North Face

by Matt Dickinson

  He turned off the laptop. Tashi stared at the blank screen, her mind buzzing with thoughts.

  At that moment footsteps approached the tent. It was one of the yak herders, red in the face and exhausted.

  ‘I’ve just run up the glacier,’ he panted. ‘I’ve got bad news.’

  They gave the man a seat and he caught his breath for a moment before continuing.

  ‘Chen found out you’ve been at Base Camp,’ he told Karma. ‘He knows you’re up here and he’s got a dozen soldiers coming to join him. He says he’s going to arrest you in the next twenty-four hours.’

  Karma got to his feet, began to pace up and down the tent.

  ‘I’m trapped,’ he said grimly. ‘It’s over.’

  ‘Information is power,’ Christophe said reassuringly. ‘At least you have the advantage of knowing that they’re on to you.’

  ‘He’s right,’ Tashi agreed. ‘We’re still one step ahead of them.’

  ‘This is a huge valley,’ the leader continued. ‘There are hundreds of places you could hide for a couple of days.’

  Karma shook his head angrily.

  ‘What if I don’t want to keep hiding?’ he said. ‘What if I don’t want to keep running? This is my country, isn’t it? What right does Chen have to persecute me?’

  Tashi felt her stomach churn. The anger was growing inside her brother. Was this news that he was about to be arrested going to tip Karma over the edge? Could he even harm himself? Tashi forced the thought out of her mind. Karma was a bit hot-headed sometimes but she felt sure he wouldn’t put the family through the pain that such an action would bring.

  ‘I’m going for a walk,’ Karma said. ‘Try to get my mind clear.’

  Tashi and the expedition leader stayed in the tent, talking through the situation as they waited for Karma to return.

  ‘I worry he’s going to do something extreme,’ Tashi said. ‘He’s been getting more radical as he gets older.’

  ‘He’s under a lot of pressure,’ Christophe agreed. ‘But that’s the story across the whole of Tibet. Young people beginning to say enough is enough. Look at all the young monks that have burned themselves in protest, dozens of them, some of them just in their teens.’

  Tashi trembled as her blood chilled. The thought was too much to contemplate.

  When Karma came back into the tent, Tashi saw to her surprise that her brother somehow looked different. A lot of the tension in his face had gone and he seemed calm and confident. The Swiss leader gave him a steaming cup of hot chocolate.

  ‘I’ve made a decision,’ Karma told them. Tashi could see the fire in his eyes.

  ‘Yes? A decision to do what?’

  Tashi felt her heart beat faster.

  ‘I want you to take me with you,’ he said to Christophe. ‘Let me climb and do a protest on the mountain.’

  Tashi thought the Swiss guy would laugh in Karma’s face. But he didn’t. He just nodded and said, ‘OK … you took me by surprise there but I’m open to anything. Tell me what you’re thinking.’

  ‘I want to take my flag, my Tibetan flag, on to Everest,’ he said. ‘Get a photo of it on the summit if I can. Get publicity in newspapers, television. Tell my story.’

  ‘What?’ Tashi stared at her brother. ‘You have to be joking, right?’

  ‘No. No joke. I mean it.’

  ‘But … but you’ve never been climbing before,’ Tashi said. ‘How will you survive up there?’

  ‘You know the truth is, it’s really not so complicated,’ Christophe said with a small laugh. ‘The skills are basic.’

  ‘You remember Drugi last year?’ Karma added.

  Tashi nodded. Drugi was a young yak herder just like them. He had been offered a job as a high-altitude porter by an expedition and to everyone’s surprise had got well above eight thousand metres with hardly any training at all.

  If he hadn’t twisted his ankle he might even have reached the summit.

  ‘It’s largely about fitness,’ Christophe said. ‘And you guys are doing the perfect training, every single day.’

  Tashi could see his point. Trekking up and down the glacier was an ideal physical preparation for climbing.

  ‘As for the equipment, we’ve got lots of spare clothing and gear. We can lend you what you need,’ Christophe added.

  Karma nodded his thanks.

