_ Jan 1, 2012

Annapurna100 Race

What a great way to start a new year!

The previous night was New Year’s eve and there were celebration parties all over the town. The streets were completely walking only and performance stages were everywhere. There was a very loud party at our hotel also. Since I figured it would too noisy to sleep well anyway, I hang out a little bit late see the local performance.

After just a few hours’ rest, I got up 4am for the 5:30am race. Dressed, packed, dropped off the clothes bag to be taken to the finish line, and I’m out there for breakfast by 4:40am. After one bowl of oatmeal, I reminded myself that it’s too close to the race to take in any solid-form food, so I just sit there drinking juice. It’s already 5am, and to my surprise, my teammates still haven’t shown up for breakfast.  I went to bathroom for the last time to clear as much things out of my system as possible. 

5:30am, the race started on time, just a few minutes after I connected our cameraman with Maji, the driver who would take him to some spots for photo shooting; and helped my super laid-back teammates who just got out of hotel room 10 minutes ago with some final details. (note: photo by LI Yang)

I’m not a fast runner so I always prefer to start near the back of the pack. I would rather catch up with people during the race than be passed by one after another. People tend to be too excited at beginning that they would run too fast at begging and burn out fast.

Not too many steps in to the race, I noticed, a few steps in front me, one of my teammates already started to slow down. She looked a bit tired already and does not speak any English, so I worried she may get lost if she was left alone in the dark. So I took her hand and ran with her.  Ngima, my Nepali friend who was running the race with me, also kindly stopped to walk behind us.  We stopped a few times to help her adjust layers or catch up her breath. More people passed us. First time doing such a long trail race, I’m not so concerned with the final time because I think finishing is good enough. Above all, safety first. I was planning to run with her until day break so I would not need to worry about her getting lost by herself in the dark.

The first 10K of the race was all on a gentle rolling uphill road that leads out of the urban area. I was surprised that many busses were out already at this hour. While their headlights helped us finding our steps, the dust and smell of gas swept by constantly made the beginning of the race really unpleasant. Not to say I come here for trail running not for road running.  A tractor passed by and suddenly burst out dark exhaust from its pipe when it’s next to me and covered my face with disgusting surprise. The driver kept on turning his head saying sorry as they noticed what happened.

Not sure how long we ran and walked together, maybe half an hour or more. There were only very few headlights running behind us. People of the city were getting up. Restaurants by roadside turned on their lights or lit up candles. Many people came out to wait for the bus on the street. Occasionally, a few dogs ran out of dark and startled us.

We are already near the outskirts of the urban area. My existence though provided some sense of safety and comfort for her, but was not helping her pace. Maybe leave her walking at her own pace would be better now since there were many people out around already. So I bid her best wishes and picked up my pace.

The road ahead was rolling uphill. I kept a gentle pace on uphill part and sped up when going downhill. Ngima were experiencing some stomach problem and stopped by the restroom at each gas station along the way.

After about  1:40 into the race, we arrived at the first check point Hyangja at 12.5K. I was a little bit disappointed at how long it took me to finish the first section. This must have been the slowest 12.5K I have ever run! But to my comfort, this is the start point of a steep up hill. A lot of people were moving slowly or stopping to rest on the hill.

I was planning to take a break here and take some food and drink. This is a long race, it’s important to eat and drink along the way to keep energy level high consistently. There were a few big bottles of water on the table but no cups. They were serving noodle soup. Looking at the few empty bowls and spoons, I doubted if any of the bowls and spoons were cleaned before they were served to the next person. So after a few seconds of tempting to take the soup, I picked up a couple cookies and took a few sips from the water I carried myself.

The hill was only maybe 50-80m high. We cut straight up to gain the hill in just a few minutes and instantly passed probably 15-20 people.  Once on top of the hill, the trail became a gentle rolling one. The view was now quite open with snow mountains in the far background.  Today was a bit cloudy and we couldn’t see too far. I was happy that I don’t need to bother with sun blocks.  I walked the uphill part and ran the downhill part. A Nepali girl and I kept passing each other but we were always within a couple hundred yards with each other.

Around maybe 15-20K range, after some up and down hills along the gravel trails, there was a sign for “Dhumpus”, the next checkpoint, pointed to a very narrow side trail downhill. I followed the turn without suspicion. Later I learned that the sign was knocked off by someone and placed in the wrong place.

After following the small trail downhill for a while, we came to a junction where there’s a narrow trail to the left and a stairway continuing downhill. Two runners who looked quite strong came up from the stairway and said “not this way”. We thanked them and followed the trail to the left.

The trail got narrower and narrower, then led us into the crops field. We held on our belief to continue along the trail. The trail was reduced to just enough to fit one foot if you still want to call it a trail. Four of us spread in the field following the same direction. I commented “this must be the wildest trail race!” We all grew suspicious as we were clearly headed into wilder fields and can’t see any other runners in front of us.

Eventually, we arrived at a small village and asked directions from local kids. They pointed almost to the sky – up there! We immediately began a wildest hill climb through bushes and mud until we found a stairway that lead up the hill. The burst of energy expense in fighting for the uphill footing in mud made me feel temporarily exhausted.  After finally getting back on the correct trail, I walked quite a while to catch up my breath.  I found a few other runners still on the trail. At least I’m still not the last one after this wild saga.

By the time I arrived at Dhumpus, the 23.5K check point, it’s already nearly 9:30am, 4 hours into the race.  I had hoped for getting here in 3 hours so I could possibly arrive at 40K point before 6 hours.  Well, things don’t always go as you wished. I’d better relax and enjoy the race instead of worrying about the timing.

