Tackling Everest

another essay. not very focused.

       It was mid July in Thailand. Two men, who have been best friends for as long as they can remember, are on a journey to Mount Everest. They want to attempt to summit the mountain. After a long conspiracy with their families about the attempt, they were set to go. They had all their gear packed and ready for the ascent up the mountain with hopes of later being able to say they stood "on top of the world." People use this term when they reach the summit because the top of Mount Everest is literally the highest spot on planet Earth.

        Their expedition group was called Peak Expeditions. The first stop for the group was at Base Camp. That is located at about 18,044 feet above the sea level. While they were there, they had to acclimatize, meanings get used to less oxygen. After spending the night there, everybody was pretty well acclimatized. So they headed for Camp Two. A terrible, terrible storm broke out before they reached their destination, so they had to stay at an intermediate camp for the night. While they were there, they had to think of a plan. There was a horrible storm that was predicted to break out around noon the next day. They were half way to the next camp, and it would only take about four hours to get to it.

        The next morning, they awoke early, just to be safe. They headed out and finally reached the camp, two hours passed the time that was expected, due to two members of the team who weren't completely acclimatized yet. They at least reached the camp though before the storm hit. The storm hit about 30 minutes after everybody got settled down in their tents. It was a horrible storm. You couldn't even stand outside without getting blown away, let alone see five feet ahead of you! It's hard to think about it, but that storm was nothing compared to what they would be experiencing as they became closer and closer to the top.

        When everybody woke up the next morning, they had to dig themselves out of their tents. A good two feet of snow fell while they were all sleeping. After everybody was ready to go, the leaders led them up the mountain to Camp Three. In order to get to camp three, they had to cross East Rongbuk Glacier. This was a steep slope covered in ice and snow, making it really hard to climb. When they were done crossing the treacherous  East Rongbuk Glacier, they made it to Camp Three  within 14 hours of their leave from camp two. Camp three is an advance base camp sitting at 21,161 feet above the sea level. This is the camp where lost of people have the most trouble. By now, 4 people on the team had come down with HAPE, or High Altitude Pulmonary Edemas, which is when the lungs fill up with fluid as a result of the body adapting to high elevation. In order to cure this, those four people were placed in special bags that were able to imitate the air pressure at the sea level. This device has saved many lives before. After that whole episode, it was time to call it a day. Everybody turned in for the night, some regretting signing up for this climb, and some eagerly awaiting what is in store for the next day.

        Camp Four was the next camp. They needed to reach that camp in no less than 13 hours. Another storm was going to hit pretty soon. This was going to be a huge one, ten times worse than the first storm they experienced! The team headed out before the break of dawn. Everybody was well acclimatized, giving them a head start before the other groups currently at the camp. This was their toughest climb yet, but they finally made it to Camp Four within 12 hours. If you haven't noticed yet, pretty much everybody that joined in with the Peak Expedition Group are experienced climbers, making their journey much easier. Once they reached the camp, that meant that they only had 6, 063 feet left until the summit. This boosted everybody's self esteem. After a long and restless night, it was time to head to the next camp.

        In order to reach their destination of Camp Five, they would have to cross North Ridge. This is a really hard thing to do, especially in a group. Another storm was expected to break. This one wasn't supposed to be as bad as the second one though. They had four hours to reach Camp Five before the storm left they stranded. From Camp Four to Camp Five was a much shorter distance than any of the other camps from each other, but one of the hardest. After Camp Five, there was Camp Six, and then the First Step, Second Step, Third Step, and finally, the Final Pyramid and Summit sitting at 29,028 feet above the sea level. The second they got to Camp Five, they pitched their tents and that's when the storm came. This group was by far one of the luckiest groups ever to climb Mount Everest without any deaths. Usually by now, there would be two or three dead people.

        The next morning, everyone awoke to find a good three feet of snow piled in front of their tents. It took about 10 minutes to dig out of their tents, but they finally got out. After packing everything up, they headed for Camp Six. They reached Camp Six within three hours. Now that they were at Camp Six, they planned on taking two days off for rest. Everyone on the team deserved it. Finally, they had been working pretty hard and carefully for the past week. During their two day rest, several storms broke out, leaving them stranded there for an extra day. This was bad, they needed to reach the summit before a certain date, or they would never make it. So as soon as the storm cleared, they packed up and headed out. They made it to Yellow Band within a matter of hours. Now all they had to get passed was the First Step, Second Step, and the Third Step.

        They crossed the Yellow Band with trouble. It was by far the hardest part of the climb yet. That's probably because they hadn't yet climbed the steps! They now only had 18 hours to make it to the summit. With the knowledge of that, they climbed faster than they have ever climbed before, making it passed the first two steps in a mere ten hours. This left them with eight hours to reach the summit. After about four hours, they made it passed the Third Step. They were now nearly 500 yards away from their final destination: the top of the world! The group stopped and rested for about ten minutes and then started climbing again. They reached the summit within three hours! They made it! They were now standing on top of the world! Each member of the team pinned their Prayer Flags onto the pole frozen into the ground and looked at the camera for a picture. Now all they had to do was get back down!