  ‘It was those videos,’ Karma said. ‘Think about all the people in that square, how brave they were.’

  Tashi shivered as she remembered the man standing in front of that tank.

  ‘You’re right,’ she conceded. ‘I feel different as well.’

  ‘We have to be like them,’ Karma said. ‘Make a stand. Swallow our fear and not run away.’

  Tashi felt a raw buzz of love for her brother. His courage was inspiring. And frightening.

  ‘I should discuss this with my team,’ Christophe said. He left them in the mess tent and went to consult with his expedition.

  Ten minutes later he came back with two of the other climbers. They went straight to Karma and embraced him warmly with words of welcome.

  ‘OK,’ Christophe said. ‘We’re totally up for this. We’ll employ you as a high-altitude porter. Fifty bucks a day.’

  Karma’s face split into a huge grin.

  ‘You’ll have to pull your weight,’ he warned. ‘Carry a load every day like the rest of us, yes?’

  ‘Of course!’ Karma beamed. ‘I will carry as many kilos as you like!’

  ‘When it comes to your protest we’ll also help in any way we can, take photos and video for you, but you understand later we may have to tell the authorities we didn’t know what you were planning?’

  Karma nodded.

  ‘I get it,’ he said.

  ‘Maybe we can get into a bit of trouble,’ Christophe said with a wry smile. ‘But to be honest we’re on your side and we’ll take the risk.’

  ‘Can we start tomorrow?’ Karma asked eagerly.

  Christophe looked to his climbing buddies. They nodded, smiling.

  ‘Sure,’ he confirmed. ‘We were planning to start our climb first thing tomorrow anyway. So when your Captain Chen and his soldiers arrive you’ll already be out of reach.’

  Demons flocked into Tashi’s dreams that night. She woke up in a cold sweat at dawn, fearing that Karma might have left without saying goodbye. But her brother was sleeping next to her, his breathing calm, his hair covered with a glistening sheen of frost.

  Tashi watched him for a while as the steely grey light of daybreak slowly lit the tent. Karma. She smiled as warm memories flooded back. The endless jokes he played on his friends. The things he had done to help or protect his big sister over the years of their childhood. He was no longer a child, she realised. His decision to climb Everest marked the end of that phase of his life. It was an unbearably sad thought.

  After breakfast Tashi prepared the yaks for the journey down the glacier. Karma watched her work, standing outside the Swiss mess tent, his expression still fixed and calm although there was a hollow depth to his eyes which spoke of deeper doubts.

  ‘What will you tell Chen?’ Karma asked. ‘You’re going to bump into him today as you head down.’

  ‘I’ll tell him you ran away. Vanished last night. He won’t get any more out of me, I promise.’

  Karma nodded.

  ‘What am I going to tell Mother and Father?’ Tashi asked.

  ‘Tell them the truth,’ he replied. ‘I hope they will respect me for what I am doing.’

  Tashi smiled. She stepped forward and hugged her brother close.

  ‘Just come back alive,’ she said. ‘That’s all that counts.’

  Karma nodded, then turned away to join the others.

  Chapter 8

  Tashi’s story was finished and as if to underscore the drama of her tale
, the ground shuddered with yet another aftershock. The earthquake wasn’t finished. Not yet.

  We grabbed hold of the poles of our improvised shelter, helping it stay upright while we waited for the shaking to subside.

  ‘Now you understand why my brother is up on Everest,’ she whispered.

  I certainly did. And much, much more. The story of how her family had been blocked from their ancestral lands, the herd stolen from them by unfeeling officials, had left me sickened.

  Klaus had warned me about the human rights abuses on the plateau of Tibet, but I hadn’t expected to actually meet someone whose life had been turned upside down by such injustice.

  I took Tashi’s hand. Her fingers were ridiculously cold.

  ‘Do you think my brother could still be alive?’ she asked.

  I thought about the rock avalanche I had seen sweeping down the face after the first massive quake. The chances of anyone surviving seemed small, but I didn’t want to kill all hope for Tashi.