There’s not much desirable eat or drink at the table. My leg started cramping at this point, so I spent some time stretching. The sign of cramps told me I need to replenish electrolytes, not just drinking water. Because there was some light rain, I may not feel I was sweating so much, but it’s important to replenish electrolytes during long race. We bought a juice at the village shop and continued.

Having been lost once, I became more cautious. But there are just numerous trail branches that either have no signs or the sign can be ambiguous. Sometimes I wait till I could ask someone, sometimes just pick one following my gut.  Leading out of Dhumpus, the trail winded through beautiful forests.  It started to rain harder. But with the steaming heat radiated from my vigorous movement, I kept on going with just T-shirt layer.

Trails are mostly on rock steps now. It’s nice to walk on when the trail is flat, but it’s brutal on knees when going down steep hills. Though I would normally use hiking poles while hiking, I found it faster to go without poles for the race purpose. A pair of runners ran past me while I was slowly moving down stair steps and disappeared. I enviously asked, “Why can you move so fast downhill?” “Practice! We ran in Nepal for a long time.” Going downhill is my weakest link in climbing. I need to plan for a dedicated training!

My going down stairs was slow that Ngima always sat on top of hill rest and chat with local people while watching me slowly moving down. When I was almost near the bottom, he would fly down in a just few seconds to catch up with me. Some people were cheering at the bottom of the stairs, and I thought that’s the 37.5K check point. But it turned out to be just a group of tourists. I realized I’m falling way behind my planned schedule by now.

By the time I arrived at the real 37.5K checkpoint at Landruk, it’s already 6 hours into the race. Here I enjoyed my favorite milk tea and some hot potatoes. I tried to check the time of my teammates, but couldn’t recall exactly their numbers and the list they have here was the old version with the messed up registration number.

From here on would be a 300m steep drop followed by a 800m steep climb to arrive at 40K checkpoint. Knowing I would go slow on downhill, Ngima decided to take a longer break and signaled me to go first. As usual, a couple Nepali girls passed me on the downhill and I could only lag behind enviously. I really hate the endless downstairs that I lost most of my time there. I could only hope to catch up when we started going uphill.

After crossing a long draw bridge, we started the steep uphill immediately. The higher I climbed, the more impressive the view was. A couple hundred meters into the uphill section, the Nepali girls stopped to rest and I just kept pressing on and gained close to another western guy that I have never met on the trail before. He must have been far ahead of me before last checkpoint.

Over-trained for this race by climbing a 5800m peak just less than a week ago, I was complaining of sore legs when just climbing to the third floor in hotel two days ago. Looks like I just recovered in time before 5:30am today since I felt totally fine just one step after another on this endless stair climbing. I actually really enjoyed the climbing much better than the downhill or the flat part.

Seeing Ngima lean on the hiking poles to pretend to be tired, I joked with him, “How do you like this race?” “It’s difficult, the altitude too low”. Ngima is a high mountain Sherpa. When we climbed little hills near cities (in lower altitude), he would complain “too hot!”

40K checkpoint was well stuffed with noodle soups, potatoes and bananas. It’s time for a well deserved break! I had three bowls of noodle soup and four steamed potatoes. I had thought about maybe trying the 70K if I could get here with 6 hours, but now is already 2pm, 7.5 hours into the race. I calculated that if I do 70K, I would have to run in the dark for a couple hours. I had done enough hours in dark in my climbing and knew it would be miserable. So I stuck to my plan for 50K. Later as I learned of the experience of those runners who was still running after dark, I felt lucky with my decision.

From 40K on is all gentle downhill. It became more foggy later in the day and valley looked more beautiful. A lot of backpackers or homecoming villagers came from the other direction. Some villages are decorated with colorful flowers and there are a lot of orange trees full of enticing fruits. There were not many runners in view and I really liked the peaceful scenery. We stopped at a village to enjoy fresh-picked oranges. Now look back, I regretted that I probably have taken it too easy for the final 10K.

As we were near the finish point, I suddenly saw a familiar figure moving swiftly out of a teahouse by the roadside. Our cameraman LI Yang! He has been here waiting for hours!

As we run together towards finish line, two Nepali young men in shorts and jump shirt sprint side by side passed me. Wow, the first two 100K runners look strong and fresh as if they were just finishing 100m!

The finish line was confusing even in day light! Not to say those who finished in dark. There was no welcoming sign visible from the trail. Even with so many people cheering from the tea house upstairs, I stood there for a few seconds, confused about which way to go!

I was surprised to learn that none of my other three teammates came back yet. Our cameraman went out in the dark to wait for them again. I really admire his professionalism and patience! But as the dark fell and hours passed, I began to grow restless. We went out to look for the cameraman, but only found his bag at that teahouse. I was very concerned that he could get lost in the dark and requested search.

7:30pm, still none of teammates coming back. But I heard a jeep went up the hill to take care of the cameraman, though I couldn’t confirm if they have got him or not. I also requested the organizer to call the last few checkpoints to see where my other teammates are.  Both YUN and XING passed Goreshep checkpoint before dark. They assured me the way between Goreshep and here should be easy to follow and no branches. We should expect both of them between 8:30 and 9pm.

8pm, finally Piaopiao and cameraman both came back! Piaopiao was all wet and shivering. Amazing job to hold on for the whole race, especially later in the dark rain! We immediately helped her finding her dry clothes and changed.

9pm, still no signs of YUN and XING. But there’s no further checkpoints beyond Gorenpani  that the organizer can call up for their trace. They comfort me that they could be here any time.

9:20pm, XING came in angrily – she ran an extra 8k because there was no sign and she could see the finish point in dark.

