LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 381 - 379: Into the Mountains
Chapter 381: Chapter 379: Into the Mountains
The atmosphere in the helicopter, previously pleasant, suddenly became quiet. Jerret and the others looked at each other, and then shivered collectively.
Saito Tomonobu silently put on his socks and shoes and then spoke the longest sentence since meeting everyone: “An emergency can not only cause you to lose your toes, but more likely your life. Your blood will gradually freeze amidst the ice and snow of high altitudes, turning into blood crystals.”
“Even though the death rate for climbing Mount Everest has dropped from 14.8% ten years ago to 4.4% now, that’s the mortality rate for all climbers. Among them, many give up at C1 or C2. The higher you go, the greater the chance of death.”
“I started climbing in 2013. That year, I stopped at 7,400 meters because I saw a line of bodies ahead of me. At the time, my brain was severely lacking oxygen. Maybe I was scared as I retreated. I didn’t succeed in 2014 or 2015 either. I wasn’t very lucky—there was an avalanche during the weather window in 2014; and in 2015, a huge earthquake hit Nepal, followed by a massive avalanche. No one succeeded in reaching the summit that whole year.”
As Saito spoke, he suddenly took a deep breath, his eyes narrowing as if he saw the boundless sky that awaited at the summit. After a while, he continued with his stiff accent: “I haven’t come back since then, but this year, I’m here again. This is my fourth attempt to climb Mount Everest, and with my fortieth birthday approaching, I hope to give myself the gift of reaching the summit. I heard from Rob that you haven’t even climbed a mountain of 7,000 meters. Human bodily functions don’t operate at the cruising altitude of a Boeing 747. Once you reach South Col C4 Camp on Mount Everest, your body will begin to slowly die.”
“Ha, how is that possible.”
Wessels laughed, trying to break the silence, but apart from him, no one else was laughing. Saito continued to stare at him expressionlessly.
The laughter faded, and as Wessels awkwardly clenched his fist to cover his face and coughed twice, Saito’s voice rang out again: “You may not believe it, but my first climb stopped in the face of death. Even though my thoughts had slowed to where they were barely functional, I could feel—clearly feel—Death sitting in front of me, so close I could hear his breathing.”
“Climbing Mount Everest is a game, a game to see if you can reach the summit and return before your body dies. Win, and you conquer the world’s highest peak. Lose, and your body will become part of this giant tombstone.”
“Gulp.”
Yao Jun and Wang Yongbo both swallowed their saliva, sweating slightly on their foreheads, their limbs going weak. It sounded so frightening…
Is it still possible to turn back now?
Even the viewers in the live stream were a bit confused. Although Saito’s English was broken and heavily accented, the subtitles translated his words very accurately. It sounded as if Bi Fang was not going to climb a mountain but rather a tombstone.
Suddenly, a hand patted their shoulders, making them shiver, sweat trickling down their cheeks. Bi Fang’s voice rose: “What’s there to panic about? I haven’t asked you to reach the summit. It would be impressive if you two could make it to C2. Forget about C4.”
“Huaxia person, are you the one attempting the non-oxygen climb to the summit?” Saito coldly observed, staring straight at Bi Fang next to him.
Bi Fang raised his eyebrows, looking directly back at Saito and even tilted his chin up slightly: “That’s me.”
Saito stared at Bi Fang silently, not saying a word, and everyone else was confused by the tension between the two until, after three minutes, Saito finally averted his gaze.
“Then I hope you make it back alive.”
“I will bring back snow from the summit.”
…
Half an hour later, the helicopter crossed the mountains and made its way to a small airport. The helicopter slowly descended onto the runway, and Rob was the first to jump out, holding onto his hat, and gesturing around.
“Before Lukla Airport was built, this place was nothing but rocks and shrubs. After Edmund Hillary obtained the land permit, he hired 100 locals to build the airport. They would chisel rocks and cut down the shrubs during the day, and at night they walked on the runway, flattening and compacting the ground with their steps. The airport was completed in December 1964 and has been serving the region ever since. To this day, Lukla is inaccessible by road, and all living supplies have to be transported through Lukla Airport. In 2001, the airport had its runway paved with asphalt, but it is still very dangerous. Look, even this runway is uneven and has a significant slope.”
Bi Fang landed on the ground and immediately felt its unevenness—the overall slope was very steep!
“At least fifteen degrees, which is a terrifying angle on a road, let alone for an airplane, and…” Bi Fang squatted halfway, showing everyone the first-person view of what he was seeing.