  ‘He might be,’ I said. ‘Anything is possible. Why don’t we go back to the Swiss tent and try again for information?’

  ‘Ok,’ Tashi said. ‘Let’s do that.’

  We picked our way through the hazard zone that just a few hours earlier had been a fully functioning Base Camp and found the Swiss tent once again. This time there was a member of the Swiss team – a shell-shocked looking radio operator – but he had little to offer in the way of encouragement.

  ‘I know your brother,’ he said sadly. ‘But we cannot be optimistic for him. I’ve been on the radio for hours trying to reach the high camps but there’s no reply.’

  ‘There must be survivors,’ Tashi said. ‘Maybe he’s one of the lucky ones.’

  The radio operator shook his head sadly. ‘I understand how you feel,’ he said. ‘But no one can help your brother now.’

  ‘Please can you try it again?’ she begged.

  The man put in a final call, holding the headphones to Tashi’s ear so she could verify it for herself.

  Static. Nothing but static.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ the man said.

  ‘How about getting a helicopter up there?’ I said. ‘See if there are any signs of life?’

  The man shook his head emphatically.

  ‘No helicopter can fly so high. The air’s too thin for the rotors to get lift.’

  He put his head in his hands.

  ‘I’m up to my neck in this nightmare,’ he sobbed. ‘Your brother’s not the only one who’s been killed. What can I say to the relatives? I have to call them now … ’

  We walked away from the Swiss tent and found a boulder to sit on. A thin cloud of wood smoke had drifted across from some nearby tents and was now suspended in the air. The silvery blue smoke was like a veil, drawn across the scene. I was struck by how peaceful everything looked now it was dark. The violence of the earthquake seemed like a cruel trick of the imagination.

  Had it really happened? The falling rocks? The avalanche of iron-hard ice? The deaths and injuries? I longed to wake from this nightmare and find it was all a dream. For Tashi to wake tomorrow to see her beloved brother Karma striding back down the glacier.

  We turned to the mountain, scanning the moonlit slopes, feeling the familiar emotions of awe and respect that Everest commanded. Was there still a chance? Could there still be a few survivors in the high camps?

  It was true that the rescue team had reported no remaining tents, and avalanche debris several metres deep.

  ‘There must be places people could hide,’ Tashi said. ‘Caves. Overhangs. Places where a climber might crawl for safety?’

  I let my mind dwell on some of the more troubling scenarios. Her brother could be injured, unable to call for help. I shivered. It was too distressing to think about.

  The cold was beginning to bite. Tashi pulled her duvet jacket tight around her shoulders, her breath creating glittering clouds of icy vapour. We knew we should be heading back to the tent, but neither of us could tear our eyes away from the mountain.

  Then we saw it.

  A flicker.

  A light.

  A brief and brilliant pulse. Exactly at the site of Camp 6. The place where Karma was last seen. It came again. I heard Tashi’s breath quicken.

  ‘Someone is up there,’ she said. ‘Someone’s alive.’

  ‘Yes. I saw it too. Definitely a light.’

  ‘It could be Karma,’ Tashi said excitedly. ‘It could be him!’

  We watched for another half an hour, until our eyeballs were virtually freezing in their sockets. But there was no more flash.

  Then came a siren blast and a voice called out by megaphone:

  ‘Meeting now at the Base Camp commander’s tent. Meeting now.’

  Within ten minutes every single climber was gathered together, waiting expectantly for news. It was almost exactly eight hours since the earthquake had struck and the mood of the assembled teams was a potent mix of raw grief coupled with shock.

  In total there were almost five hundred people, roughly divided into three categories: Western climbers, their Sherpa high-altitude porters, and the local Tibetan yak drivers like Tashi.

  Finally the boss arrived. Chen. A megaphone in his hand. I felt my fingers curl as I saw him. I knew now what misery he had inflicted on Tashi and her family.

  He clambered on to the remains of an old cairn to give himself some height, switching on his megaphone and adjusting the volume as it howled back noisily.

  ‘I have had instructions from Beijing,’ he pronounced. ‘Everest is closed for this season. There’s likely to be aftershocks, more danger. It’s over for this year.’