10:30pm, YUN is well over due, XING and Piaopiao are tired and went to sleep.

I became more anxious and kept on asking organizers any updates? They said that 6 runners are running together, 5K away. I was hoping YUN would show up soon.

11pm, A few runners came back, but no YUN

Almost 12 midnight when finally YUN came back. In contrast to Piaopiao and XING’s near-cry exhaust state, I was happy to find YUN came in relaxed and in positive mood! After dark, a bunch of them including some local runners stuck together. So when the local runners took a tea break, all would have to wait. Someone even loaned him a down jacket. Otherwise he would have been miserably cold!

As YUN is finally sitting down enjoying Dal Baht, cameraman also came back. He missed YUN because YUN came in through a backdoor!

I’m so glad everyone came back safely!

 

 

 

 

Sept 29th, 2011

It’s a bright sunshine day again, but it’s raining inside my heart because it’s the day that I would have to say good bye to ShishaPangma.

Shared the last spicy noodle breakfast with my dear Sherpa friends. Ngima kept on adding yak meat and omelet to my bowl while he himself would only take the noodle part, “So you won’t be hungry on the way.” My dear Sherpa friends, they are the world’s most genuine happy workers! You can hear their happy tones no matter when they were hauling the water from the stream or when they were washing the dishes. They would find boundless fun in the simplest jobs. They would dance their way into the dining tent just to clean the table and they would pick up shovel with a song if you ask them to go clean the toilet. But this morning, they were quiet.

Finally bid the final goodbye after having been rushed several times by everyone because it’s already after 12 noon (we didn’t get up until sun warms up the camp site, so by the time we had breakfast, it’s 11am already) and it’s a long way out. No need to say a word, our hearts were connected. I almost stumbled my way out of camp trying to keep my balance while holding off my urge to cry. I dared not turning my head or slowing down until I was high up on the hill that I knew I can hide my tear behind the hill. I was afraid of seeing anyone looking into my direction. I was even afraid at the sight of the camp site.

Until it’s far enough and high up on the hill, I knew it’s safe to stop now and looked back. Our base camp tents were hidden behind the hill. Not able to see it actually helped. ShishaPangma was standing there clear of clouds in the morning sun.

Turns after turns, even music couldn’t take my mind off much. It has been almost exactly one month since I walked this path into the mountain. Now, the grassland all turned into patches of red or orange ones, like a miniature of the colorful New England forests in fall.

Until it was near sun set time, Nyalam was in sight again. I finally couldn’t hold back my tears. Oh, ShishaPangma, I so much didn’t want to leave! Don’t know when I will be back again! With so much left behind, I so much don’t want to leave! Oh baby, I hope to see you again one day!

The right decision is often the hardest. Life must go on!

9月29日

再见，希夏邦马

又是一个艳阳天，然而我的心里在下着雨，因为我将不得不告别希夏邦马了。

最后一顿早餐，和我亲爱的夏尔巴朋友们一起分享辣面条（这是他们的传统早餐）。尼玛不停地往我的碗里加牛肉和煎鸡蛋，而他自己却不舍得吃，“这样你路上就不会饿了。”我亲爱的夏尔巴朋友，他们是世界上最纯挚的快乐而勤劳的人们！不管是去挑水还是在洗碗，你都能听到他们愉快的歌声。再简单无聊的工作，在他们眼里都是无尽开心的享受。他们会一路跳着舞跑进来擦桌子；哪怕你是叫他们去清理茅厕，他们也是唱着歌拎起铁锹去的。然而今天早上，他们都很沉默。

因为快中午12点了（我们总是太阳温暖了营地后才起床，吃早饭时就已经11点了），下山的路还很长，在大家反复催了我若干遍后，我才终于完成了最后的告别。那么默默的，语言是多余的。我几乎踉跄着出了营地，一边努力遏制住要哭的冲动，一边勉强保持着平衡。我一直不敢回头，一直不敢放慢脚步。我害怕看见谁目送的眼神，我甚至害怕看见营地，那留下了多少回忆的地方。

直到走出了很远，到了山坡的高处，知道不用再担心别人看见我的眼泪，我才小心地停下来回头张望。山包包挡住了营地，倒算帮了我忙。希夏邦马站在旭日下，不挂一朵云彩。

一道山谷一道山谷地渐行渐远，然而即使音乐也无法排解我的思绪。几乎是整整一个月前，我走在这条小路上进山。如今，无边的草地变成了一块块的红红黄黄的彩色地毯，绚烂的秋色只增加我的思恋。

太阳快要落山了，聂拉木又出现在眼前。我再也忍不住泪水。希夏邦马，我是多么不情愿离开！不知何时能再回来！希夏邦马一个月，留下多少欢笑与泪水。亲爱的，我盼望重逢之日！

正确的决策往往是最难最痛苦的。生命只有继续向前！

8am, Sept 26th, 2011

Like an alarm clock, I woke up at 8am. Sun should have risen by this time, but it was still dark outside because of the heavy snow. I had been lying in sleeping bag since 7pm yesterday, but it did not make any sense to start moving under this condition. I simply couldn’t see anything anyway.

9月26日，早8点

我像闹钟一样准时8点醒了过来。太阳应该出来了，但雪下得太大了，外面还是一片漆黑。我从昨晚7点就一直躺在睡袋里，但这样的条件下就开路也不是好主意。什么都看不见呀！

 

10am, Sept 26th, 2011


9:51 woke up again. Bright. Still snowing hard. I could feel the pressure of snow around me that I hardly can move. I already slid off my pad from bottom, but who cares. I’m still warm and comfortable. I nudged my body, knowing I was literally buried in snow. I had to push hard in order to move left and right a little bit to make room so that I could get myself out.