Through his eyes, the viewers not only saw the horrifying slope but also the undulations!
[Damn, is this even a runway for planes?]
[I’d be scared to drive on this.]
[Ace drivers, request to engage!]
[No wonder it’s ranked as the most dangerous airport.]
Rob, who was nearby, called the locals over to move the luggage, then came over and laughed, “That’s right, the runway has a slope of 18.5 degrees, quite steep, and its undulating shape is rare in the world. Just for this alone, it qualifies as one of the most dangerous airports.”
“I’ve just observed the pilots and realized this airport seems to only allow visual flight, which is completely reliant on sight. There’s no DME, no ILS, not even approach lights or PAPI lights.
Besides, the bumpiness of the plane when flying is quite noticeable, and it has a strong feeling of side-slipping, which is probably because the airport is situated in a deep valley amidst high mountains. The wind along the valley forces planes to counteract continuous crosswinds during takeoff and landing.
Moreover, the generation, accumulation, and transportation of moisture in the valley further make the visibility at the airport unpredictable, no wonder it’s so dangerous. The demands on pilots are high indeed.”
The slew of professional jargon left the audience somewhat dizzy, but the latter part was translated into normal Chinese and didn’t hinder their understanding.
Could you really discern so much just by sitting in a helicopter for a while?
[Holy shit, can you actually feel all that?]
[Strange knowledge has increased, add one to Master Fang’s skill panel.]
[Old Fang wouldn’t also know how to fly a helicopter, would he?]
[Almost forgot that Old Fang is also an ace commando, damn, maybe he really could?]
“I can’t pilot, but I do understand a bit about it,” Bi Fang laughed heartily, unloading all the backpack luggage on the ground, and looked towards the distant mountains shrouded in clouds. With a heroic gesture, he pointed, “Here is the starting point for Mount Everest. From now on, we’re officially on our way forward!”
Although Jerret and the cameraman were still in awe of the cloud-hidden Everest, they did not forget their job. They quickly brought out their equipment, started the drones and cameras, and got to work immediately.
Filming the entire airport from the air, the top-down view from the altitude was truly serious; it was completely a cliff edge. There were no fences on either side of the runway, only precipices!
The two onlookers were dumbfounded. They had actually landed on such a runway?
Descending from the plane, Sir looked towards the distant peaks, feeling equally thrilled. His aged face inexplicably glowed with vitality, as if he had regained several years of youth.
Yao Jun, standing beside him, pulled out something resembling a pager from his lining and pressed a few buttons. A set of fluctuating data suddenly appeared before everyone: “Altitude 2845! Altitude 2845!”
[What is that thing?]
[An altitude meter?]
“Right, an altitude meter.” Bi Fang took the device from Yao Jun’s hand, showed it to everyone and explained, “This contains a GPS chip, which continuously emits signals to provide precise locations, though its accuracy is limited, and there could be some margin of error, so there’s about a one-meter discrepancy.”
“Huh, there’s a signal here?” Wang Yongbo took out his mobile phone and was surprised to find there were signals in this area, different from what he had imagined.
“What year do you think it is?” Bi Fang rolled his eyes. “Our country has installed a new mobile base station 19 kilometers away from the peak of Mount Everest. Since then, climbers taking on Everest have been able to make calls from the summit, with the British mountaineer Rod Baber being the first man to make a call from the top of Mount Everest.”
As he spoke, Bi Fang also took out an object resembling a walkie-talkie from his bag and waved it in front of the camera.
“Initially, climbers mainly used Morse code to communicate with the ground from Everest. Subsequently, shortwave radios and satellite phones replaced it as the common means of high-altitude wireless communication. However, the former has a limited range, and the latter is expensive and prone to weather disruptions.
Compared to other means of communication, one of the biggest advantages of mobile phones is their lower cost. Nevertheless, for high-altitude communication, shortwave radios remain the most reliable method, but some budget adventure organizations cannot afford to provide radio equipment to their members. This is a device recently prepared by the guide company for us; I’ve checked, and the quality is high. Don’t lose them; it’s best to keep them in your lining.”
In 2007, four Italian climbers who were part of a budget climbing team encountered a perilous situation near the summit of Everest, and they had to use expensive satellite phones to call back to Italy for an emergency rescue. The reason these four Italians survived was due to the timely help they received from ‘Experience Himalaya Adventures,’ the climbing company that Baber had joined, providing them with oxygen supplements. ‘Experience Himalaya Adventures’ climbing company usually charges each climber a fee of 20,000 British Pounds.
