November 24, 2007

It was Monday morning around 10 O’ clock. My team and I had reached the last point where climbers used to rest before reaching the peak of Mount Everest. We were overjoyed and took quite a lot of pictures. We decided that we would start hiking the peak the next morning.

Suddenly from the corner of my eyes, I saw a man sitting on the edge of the ‘death corner’. It was known as such because so many people had died there. I thought that he must be having some problem. “We should rescue that man,” I told my team mates.

“Mark we can’t, we can either rescue that man or conquer the peak,” Ned protested.

“Okay! You can go ahead but I will save him,” I replied. I was 30 years old and had already conquered Mount Everest once. I knew I had to save this man or I would be feeling guilty for the rest of my life.

“Mark, whatever we do, we do it together,” Tom said. “So we will help you!”

I fastened the rope to my waist and cautiously went to the 'death corner'. I attached the hook to the man and helped him back to my camp. Later I found out that his name was Sean. He had been separated from his team-mates and had nothing with him, he was literally without oxygen, food or water. Three of his fingers were also frostbitten.

He was snow blind and hallucinating. He imagined that he was on a canoe and wanted to rip off his clothes. We had to struggle to keep him alive.

We had to take him down to the base and needed assistance. So I asked some French climbers to help. “Sorry, no speak English”, one of them said and they passed on. My team-mates and I had to take Sean down ourselves. A bit downwards we found a group of climbers who had contact with the base. We used their phone to call the base and to request for a helicopter

Later, at the base, I felt as if I had done a bit more than conquering Mount Everest. I felt glad for making the right decision. After all Mount Everest would remain there forever.