No visibility at all. I started to get used to this same condition every day. I didn’t feel like to move, but I’d better get going early, so when the visibility improves, I could be at a spot that I can see something to orient myself. I couldn’t wait here for my death.

I didn’t like packing up in snow to get things just wetter. But this wouldn’t be the worst thing. Tough up and get up! This was the heaviest snow we have had on this mountain. My green plastic bag, buried in the snow, looked like a little coffin!

My throat does not feel that burning dryness this morning. The first day without water felt so painful, now the second day did not even feel dehydrated. I didn’t feel hungry either, but I needed to be strong enough to get over this hill today. So I had a sip of water and a granola bar before setting off.

I headed down the valley. Using hiking poles to poke ahead in the deep snow first, I made every step carefully to make sure that I wouldn’t step into crevice between rocks. As long as I don’t get sick or injured, I’m confident that I can hold off many days.

I didn’t want to lose elevation too much. As the valley gradually sloped down, I moved towards the hill after I have passed that very rocky face part. The place I slept at was 5400m. So I didn’t need to climb up the hill, just not to lose the elevation too much.

Whenever the sound of avalanche came from the mountain across the glacier river, I would alarmingly look up the hill to assess if my location was safe. It’s a low angle slope full of rocks. It should be safe enough. With the overly frequent sound of avalanche, I was checking the slope I was on almost every few steps. Don’t get sick, don’t get injured, and the last thing I want would be getting into an avalanche. The story of “127 hours” and “Into the wild” kept on coming to my mind.

The going would be forever, I told myself. This is a big hill. I kind of regretted not trying it yesterday when there was not so much snow cover on this hill (I guess snow melts fast on this hill as the previous day’s accumulation didn’t hold long), but I knew I was too tired yesterday to walk this distance. Well, patience! One valley a day, I would get there. I was actually much more energetic and felt stronger than yesterday.

I kept walking carefully, maintaining elevation, preparing for a very long day.

9月26日，早10点

9:51 又醒过来了。这回天亮了，但雪还是很大。周围的雪把我压得紧紧的，几乎动不了。我早就整个滑到防潮垫之外去了，但我不在乎，反正我还是暖暖和和、舒舒服服的。我扭动一下身体，发现我是实实在在被雪活埋了！我只好使劲左右推来推去，给自己开辟出点空间好脱身出来。

外面能见度还是几乎为0。我开始习惯于每天都是这个样子，但很不情愿在这样的条件下开路。不过还是早点行动起来吧，但愿等能见度好点的时候，我已经在一个方便辨别方位的地方了。总不能在这里等死呀。

在大雪中收睡袋装包，只能把装备搞得更湿乎乎的。但这算不上最糟糕的。坚强点，行动起来吧！这雪可真是我们到山上后最大的了！我的绿垃圾袋，几乎完全被雪埋住了，简直就成了一个小棺材！

我的喉咙不像昨天那么干的冒火。有意思，第一天不喝水那么痛苦，第二天反而不觉得渴了。我也不觉得饿。但是今天计划翻过那座山，会很需要体力。于是我还是喝了一小口水，吃了一条granola bar.

我开始沿着山谷向下走。因为雪太深了，我先用登山杖在前面探路，然后才小心地迈步，免得踏到岩石间的空洞里。我相信，只要不生病不受伤，我可以坚持很多天。

我不要过多地降低海拔。所以，随着山谷越来越低，我等过了那片峭壁就逐渐向山坡靠拢。我昨天睡觉的地方是5400米，所以我不需要向上爬升，只要不要降得太多就可以了。

对面的山上不时传来雪崩的声音，每次我都会警觉地望望我上方的山坡。这个坡角度较低，还有很多岩石，估计还是比较安全的。随着频繁的雪崩声音，我几乎是每走几步就抬头查看一下我所在的山坡。别生病，别受伤，还有就是千万别被卷进雪崩。我不时地想到127小时和 Into the Wild 的故事。

这么走估计得走一辈子！这个山坡好大呀。我有点后悔昨天没咬牙接着走，那时积雪要少得多，但我知道以我当时的体力也许走不了多远。还是耐心点吧。一点翻过一座山，一定会找到的。而且，我感觉今天比昨天有劲多了。也许是因为昨晚睡了15个小时吧！

我继续小心地走着，保持着海拔高度。这将是个漫长的一天！

 

12pm, Sept 26th, 2011

Suddenly, I was pretty sure, I heard human’s sound! They were shouting for something, must be for me! I shouted back. After back and forth a couple times, it was clear that we were here for each other!

Through the heavy snow, it took me a while before I could see a few black dots far away down in the valley. They were moving very slowly that it was hard to tell them apart from rocks. But given a little time, they were clearly moving! There seemed to be three of them! Then more! Finally, we fully established voice and visual connection. I almost wanted to cry when I realized that was the whole team here! But then joy overtook me. It’s over! Finally!

We have never wanted to hear each other’s voice so much! A lot of emotional hugs. Geordie held my face as if looking at his own baby. Sorry, I have made everyone worry so much! Thank you all for coming out for me!

