The Climber (Novel)
Other Name: 攀登者
Genre: novel, history
Author: Alai
Year: 2019
Chapter: N/A
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Introduction:
In the last century, in the 1960s, there was such a pair of people and horses, carrying tools to climb the 8,844.43 kilometers of Mount Everest. In that era, few people could climb that high mountain, and it was still Under such difficult conditions, this is something that people can’t even think about, but it is them. Overcoming many difficulties, finally boarded the tall mountain.
Free Reading Highlights:
May 1960.
Four o’clock in the morning. The wind subsided for a while. The light is dim.
The three men fumbled along the ridge. The dim stars lit the faint ground.
The first two people were caught by the last person on the knotted rope.
The man at the end of the line bent over and gasped heavily.
Wang Wuzhou, who was at the front, took off his oxygen mask and asked Dorje Gompo behind him: “Why aren’t you leaving?”
Dorje Kampot waved his ice axe: “Qu Songlin is resting.”
“Hurry up.”
“He got frostbite in his feet.”
Wang Wuzhou said stubbornly: “Hurry up.”
Gombra tied the rope, Qu Songlin, who was bent over and gasped, had a hoarse voice: “I can’t find my feet. How far is it!”
Wang Wuzhou said: “Just hold on, it’s been more than four hours from the second step, and it should be almost there.”
“Then I will prepare the camera.”
Dorje Kampot: “It’s so dark, people can’t see it, can machines see it?”
Qu Songlin still took out the camera from his backpack and put it on again. Such a simple action took several minutes. The two people in front shivered with cold. Qu finally took another step. He finally stood with the two people in front.
Wang Wuzhou shook the knot of the rope and took another step. Dorje Kampot followed closely. He must follow very closely, his eyes are blinded by snow and he can’t see the way. He must let himself hear Wang Wuzhou’s footsteps and heavy breathing.
Qu Songlin stopped and turned on the camera. There was a blur in front of the camera. A shadowy snow slope, two vague figures struggling to move forward. Qu put down the ice axe while controlling the camera, which made his body lose its support. When he started again, he staggered and fell to the ground. With an exclamation, he quickly slid down the ice slope.
When Wang Wuzhou heard this exclamation, he subconsciously plunged the ice axe into the ice and snow in front of him, and threw his entire body on.
Qu continued to slide, and the straight knotted rope suddenly stopped, and Wang’s ice axe was almost pulled out.
Dorje Kampot was also pulled down by the rope. When he fell, he fought hard on Wang Wuzhou, and the weight of the two people caused the loose ice axe to be inserted back into the ground.
Qu held the camera tightly with one hand, and hung his head down on the edge of the cliff.
A shout came from above: “Hold on to the rope, don’t let go!”
Qu said hoarsely: “Pull the camera up and leave me alone!”
“No, old song, hold on!”
“I can’t do it. You two must go up!”
There was no response from the above, and it seemed to default to his decision.
But the knotted rope was tightly stretched, and one hand was bent to grasp the camera, and the other hand tried to untie the knotted rope tied to his waist, but he couldn’t untie it. Moreover, if the knot is untied, the camera will fall into the deep valley with him.
“Qu Songlin! Qu Songlin!” Another shout came from above.
Qu’s voice was crying: “You can’t die if you want! You guys pull it.”
He turned sideways, kicked the ice with crampons on his feet, found a support point, and straightened his upside-down body. He breathed a sigh of relief: “Well, you guys pull it.”
However, no matter how hard it is, the rope won’t move. Qu Songlin also couldn’t feel a little rising power.
Wang Wuzhou asked Dorje Gompo to stabilize the ice cone and follow the rope to fumble down the ice slope. It turned out that the protective rope was deeply embedded in a crack in the rock and jammed tightly. Qu’s headlight shone, and Wang tried to lift the rope out of the rock crack, but it didn’t work.
Qu closed his eyes in despair.
A rope hung from above and swayed in front of Qu Songlin.
Qu Songlin tried to tie up the camera, but he couldn’t use one hand, but he couldn’t free both hands when he was hanging in the air.
Wang: “Old song, grab the rope!”
“What about the camera?”
The king was silent.
“You quickly think of a way!”
Wang: “Is man important or machine important?!”
With all his strength, Qu kicked another fulcrum on the steep ice surface with his feet, and supported his body as much as possible. Finally approached the king. He pushed the camera to Wang’s hand, but Wang refused. The king passed the rope to his hand.
Qu said: “The captain said that the camera is life… We have to use the camera to prove that the Chinese have reached the summit.”
Wang: “No one, how can I reach the summit? Lao Qu, more than a dozen people rushed to the summit, dead dead, wounded, and there are only three of us left at the moment. I’m sorry if I won’t go up!”
“For this machine, a comrade has been sacrificed!”
Wang: “One more person, one more hope of reaching the top. I am the acting captain, and I order you to throw away the machine!”
Qu loosened his hand, freed his hand to grab the rope, and the camera slipped from his hand and fell into the deep valley. The machine fell and collided with the mountain wall, making a huge echo.
“Qu Songlin! Qu Songlin!”
The voice below the song is faint: “The camera fell.”
When he was out of danger, all three of them fell on the ridge. There was nothing but a heavy breath.
Wang Wuzhou stood up, fumbled and checked the rope around Qu Songlin’s waist, and moved on with the ice axe in his hand.
It was a difficult climb, and they were just moving their feet mechanically, blurred and unresponsive.
Finally, Wang stomped on air, and the uphill road disappeared from under his feet. He fell and fell on the other side of the mountain.
“Downhill? Why did it go downhill?”
Wang Wuzhou asked lying on the ground.
Dorje Kampot and Qu Songlin also climbed to the top. That is a two-meter square icy ground. The two knelt on the ground, reaching out and groping around. Indeed, every side is downhill, and there is nowhere to go up.
The two men pulled Wang Wuzhou, who had fallen on the other side of the summit, back to the summit.
They all pulled down their oxygen masks.
“Really coming up?”
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