Generally speaking, climbing companies charging only ten thousand Ugly Knives are not that reliable, so everyone be careful when choosing.”
Upon hearing the all-too-familiar case information, Yao Jun and others immediately took out their walkie-talkies and carefully placed them inside their inner linings for safekeeping.
[Redefining ‘budget’]
[I can’t even afford the budget company’s price, damn it, it’s infuriating]
[I feel numb now. Master Fang’s individual climbing cost is sixty-five thousand Ugly Knives; any random climbing company charges twenty thousand British Pounds. I wonder if inflation forgot about me because everyone’s spending tens of thousands like it’s nothing, and yet I agonize over spending five bucks on a potato pancake in the morning.]
“Alright everyone, have we got our luggage sorted? It’s time to set off!”
Seeing that everyone was ready, Rob, who was at the front, clapped his hands, and the mules carrying the luggage immediately started moving.
“Transportation is not convenient here, so the methods are still quite primitive. The transport of goods mainly relies on mules. From Lukla to Everest Base Camp, we will need about six to seven days of trekking. Next, we will walk from Lukla to Phakding for about three and a half hours, descending from an altitude of 2840 to 2610 meters, briefly going down two hundred meters, but soon making up for it,” Bi Fang explained, patting the mule beside him. “The good news is that the altitude on this part of the journey is below three thousand meters, so generally, anyone in good health won’t experience altitude sickness.”
It was eleven o’clock, and the sun had risen to a high position. Two hours later, even Bi Fang began to sweat from the heat.
After crossing a narrow and short suspension bridge, perhaps due to the high humidity in the mountains, the path became muddy, crowded with long-distance trekkers, mules and horses, red-robed monks, and barefoot Sherpa people bending under the weight of lumber.
“I’ve found that climbing Mount Everest isn’t quite as poetic and picturesque as it’s made out to be in stories. As you can see, the whole path is littered with animal droppings. I even feel that the ground isn’t so much a dirt road as it is a trail of dung. It might sound a bit exaggerated, but you really have to watch your step with every move because there are so many herds of cows, horses, and donkeys here. However, you can see that the scenery on both sides is still pretty nice, with small yellow flowers all along the roadside, just like what we saw from the airplane. It’s truly beautiful.”
Bi Fang crouched down and lifted a small flower, as the moisture from the mountain hit his face, and the clouds here turned into a fine misty rain, making every leaf on every plant dotted with water droplets. The small flower appeared even more vivid in color.
“It looks a bit like an azalea, but I’m not sure exactly which kind. There are yellow flowers over there too, but I don’t recognize them either.”
Bi Fang shook his head regretfully. There are thousands of species of animals and plants in the world, and although he could now identify the vast majority, he was not accurate down to the species level for every single one, especially with plants, which he could only broadly classify to the family Rhododendron, but no further. Perhaps a professional botanist would know.
Just then, a somewhat elderly voice familiar to everyone’s ears rang out: “This is the yellow scaly-stemmed azalea, and over there is the Prunus Mume.”
By Bi Fang’s side, Sir likewise crouched down, wiping the sweat from his forehead as he carefully examined a yellow flower.
“Haha, I almost forgot, I’ve got Sir along with me on this trip!” Bi Fang scratched his head; he almost overlooked the fact that he had a true expert by his side!
When it comes to identifying animals and plants, there are few in the world who can match the knowledge of Edinburgh.
“The scaly-stemmed azalea usually grows at altitudes of around three thousand meters, which is right about here, and if I’m not mistaken, further up, there should be pink bristle moss azaleas.”
Sir pointed to the peaks shrouded in clouds, and the camera operator let the drone fly higher, then adjusted the focus, reviewing the footage on the computer screen.
Slowly, a touch of pink suddenly appeared in everyone’s view.
Could it really be there?
Even Bi Fang was surprised. Indeed, experience does count for a lot!
Could you really identify the genus just from a casual roadside wildflower?
The azaleas were a minor diversion; besides maintaining interaction with the viewers, the team’s pace remained brisk. Fortunately, with the help of mules, even the elderly like Sir could keep up.
The path into the mountains was not devoid of human presence; there were many Sherpa clan villages in the Himalayas, such as Namche Bazaar, which lay before Bi Fang and the others, a small town.
Namche Bazaar hung on the slopes like a giant, tilted, disc-shaped satellite halfway up the dangerous slope, with paths between houses meandering like a labyrinth.
Inside the town, there was a normal human society with services such as hotels, and that night, Bi Fang and his companions stayed in Namche Bazaar.
The real difficulties lay in the days to come.