9月26日，中午12点

突然，我听到人的声音！他们在喊着什么，一定是找我的！我大声回应。来回几个回合后，我们都确认对方听到了。

好半天我终于在山谷低处辨别出几个小黑点，不仔细看，和石头差不多。但当他们开始慢慢移动，我可以确认那是人！好像有三个，后面还有！终于，我们通过来回呼喊，确认都看到对方了。是全队都出动来找我了！我激动得差点哭出来，但还是破涕为笑。这一切终于可以结束了！

我们从来没有这么渴望听到彼此的声音！大家都激动地拥抱。Geordie 捧住我的脸，像看着自己的小孩似的。对不起，让大家为我担心了！谢谢你们都辛苦出来找我！

The Search

The team had been searching between base camp and ABC all day yesterday. Because of technical issues, they initially interpreted my location as next to base camp on the way to ABC. After I pressed S.O.S. button yesterday afternoon, my brother and the foundation alerted Chinese Mountaineering Association in Beijing and Tibet. While I retreated into my sleeping bag early last night, so many people on the mountain and outside the mountain had a restless night.

Thanks to Eben who never gave up trying and finally solved the technical issue this morning. Had Eben not correctly pointed team to this valley, I probably would take another couple days before I could find my way back under this condition though it only took the team 2 hours to reach me from base camp. Having to break the trail in this deep snow on my own, it would require a whole day to cover that distance with my weak energy level. Plus, with no visibility to find the direct path, I would have to take a long detour over very difficulty terrains.

As we were speaking, two people sent by CTMA were coming up from Nyalam and the yak team would be going down from base camp to cover the ground between Nyalam and base camp. But had the team not found me with the correct GPS guidance, I probably would still miss those search teams today because I was too deep in the valley. It would be unlikely for us to see or hear each other through this non-penetrable snow (The yak team came up yesterday passed the valley I was in, but we missed each other because of the exact reason.)

I was really lucky that the team found me today. Because I left base camp dressed in very thin layers without even my down jacket and I didn’t have any camping gear with me other than a sleeping bag, the team predicted my chance of surviving beyond two nights would be very slim amid this worst and longest storm we have had. As John, who was responsible for documenting our climbing, said, he didn’t even bring the camera when they came out searching this morning because he was afraid of what they may find. Today was planned as the all-out search to cover all distance between Nyalam and ABC, and team would likely to call off the search had they not found me today.

A lot of lessons learned here but I would rather just leave it here.

I want to give my hearty thanks again to the whole team, the sherpas, the yak team, the search team sent by CTMA, CMA, CTMA, Li Kah Shing foundation, friends from Shantou Univ, filming crew and supporting crew, SnowyHorizon company, and my family, for everyone’s care and effort in the search process!

搜寻过程

大家昨天在大本营和ABC之间找了一天。但由于技术问题，一开始定位搞错了，以为我在大本营和ABC之间离营地很近的一个地方。下午我发了S.O.S.请求后，我哥哥和李嘉诚基金会分别联系了中国登协北京和西藏联络处求援。昨晚，当我早早地就躺在了睡袋里，山上山外多少人都因为我过了个不眠之夜。

幸亏有Eben不懈地努力，今天早晨终于解决了定位中的技术故障，成功地把大家指引到这个山谷来。不然我恐怕还要再找上一两天才能回到营地。虽然大家只用了2个小时就从营地到了这里，但这么深的雪，要我一人以此微弱的体力开道，恐怕至少走一天。再加上能见度这么差，我肯定要在满山的石头间绕远。

在我们正相聚时，ＣＴＭＡ派出的两个人正从聂拉木方向进山呢，而昨天上来的牦牛队也将下山与他们会合，他们共同负责在大本营和聂拉木之间搜寻。不过，如果不是解决了ＧＰＳ定位问题，我今天很可能还是会错过那支搜寻队，因为我在山谷的深处，在这样的大雪中我们很难看见或听到对方。昨天牦牛队上来时其实经过了我所在的山谷，就是因此错过的。

今天获救实在是很幸运。由于我离开大本营时穿得很单薄，连羽绒服都没带，除了睡袋也没有什么露营的装备，再加上这几天碰巧连续都是我们遇到过的最恶劣的天气，队里认为我能抗过两个晚上的概率都很小。正如我们负责登山摄影的John所说，今天早上出来搜寻连摄影机都没敢带，因为不敢想象找到的会是什么。今天的全面搜寻要是没找到我，很可能就放弃了。

这次的经验教训不是一两句能说完的，还是慢慢回味思考吧。

我想再次衷心感谢这次搜寻过程中为我费心、劳神、辛苦努力的所有朋友们– 我的登山队和支持团队，协作们，牦牛队，西藏登协的搜寻队员，中登协，西藏登协，李嘉诚基金会，汕头大学的朋友们，摄影团队的朋友们，还有很多不相识的朋友们。让家人担心是我最不希望的，知道你们是这一过程中最为我担心、着急的，很抱歉，谢谢支持！

Mystery Solved

The day (Sept 29th) I left the mountain was a clear day that I was able to see clearly the path I followed during those days. When I crossed the creek to get up the hill around 7ish on Sept 24th, I already passed base camp and was following the trail that led away from base camp. Then I continued towards lower camp on the following day. But because I was keeping a high elevation while following a descending valley, I went too deep into the valley though I was very close to the lower camp by the time I turned around. The final valley I slept on Sept 25th night was indeed next to base camp valley, but the hill in between was a huge one that it would be questionable if I could find the camp that day under such bad condition.

路线解谜

29日下山时天气特别晴朗，我得以看明白那几天我到底是怎么迷失的。24日晚7点多，当我穿过那条小溪往山上走时，就已经过了营地所在的山谷，当时沿着那条有人走过的路是离开大本营下山去的。第二天我又接着向下山的方向走了，但由于我保持了较高的海拔，所以我虽然实际上离下面的营地很近了，但一直在山谷深处。我9月25日夜所在的山谷的确就是在营地“隔壁”，但之间的山是个很大的山，在当时的情况下一天不一定能到。

Sept 24th -26th , 2011

Lost on ShishaPangma  -- Part 4

迷失在希夏邦马 (4)

4pm, Sept 25th, 2011

Frankly, having never used any high-tech gadget like this before, I had no confidence in it. Though I would hope to see magic descending from the sky, I knew I might have to rely on myself solely to find the camp and it might take several more days. I needed seriously to plan for a long battle and needed to conserve energy and resource as much as I can to last many days.

