanne has already mentioned this matter to me in the morning, the weather may be worse in the afternoon than now, but we must not miss the best time, we have discussed this before , according to Xiao Shen and I, we should work harder today and go directly to the North Col camp, and then choose whether to continue depending on the weather conditions, and then dragging on, I’m afraid it’s not a good thing.”

Pei Lei paused and continued: "However... the details are still up to you? What do you think?"

"I have no objection." Geng Aiqing raised his hand first, and Shen Biwen gave him a surprised look, but Geng Aiqing nodded firmly at him.

Yongke glanced at Luosang with a hesitant expression.

It was Lin Sheng who continued: "I agree with Brother Shen and Uncle Pei, we really don't have enough time, yesterday I heard news from above that there was already a team that reached the summit ahead of us, but because of the weather The reason is that there are casualties... I heard that even the corpses were not brought down. The weather is not too bad recently. Let's try our best to go up at this time. No, we will have time to retreat again.”

Shen Biwen nodded, acquiescing to his statement.

Yong Ke still didn't speak.

If Yongke must stay here and disagree with their plan, the only solution in the end is to leave the team first, or find another team to form a team, or wait for the weather to improve and speed up the mountain to join them, but the latter The risk is too great.

For a time, everyone felt a little heavy.

Geng Aiqing couldn't take it anymore, reached out to pull Luosang over, and talked to Shen Biwen: "Ask him how sure the weather will get worse!"

Shen Biwen nodded and spoke Tibetan to Luosang.

"Half chance." Shen Biwen translated, "50%."

"That's it." Geng Aiqing carelessly tugged at Yongke's arm, "Maybe I'm right, and the weather changes in the afternoon, so I don't know what time it will be this afternoon. It's getting dark here so late, maybe Our team will deteriorate after arriving at the camp! And it won't take that long!"

Yong Ke looked at him helplessly.

Geng Aiqing grinned at her: "Really, Sister Yong, I'm lucky, Ou Deyi!"

"Okay!" Yong Ke finally nodded in agreement, and everyone was relieved. After staying together for such a long time, no matter how you say, everyone has a little affection. If we really say goodbye here, everyone will feel a little uncomfortable Fortunately, Geng Aiqing was good at talking, and finally the team did not lose a general!

Now that we have all agreed to such an arrangement, there is no need to delay, and everyone hastened to carry their heavy bags and set off on the road.

The official departure time is 09:30 in the morning. They set off from the forward camp and proceeded to the North Col camp according to the route of the first adaptive training. The estimated arrival time is around 03:30 in the afternoon. Lausanne talked about the fear of weather changes, and everyone speeded up their pace tacitly. After less than an hour and a half, they had crossed the sunken valley where the advance camp was located, and stood on the vast ice field again. After climbing several stone walls, they Once again came to the ice wall directly to the North Col camp - the North Col ice wall.

In the first acclimatization training they climbed part of the ice wall of the North Col. Although they did not fully reach the North Col camp in the end, they were not completely novice.But despite this, the intuitive sense of horror brought by this stretch of snow slope still makes everyone tremble a little bit.

If you want to reach the North Col camp at an altitude of 7028 meters, this section of ice wall located in the saddle between Mount Everest and Zhangzifeng is the only way to go. The most terrifying thing about this section of ice wall is the appalling slope. The steepest part is about 70 degrees, almost vertical, and because the ice here is basically not melting all year round, occasionally the ice wall in some places breaks and causes an avalanche. The avalanche that Geng Aiqing heard about a few days ago is here. But the exact location is unclear.

After Geng Aiqing hung himself on the rope, his palms began to sweat, and he felt a little hot.The journey from the forward camp to the North Col camp was actually not too cold, and there was only light snow when they set off, so everyone didn’t wear the warmest clothes. Geng Aiqing thought about the weather change that Lausanne said later , temporarily added a fleece vest to it. He and other teammates suggested it, but everyone except him said they didn't need it, so he had to add one by himself.

Road ropes are equipment that facilitates climbers to climb Mount Everest. They are developed by different commercial companies. They hire professionals with high salaries to build them, and use this to charge high fees from climbers who use road ropes. All the contracts in the middle have been completed, so they are legal to use. Basically, most climbers are like this. Only a small number of climbers use the ropes secretly because of lack of money or other reasons, but this is A moral issue.

Because of the snow, the entire North Col ice wall is covered with a thin layer of soft snow, and this snow layer is still slowly thickening, which helps their progress, because the ground of soft snow is better There is a lot of walking, but correspondingly, these snow layers also cover those dangerous bright ice roads. If you accidentally step on it, it is easy to slip and fall. Although there is a rope buckle for buffering, if you fall directly more than ten meters Ten meters, the psychological pressure is also huge.

"Be careful when changing the rope buckle." Pei Lei, who was in the middle of the team, urged while climbing up, "Be sure to focus on safety, and don't worry."

Geng Aiqing nodded after following him, and tightened his grip on the road rope.

The steeper the slope gets, they have to free up one hand to use the ice ax to assist climbing. Straight-line climbing is easy to cause slipping, so they gradually distanced themselves, spread out, and used the zigzag walking method on the ice wall Cut out the foothold on the top and slowly go up.They were not the only climbing team on the ice wall. Geng Aiqing looked up and could see several separate black spots far away from them, but for some reason, he couldn't see them clearly.

At this time, no one noticed that the snowflakes were getting bigger and bigger, and the wind was gradually picking up.