Excerpt
In March 1996, Outside Magazine sent me to Nepal to participate in, and
write about, a guided ascent of Mount Everest. I went as one of eight clients on
an expedition led by a well-known guide from New Zealand named Rob Hall. On May
10 I arrived on top of the mountain, but the summit came at a terrible cost.
Among my five teammates who reached the top, four, including Hall, perished in a
rogue storm that blew in without warning while we were still high on the peak.
By the time I'd descended to Base Camp nine climbers from four expeditions were
dead, and three more lives would be lost before the month was out.
The expedition left me badly shaken, and the article was difficult to write.
Nevertheless, five weeks after I returned from Nepal I delivered a manuscript to
Outside, and it was published in the September issue of the magazine.
Upon its completion I attempted to put Everest out of my mind and get on with my
life, but that turned out to be impossible. Through a fog of messy emotions, I
continued trying to make sense of what had happened up there, and I obsessively
mulled the circumstances of my companions' deaths.
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