Already exhausted for the day, so I decided to call the day and get myself comfortable. I needed to get low enough to avoid lightening strike. I needed to find a nice piece of rock for tonight’s shelter. There were a lot of rocks by that rocky wall, but I don’t want to get to close to the wall just in case of avalanche or rock fall.

There is no perfect rock. So I settled to a table-sized flat one in mid of the valley. I laid out my red sleeping bag and yellow sleeping pad. It’s nice to have this hot sunshine. My sleeping bag became warm and dry instantly. I took off shoes and socks to dry them too. The sky was clear. If anyone came by, they should see my red sleeping bag in mid of the white snow land easily.

I sat there long to enjoy the warmth.

The rock wall across the glacier river looked familiar. My base camp valley must be not far, maybe after the next hill?

Looking behind me, there were glacier slopes beyond the next hill. That must be the direction of camp. But could it be much further? Mountain is huge; human is small. The perspective can mislead you easily. The glacier slopes looked close, but maybe they were very far? Sometimes I could see rock ridges behind me beyond that hill too. Could it be the rock ridge at end of our BC valley?

Looking at the façade-like rock wall, as if I was looking from BC valley. Very likely it is next valley! I was getting more convinced that BC valley couldn’t be far, and very likely it was just next one.

Why I haven’t seen any yaks today? They were supposed to reach BC today. Did they come from the valley I just went to? Why I didn’t see them? If I haven’t seen any yaks, maybe because I’m still between BC and ABC? But then why I didn’t see any human being? Maybe I am below BC? Maybe I’m not where I think I am? If I’m not between BC and ABC, nor between BC and Nylam, then where am I? Would anyone ever pass by?

9月25日下午4点

老实说，我从没用过这类所谓高科技产品，对之一点信心也没有。虽然我也盼望奇迹从天而降，但我内心知道我恐怕必须依赖自己的力量找到营地，也许要好几天。我必须认真地做打长期战的准备，必须节约现有的资源以生存很多天。

今天已经很累了，我决定早点收兵，过个舒服的夜晚。我需要到低处去，免得又受到雷电的威胁。我得找一块合适的石头替我遮风挡雨。岩壁下有很多大石头，但我担心雪崩或落石。

找不到一块完美的石头，我就在山谷低处一块桌子大小的石头那凑合了。我把红色的睡袋和黄色的防潮垫摊开。有这么温暖的阳光真好。睡袋立马被晒得又干又暖和。我把鞋子、袜子也脱下来晒。天空很晴朗。要是有人经过，一定能看见雪地当中的大红睡袋。

我就坐在那里享受温暖的阳光。

冰河那边的岩壁看着眼熟啊。营地一定离得不远！也许就在这座山那边？

望望身后，山那边有冰川覆盖的山。营地一定是在那个方向！不过，也许还很远？山是那么的宏大，人是那么的渺小。视觉的错觉会让你低估距离。虽然那些冰川看着很近，也许实际很远？我有时甚至能看见山那边的峭壁山脊，好像就是营地尽头的山脊？

看着前方像壁画一样的岩壁，仿佛我是从营地看过去的。我越来越确信营地应该在下一个山谷！

但为什么今天没见到牦牛队路过？他们应该今天到达大本营。他们是从我早上去过的那个山谷那边过来吗？为什么没见到？难道我实际还是在大本营和ABC之间？如果是那样，为什么我一天也没见到个人影呢？也许我还是判断错了我的方位？如果我既不在ABC和大本营之间，也不在大本营和聂拉木之间，我到底在哪？也许永远不会有人经过这里？

6pm, Sept 25th, 2011

Sun was going down, but it was still very warm. At one point, I heard rock dropping behind me. Someone nearby? I quickly turned around and saw nothing.

If BC is just behind the next hill, maybe it would take just a couple hours to get there. I may still have enough day light hours to get there. Shall I pack up and go? What if it’s not? Though the condition is now perfect, but with my current energy level, unlikely I can reach it before dark even if it is.

I was very tired today, just wanted to rest. Have a good night sleep and I will have more energy tomorrow. I worried about my getting weak day after day. What if I get sick? How many days can I last?

What if next valley is still not? If next valley is still not, I should be able to walk one valley a day even with my weak/slow pace. Eventually, I should find something familiar, even if that would lead to ABC. I needed to be able to last at least 5-7 days.

I thought about the story “Into the Wild”. Like Alex, I might be very close to what I was looking for. I just need to stay healthy and maintain good energy level to last long enough to reach it. Never give up!

9月25日 下午六点

太阳快下山了，但依然很暖和。有时，我听到身后有石头滚落的声音。有人？我飞速转头，一个人影也不见。

如果大本营就在这座山那边，也许只要一两个小时就可以到。我今天也许还来及在天黑前赶到。我是不是应该收拾起来赶紧去？万一不是呢？从天气条件讲，现在是去找的最佳时机，不过以我现在的体力，恐怕天黑前到不了。

我今天已经很累了，只想休息。好好睡一觉，明天会有更充沛的体力。我担心我会一天天变得越来越虚弱。万一生病怎么办？我能维持多少天？必须好好休息，留得青山在，不怕没柴烧！

万一下一个山谷还不是怎么办？如果不是，我再累也应该一天能翻过一座山。早晚会找到熟悉的地方，哪怕是回到ABC。我要做好5-7天的打算!

