So, about 50 vertical meters below the summit, something that would have taken between 20-40 minutes to climb I made the decision to turn our team back. I learned a lot from last year, and had promised many people that I would even turn back 5 meters from the summit if something was not right. Everest has a way of luring you into the last part and then trapping you forever and I was not going to get Thomas trapped. The mountain would still be there and we had already accomplished more than many people would have believed possible. We turned around at about 0900 and I called down to ABC to let Alex and the team know about my decision.
Pemba and I short-roped Thomas from both sides down the steep snow and had to stop many times as Thomas was getting exhausted, something you see so many times with people descending, summit or not. Though Thomas had been strong the past 4 days, now he seemed to be back in the slow rhythm he had shown at lower altitude. But then he could normally go on at a slow pace for a long time, so as long as he kept moving regularly, I could see him getting down to a good altitude without too much problems. We had already agreed beforehand, that with or without summit, when we would go down, we would go down at least to 7700m, but preferably lower, even if it meant walking at night.
But it was still early in the day and though we were descending slow, we were going steady. Thomas could step down the 3rd step by just following my directions, at the bottom we stopped for a rest and some water. I walked ahead to the 2nd step to decide on the best way to help Thomas down, now we could see the passage in clear daylight. Pemba and Pasang were leading Thomas slowly towards the treacherous precipice, while behind us we could see Lincoln and his Sherpas slowly but surely make their way down the snow triangle.
Though it is mostly mental, one of the hardest parts of descending the 2nd step is getting back onto the ladder. When climbing up, you simply grab a bunch of old ropes, step on some crumbly rock and exit the rock, but the other way around is much, much harder. But this was exactly why I had brought a thin 30m rope. I fixed it to some anchors, tested the strength and length and abseiled down the top part of the step, so I could easily step onto the ladder from the side. As agreed, Pembe clipped Thomas in with his figure-of-8 and while I was keeping the rope tight while standing on the ladder, Thomas slowly abseiled down. The advantage of having someone at the bottom is, that even when the person abseiling gets hit by a rock, and loses grip, the bottom person can still control the speed of descent and even stop it. But Thomas came down allright on most of his own power and stepped onto the ladder above me and I brought him down and secured him to the fixed rope while Pemba organised the lowering of the heavy Sherpa-packs.
I showed Thomas which steps to make, so to avoid getting tangled in to the spaghetti of old ropes curled across the rocks. I told him which ropes to use while stepping down and which rope to take to do the last abseil to the bottom of the step. Pemba helped him with the abseil while I went a few meters ahead to secure his passage past a short but nasty section: there is a small rock that is overhanging over the narrow track, so that you must lean over the abyss and work your body around to stay balanced and not fall down there. Unfortunately the fixed rope is not that fixed at all at that spot, at least, it is not tight, so holding on to the rope does not help. Especially when carrying a camera or anything on the front of your pack will get you off-balance.
So I -after having trouble to pass myself, I had to take my gloves off to get enough grip on the rocks to pass- went ahead and stopped right after the rock, holding the rope tight so Thomas could just follow it without losing his balance. We had been going for 3 hours since turning around and I was happy that we had finished the most dangerous and tricky sections by now as he just came abseiling down the bottom part of the step. Pemba helped him all the way, but could not prevent that Thomas got stuck in the ropes at the bottom with his crampons. Thomas seemed to panic and would not hold still, so Pemba had to cut the old ropes loose. When Thomas finally stopped agitating and seemed to relax, I asked Pemba to check his oxygen as to my calculations it should have nearly been finished by now. Pemba agreed and said that only 10 bar was left, enough for 15 minutes only. Thomas was standing on a good spot, so I told him that Pemba would replace his bottle now and that he should not move.
But just after Pemba took the bottle out of Thomas' bag, Thomas - standing about 4 meters away- looked at me in utter panic and after a few moments said right to my face: 'I am dying'.
Before I could answer or say anything he closed his eyes and collapsed on the spot and started sliding downwards. As he was already attached to the rope I was holding tight for him, he slid towards me, but also towards the abyss. I managed to grab his down suit, but could not prevent his 90+ kilos from sliding downwards as I was barely in balance on the slope myself. I asked Pemba to help, but he looked at me and said: 'Thomas is dead' as it had been a well established fact... I slowly released the tension on the rope, so I could leave my spot and slowly worked my way to the place where Thomas had come to a stop, a few meters down from the track, on a steep slippery slope. I contacted Alex on the radio and he asked if I could give CPR (heart massage), but Thomas was upside down in 2 ways and though I tried I could not get him upright, as I was almost sliding down the face myself and had no hold or grip and was only attached to the same rope. Meanwhile I could see his face was in a patch of snow, so even if he was still alive -which I doubted at that moment- he could not breathe. Scott Woolums, the lead guide from the DXCP team came towards me and offered his help (thanks again, Scott, you are great). Together we fixed a mini-rig to Thomas' pack and together we could pull him upright, while I moved his feet down, so we could see and touch his ash-grey face.
Just this action took us many minutes and we both had to stop a few times to get more oxygen, as it totally wore us out. Scott and I looked for signs of life like a pulse, breath, reaction of pupils, but could only determine that Thomas had gone, likely from the moment he collapsed, by then maybe already 10-15 minutes ago, time is moving fast up there. We both made our way up to the track where I do not know how long I just stared into empty space, trying to comprehend what just happened.. Then Alex came on the radio again and mentioned that Lincoln was not feeling well and had trouble descending. I had still 2 Sherpas with me, so I sent Pemba - who was the strongest- up to help Lincolns' team, though at that time I did not know that it was that serious, but even if Alex had told me, it might have passed right through my current emotions. Thomas must have had a haemorrhage or stroke, maybe caused by an oncoming cerebral oedema, but the latter could never have caused such a sudden collapse, right after he got down the 2nd step mostly on his own power. Alex mentioned that photos were needed, so I climbed back down to the body that was still hanging in the rope and took some. I never have been more appalled at taking photos than at that moment.
I climbed back up and sat down next to Pasang, who seemed more tired than surprised. People on the radio told me to get down as soon as possible so I would be safe at least and as in a dream I slowly stepped down the tracks. Pasang stopped many times and when we reached the crossing where the descent to Camp 3 started I told him I would go ahead. I went straight to camp where I rested in the tent, thinking about what happened, sucking oxygen and waiting for Pasang. When he arrived, we made some water and I told him that I wanted to go down to North Col, maybe even ABC as I wanted to get off this damned mountain where so many people remain, people I shared laughter, food and water with. Pasang said he would come in a few minutes, so I went ahead and descended to camp 7700m in about one hour, while it started snowing.
I waited in camp for an hour, got my stuff I had left there and decided that I should go down asap and started the dreamlike descent towards North Col, in a snowy white-out. Every rock looked like a corpse and I heard voices mumbling strange sounds that I could not understand. I was glad when I reached North Col, where my friend Doctor Andrey Selivanov had felt me coming as he came out of our warm mess tent and welcomed me. He told me that Lincoln had died. I was shocked. 2 people I got to know well perished within hours. I could not grasp it and Andrey gave me some herbal pills to make me sleep. But I could not. I hated this mountain, for causing harm to friends and family of the people I had to leave here. For luring me into making me feel so incredibly alive while climbing, while secretly stealing the lives of others as it were a trade-off.
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More later, attached are some pictures from the climb, I assume that the file-names are self explanatory. Warm regards and all the best to the friends and family of Thomas,
Harry