Life's high places

Author: Wang Shi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Locked in the misty clouds, Mount Everest suddenly appeared before our eyes at dusk when we reached Base Camp. Not a single person in the car spoke. I stared blankly, silently praying in my heart: Mount Everest, we're here. It was September 1997. At Base Camp, the Chinese liaison officer responsible for welcoming 10 foreign climbing teams also warmly greeted the two unexpected visitors from Shenzhen. At night, the high altitude made it hard to sleep, so we passed the time chatting. The conversation revolved around the deadliest avalanche in the history of Mount Everest: in the spring of 1996, 9 people died among 4 expedition teams on the southern slope, including the famous climber Jonny Morris from New Zealand and his companion, Fisher. Another 3 people passed away in late May. That night, we also talked about the most tragic avalanche in the history of Chinese climbing: the Meili avalanche. In 1998, Mr. Wu Jinxiang, a Taiwanese climber, gave me a book titled Into Thin Air. This book is specifically about the avalanche on the southern slope of Mount Everest in 1996. The author, Jonny Morris, was a renowned journalist and an amateur climber himself. He participated in the expedition organized by the film crew. He personally experienced the thrilling and heart-stopping process of the avalanche. His passionate descriptions, sharp reflections, and detailed historical records of Mount Everest made me unable to put it down. I finished it in three consecutive nights, rereading it twice after each reading.