Читать книгу Kingdoms Of Experience - Andrew Greig - Страница 8

Sandy Allan, Advance Base Camp, Everest:

‘For some godforsaken reason we (I) front-point as good as some other people, for some reason I can jam my ice-axe in, torqued to the max, in cracks that other people have failed to, and so my body heaves exhausted over some rock or ice bulge and hence at First Ascent … And God or whatever – me, I’ll go for God – set the sun a-shining just before I got frostbite, or slowed down the winds just before we got hypothermia, or set the correct abseil position in the rock just when we needed it, or opened a little window so we could see the direction when we were totally lost. Some people call it luck, me – luck and unknown but most welcome INTERVENTION.’

Here, we’re here, I’m here, hoping that my ability and the rest of the lads’ ability and the gods will see us OK. We’re gamblers, we’ve got no cash; we have lives, we love them, that’s the stake. The reward for me is to continue this life, on this planet, driving down the roads I know and walking through the doors of my friends’ houses … and in between that, Inshallah, a summit or two.’

Mal Duff at 8000 metres on Everest’s North-east Ridge:

‘Tony crouched on a rock 40 yards away, a small spark of life where none should exist. The spindrift swirled and battered, whirling over the ridge, pluming up 200 feet before hurling itself upon us … Reaching the lee of the rock and contacting Tony, another human in this madness, becomes all-important. A shattering pain suddenly erupts in my lower chest – a muscle rip in my diaphragm, can’t inflate my lungs! A moment of panic subdued by years of training. No matter what, I must try, try to live, to descend or even to die but I must try … I must try because this is the big one, the master problem that perhaps I’ve been seeking for years, unwittingly …’