  There was a stunned silence for a few seconds. Then the babble of conversation from all sides.

  ‘Transport will be arranged back to the Nepal border,’ he continued. ‘You have forty-eight hours to strip the mountain and leave.’

  ‘Is there any further news about fatalities at Camp 6?’ someone asked.

  ‘My team have inspected the mountain,’ Chen replied. ‘There’s no one left alive up there and the area is too unstable to allow anyone else in. You can take down remaining tents from the lower camps in the next two days, but Camp 6 is out of bounds.’

  A clamour of voices erupted, all desperate to be heard.

  ‘We saw a light!’ Tashi called. ‘A flash coming from Camp 6. Less than one hour ago.’

  ‘One at a time!’ Chen snapped.

  He didn’t hear Tashi’s call.

  ‘What about our permits?’ one of the leaders yelled. ‘Will they still be valid for next year?’

  ‘It is too early to say,’ Chen replied. ‘Beijing will make an announcement on this very soon.’

  The response caused a ripple of consternation. Each of the climbers had paid more than ten thousand dollars for the permit to climb and I guessed many of them would struggle to afford the fee again.

  ‘Don’t you think this is an overreaction?’ another climber protested. ‘If you had a democratic vote now with a show of hands you’d find that most of the climbers here want to carry on.’

  A buzz of agreement rippled through the crowd.

  ‘That is irrelevant,’ Chen replied. ‘The mountain is closed and that is final.’

  The meeting broke up, the teams dispersing to spread the news to sponsors and loved ones back home. We ran into an expedition leader from an international team, a New Zealander I had walked with for a few hours on the trek up the glacier.

  ‘Come back to the mess tent,’ he offered. ‘Have a hot drink and warm your hands on our heater.’

  We joined the team in their hastily repaired mess tent. Everyone was exhausted and dirty, the mood grim. The international team hadn’t lost any members in the avalanche but they had lost friends. We both accepted a mug of steaming tea and the leader got the portable heater going
for us to cluster around.

  ‘You sure about that light?’ one of the climbers asked.

  ‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘We both saw it.’

  ‘Who do you think it might be? Have you got a friend up there?’

  ‘My brother Karma,’ Tashi replied. ‘It’s his first time to go high on the mountain. He’s carrying the Tibetan flag with him, hoping to get a picture holding it at the summit.’

  ‘Respect for that,’ one of the expeditioners commented. ‘Sounds like his heart’s in the right place.’

  ‘He’s a good person,’ Tashi continued. ‘But now I’m not sure he will be coming home.’

  A deep silence kicked in. No one knew what to say.

  ‘If he missed the rockfall, how long is it possible to survive up there?’ Tashi asked.

  ‘I heard about an American woman who survived eight days buried in an avalanche in the Rockies,’ one of the climbers said.

  ‘People can live for ten days at the highest camps if they’ve got enough oxygen,’ said another.

  ‘But the Chinese have made a search,’ Tashi said. ‘They say they can’t find anyone alive.’

  ‘Pah!’ the expedition leader exclaimed, ‘they just want to close the mountain with a minimum of fuss. Do you really think they’ve searched every cave, every overhang, every crevice where a climber could hide from the earthquake?’

  ‘I don’t know … ’

  ‘One of my friends came down from the high camp just now,’ a Sherpa chipped in. ‘He told me he never even saw a search team up there.’

  ‘It’s a long shot,’ a German climber said. ‘But your brother could still be alive.’

  As the conversation played out I was watching a magical transformation take place. Tashi had entered the tent in a state of despair. Even the flashing light had begun to seem like a figment of our imagination. But now there was a different spark in her eyes; the spark of possibility. There was even a bounce to her step as we left the tent.

  We went back to our shelter, filling the pan with blocks of ice so we could melt more water in the night. It was mind-blowingly cold, perhaps twenty or thirty degrees below freezing. A stubborn layer of cloud was blanketing the whole of Base Camp, reducing visibility to a matter of metres.