我想到“Into the Wild”，一个真实的荒野求生的故事。也许和主人公Alex一样，我其实离我要找的出路很近，关键是保存体力以维持足够长的时间。永远不要放弃努力！

7pm, Sept 25th, 2011

The past few hours were perfect for searching, but no signs of rescue coming. I have to seriously prepare myself for a long lonely battle. I’m too tired to walk more today. Let me just rest today and have more energy tomorrow. I am going to get over this hill tomorrow.

There was still one hour before sun set. Though sun was still high, there was not so much view to enjoy any more, just clouds rising up along the ridge. There was light wind coming by from time to time. It was getting chilly. So I decided to call it an early night. I pressed SOS button one last time and switched it off to save battery.

I got into my sleeping bag, warm and comfortable. Instead of using my backpack, I decided to use the green plastic bag that I picked up from grass in front my tent at BC when I first arrived. It is much bigger than my backpack, long enough to cover above my waistline.

There’s some light wind, so I moved my sleeping pad behind the rock, and moved my backpack next to my head to block wind. Hide my shoes under rock below my sleeping pad. The ground was not so flat. There were some rocks under my pad and the ground tilted down towards feet. But it’s good enough. The plastic bag was big enough that when I curl up, only my head section is outside. As usual, I closed the head section so I completely hid inside the sleeping bag. Soon I ended up curling towards the bottom of green bag and sliding beyond the end of the sleeping pad.

A couple times, I heard something like footsteps and sprung up to check, found nothing. Then gradually, I ignored any sounds I heard. Would there be wild animals that could hurt me? Haven’t seen one. Let me assume no then. Avalanche and rock fall was a constant throughout the day and night.

9月25日，晚7点

过去的几个小时是搜救的最佳时机，可是一个人影也没见到。我必须认真地准备独自一人打一个长期战了！今天太累了，今晚好好休息，明天精力充沛些，要翻过眼前这座山。

还有一小时太阳才落山，但云雾已经顺着山脊升起来，没有多少风景可以看了。时不时地有凉风吹过来，温度降得很快。我决定早点休息了。最后一次按下S.O.S.键，我就关上了ＳＰＯＴ以节省电池。

我钻进被晒得热烘烘的睡袋，好舒服呀。我没有像昨晚那样用背包护腿，而是改用我刚上山时在草地上拣的一个绿色的大垃圾袋，因为那个袋子要大得多，能护到腰部之上。

微微有些起风，我把防潮垫挪到石头下风处，再把背包挡在头边遮风。我把下子藏在石头下，再用防潮垫遮住。地不太平，有很多小石头，还有些倾斜，就凑合了吧。垃圾袋很大，我把身子蜷缩起来，可以只漏个头在外面。不过，不一会儿，我就出溜到袋子的底部，然后整个滑到防潮垫之外去了。

有几次，我觉得听到脚步声，就蹦起来看，什么也没有。慢慢地，我忽略了一切动静。不会有什么野生动物来伤害我吧？反正没见过，就当没有吧，安心休息。

雪崩和落石的声音日夜不绝。

11pm, Sept 25th, 2011

Some hours later, I woke up naturally. I opened up head section to check the condition outside and was showered with cold snow immediately. The whole sky was snowing!

The head section of my sleeping bag was wet. My curled up body already slid beyond the bottom of my sleeping pad. The top section of my sleeping pad was already covered in snow. Tonight’s snow is much more serious than last night’s！I sprung to action. Since the ground naturally tilted down, I moved the pad down to where I slid to and let a piece of rock block the bottom. There was a piece of rock at head part now, but it can be used as pillow, not too bad! I originally planned to line up the pad starting at the rock so I can put shoes between rock and pad for protection. Now pad has been moved down, so I put shoes flat down facing rock.

It was snowing hard. I pulled out my windproof jacket to cover up the head section. With the help of the green bag and the jacket, now I’m all sheltered.

With a piece of rock defining my feet location and a piece  for my head location, I have to lie flat on my back, with knee bent and feet pushed down at the rock while my head lied flat on the rock. If I moved or lied side way, me and whole package would slide off to snow ground.

Now my head part has the shelter of my jacket, I can leave the sleeping bag open so I could breath. I push up the sleeping bag with my bent knees to make a space for breathing.

Other than having to hold this position, everything was comfy. I didn’t wear down booties tonight, since sun dried up my socks. It’s amazing how warm my feet are.

９月２５日夜１１点

几小时之后，我自然醒来。打开睡袋查看形势，立刻被劈头盖脸地浇了一头雪。整个天都在下雪！

睡袋上半部已经湿了。我蜷缩的身体已经滑到了防潮垫之外，防潮垫上半部早已被积雪埋住了。今夜形势严峻！我赶紧起来行动。因为地面是倾斜的，我就把防潮垫向下挪到能被一块石头顶住的地方。结果，头部也在一块石头上了。也好，就拿石头当枕头吧。鞋子少了防潮垫的遮挡，我就把它们横过来藏到石头下。

雪好大呀。我把防风衣拿出来盖在头部。这样，我全身就被垃圾袋和防风衣遮住了。

由于头部和脚底各被一块石头限制住了，我不得不保持这个固定的姿势平躺着。如果稍微挪动一下或侧个身，我就会整个轱辘到雪地里去。

头上有了防风衣遮挡，我就可以把睡袋打开些，再用膝盖撑起睡袋，给自己一个呼吸的空间。

除了必须保持这个姿势，还算舒服。脚上穿着刚晒干的袜子，暖暖和和的。

2am, Sept 26th, 2011

Throughout the night, I woke up several times, often because of the cold and wet touch on my nose when the jacket was pressed against my face. I would throw away the jacket so I could see what’s going on outside. Just snow, snow, snow, cold and wet. I dusted away the snow that rushed in, and covered up again to continue my sleep. Then the jacket would gradually pressed down on my face under the pressure of snow accumulation. Then I would wake up again, dust off the snow and go back to sleep again.

