Chapter Three
Our climb began in earnest on May 9. By then we'd successfully negotiated the
Khumbu Icefall, surmounted the Western Cwm, and now were halfway up a moderately
steep, four-thousand foot wall of blue ice called the Lhotse Face, which the
prudent climber will traverse very carefully.
This extreme care is a function of the physics involved. With hard ice such as
that found on the Lhotse Face, there is no coefficient of friction; you are
traction free. Fall into an uncontrolled slide, and your chances of stopping are
nil. You're history. A Taiwanese climber named Chen Yu-Nan would discover the
truth of this, to his horror, on the morning of May 9.
Because the Lhotse Face is a slope, you pitch Camp Three by carving out a little
ice platform for your tent, which you crawl into exhausted, desperate for some
rest. No matter how tired you are, however, you must remember a couple of fairly
simple rules.
One, don't sleepwalk. Two, when you get up in the morning, the very first thing
you've got to do, without fail, is put those twelve knives on each climbing
boot, your crampons, because they are what stick you down to that ... read full excerpt from: Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest ebook
