Dead Lucky: Life After Death on Mount Everest PDF
Preview Dead Lucky: Life After Death on Mount Everest
Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Foreword PART ONE - DREAM CATCHER One - SINGAPORE 2004 Two - RETURN TO EVEREST Three - BEHIND THE EIGHT BALL Four - KATHMANDU Five - HIMALAYA Six - TENT CITY Seven - EVEREST 2006 Eight - EAST RONGBUK Nine - EVEREST THE HIGHWAY Ten - SKY BURIAL Eleven - RUSSIAN ROULETTE PART TWO - DEATH’S OWN COUNTRY Twelve - BIG STEPS Thirteen - THE ROOF OF THE WORLD Fourteen - COUNTING CHICKENS Fifteen - FADING LIGHT Sixteen - TIME TO KILL Seventeen - CLOAK OF DARKNESS Eighteen - AWAKENING Nineteen - THE WHITE LIMBO GUY PART THREE - RUNNING ON EMPTY Twenty - THE DEVIL’S SPADE Twenty-one - RUNNING ON EMPTY Twenty-two - TOUCHDOWN Twenty-three - POSTMORTEM EPILOGUE 7 SUMMITS-CLUB EVEREST EXPEDITION Notes on My Survival Acknowledgements Glossary Index About the Author JEREMY P. TARCHER/PENGUIN Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA • Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Originally published in Australia by Random House 2007 Copyright © 2007 by Lincoln Hall Interior illustrations © 2007 by Ken Beatty All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. Published simultaneously in Canada Most Tarcher/Penguin books are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchase for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, and educational needs. Special books or book excerpts also can be created to fit specific needs. For details, write Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Special Markets, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hall, Lincoln. Dead lucky : life after death on Mount Everest / Lincoln Hall. p. cm. Originally published in Australia by Random House in 2007; published simultaneously in Canada. Includes index. eISBN : 978-1-4406-3091-0 While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content. http://us.penguingroup.com TO MY FAMILY, Barbara, Dylan, Dorje, Al, Julia, and Michele FOREWORD by Lachlan Murdoch ON THE MORNING OF Saturday, May 27, 2006, the world’s newspapers had an obvious splash. Lincoln Hall, one of Australia’s most accomplished mountaineers, had survived a night near the summit of Mount Everest after having been declared dead by his fellow climbers. “Back from the dead,” “Lazarus,” and “Miracle climber” were all words employed by zealous editors as they tried to convey what none of us could really imagine: a night spent alone in the thin air of 28,000 feet, balanced precipitously between the mountain and a great void below, between hallucinatory visions and terrifying reality, between life and death. Having met Lincoln many years ago, I would not have been shocked to hear of his death on the world’s highest mountain. I would probably have been more shocked to read that he had died in a car accident or crossing the road. That’s not because I thought he was some thrill seeker, some adrenaline junkie with a death wish. Actually, I knew Lincoln to be an excellent and very accomplished climber. The fact is, several great climbers I had either met as a youth or bumped into at climbing camp-grounds or parking lots have since prematurely met their end. The headlines that morning in May 2006 were so shocking, not because Lincoln died on Everest that night but because he did not. An extremely experienced mountaineer, who had both the good sense and great discipline to turn back shy of Everest’s summit in 1984, Lincoln wrote of that decision in his book White Limbo that “The summit was not everything. Survival was,” and of the disappointment he would later feel for having lost what he then believed was his one chance to stand for a few moments upon the top of the world. Knowing that had he pushed on to the summit he would likely have died, he wrote: “Although I will never see the summit panorama other than through the eyes of Tim and Greg [his fellow climbers], I know no view is worth that price.” Unexpectedly, twenty-two years later, Lincoln had a second chance to summit Everest. He climbed strongly to the mountain’s apex, where he did indeed enjoy the rarest of views. It was a perfect day. With only a few clouds in the sky and with the lightest wind, Lincoln was feeling good. He would not, it appeared, have to pay that ultimate price. Critically, he was focused on the dangers of the descent ahead. Next time you look at a summit picture, try to look beyond the tired faces allowing quick, compulsory smiles framed by panoramic views. Often you will see something else. Sometimes, below the surface, you will see the summiteers’ weariness, their knowledge that the climb is only half complete. Perhaps an eye askew on the weather, or on the time, or on a struggling climbing partner, or an ear picking up the muffled sound of a distant avalanche. Adrenaline and fear are both characters in the background, along with the ever-present danger of acute altitude sickness at the most extreme heights. Lincoln did not linger on the summit and started down the mountain after allowing himself the briefest of rests. It was then disaster struck. The day and night that followed were extraordinary by any measure and comprise a story that is certain to become a classic of mountaineering literature. The narrative tells us not only of Lincoln’s journey back from the dead but also of his family’s and colleagues’ struggle to come to terms with the loss of a husband, father, and friend before learning of his miraculous survival. Why do some of us climb mountains while others are happy with a comfortable job and a decent retirement plan? Why do some need to find their limit, step right up to it, peer over the edge, and step gingerly back? The question has been asked so many times it is now a sort of cliché, although at its heart it is really a riddle. Readers searching for a simple answer to such a question will not find it within Dead Lucky, as no
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