The cycle repeated frequently throughout night. Every time I checked, it’s dark, cold and wet outside. Just whole sky was snowing. It avalanched frequently nearby throughout the night. It sure was snowing hard on me every night!

9月26日凌晨2点

夜里醒来很多次，几乎每次都是因为防风衣压到脸上，鼻子上凉凉的，就醒过来了。我就扯开防风衣看看外面。每次都是雪，雪，雪，又湿又冷。我掸掸进来的雪，盖上防风衣，接着睡。然后在积雪的压力下，防风衣又贴到脸上，我又醒过来，掸去积雪接着睡。

这样重复了很多次。每次外面都是黑黑的，又冷又湿，满天都在下雪。附近的雪崩声不绝于耳。这雪每夜都不放过我！

Sept 24th -26th , 2011

Lost on ShishaPangma  -- Part 3

迷失在希夏邦马 (3)

6am, Sept 25th, 2011

I first woke up around 6am. It was still completely dark, no New England early sunrise. When I opened up the head section of my sleeping bag, a chilly air rushed in along with icy snow. It had snowed again while I was sleeping. My sleeping bag must have got wet! But I had no desire to start out in dark, and I can’t see anything outside anyway. Who cares if the sleeping bag got wet at this moment! It’s more important to keep myself warm and comfortable.

9月25日，早6点

六点第一次睁眼的时候，天还是完全黑的。我把睡袋的头部开一个缝，刺骨的冷空气混着冰雪一起冲进来。原来我睡着后又下雪了。坏了，睡袋肯定都湿了！但我懒得这么黑的天就上路，外面还什么都看不见呢。这时候，睡袋湿了就湿了吧，懒得管了。 还是自己暖暖活活、舒舒服服最重要。

8am, Sept 25th, 2011

I continued to sleep until 8am as if I had a built-in alarm clock. It’s now bright outside, but the visibility was near zero. I could see nothing but the cold snow flake around me and a vague figure of snow slope not too far. It was not a pleasant time to get up yet, but I was hoping to arrive at base camp before breakfast.

It was not the best thing to pack up sleeping bag in the snow because unavoidably I would end up packing more snow along with it and making it wetter. But I was tough-minded enough to do the job.

My throat was firing dry. I had one bottle (1 litter) of water when I left base camp yesterday, and had drunk probably half on the way to ABC and while eating my packed lunch at ABC. I had a habit of conserving water consumption when the going gets tough, so I held up and didn’t drink any last night. But my throat was painful from the burning dryness. So I took a sip.

Loading up the pack, I headed up the hill to regain the altitude of around 5400m and continued towards the direction of the camp. Sometimes I could see the vague shape of the mountain down the slope, that was the rocky face that was avalanching all the time. Thanks God I didn’t go too far towards them last night. That would be like heading to death valley! I must have been further away from camp as I thought last night. Anyway, don’t think too much and keep the elevation and the direction, I would be there eventually. No way I would miss the lake if I keep the elevation.

The slope was fully covered in snow, no chance to find any trace left by any human being and no cairns in sight. I can’t associate the shape of the slope with anything in my memory. Maybe something went wrong with my memory? Maybe I had a really poor memory?

I tried hard to look for any cairns. Many rocks disguised under snow cover looked like cairns as if I have been hallucinating all the time. I knew I’m completely clear-minded. It was just my anxiety of looking for any reference. It was like beginner mountaineers fall for the trap of false summits.

I crossed some very rocky pass-ways. I remembered on the way to ABC, after descending from the short cut next to the lake, there was a rocky pass-way. That would be the last small valley before I should head up the hill around the lake. But this one did not look like that one? Then there was a smooth snow slope ahead.

Nothing looked familiar, but I couldn’t trust my memory already. The rock wall on the other side of the glacier river also began to look suspicious. They don’t look so familiar? What’s wrong with my memory? I remembered the low façade-look rock wall was facing our valley straight because I commented it so one day. I remembered seeing it already (last night). But maybe when you look close, the scale is different? I was suspicious but not confident.

Maybe next valley would be that last rocky pass-way? Maybe the snow slope ahead was that flat valley part I continued after that rocky pass-way? I must be much slower than I had hoped I was last night then. Despite getting more suspicious, I continued on the snow slope. What was on the other side of the slope?  Oh, is that a cairn at the edge of the slope?

I was getting tired already and was walking pretty slowly. I needed to take a break every few steps and wonder “how long more?” when going up the hill. When I got close to the edge, the so-imagined cairns were not cairns, and a peek over the edge shocked me. There was a scary drop over the edge! I went up the hill a little more to see more clearly of the valley. There were two or three rocky tongues dropping off to the glacier river down below. The slope after the valley was very ragged. All looked very scary.

Now I was certain that I had not been here no matter how I doubted my previous memory. It was still too cloudy and snowy (white out) to see clearly anything far. Have I passed the camp already, or I have taken a wrong turn before reaching it? How did I take a wrong turn if have not reached the camp? How did I miss the valley if I have passed? All felt unreal to me.

I was lost! I couldn’t believe it really happened! I couldn’t collect my memory enough to understand how all these happened. Where am I?

9月25日，早8点

仿佛我是个闹钟似的，再一睁眼正好8点。外面天大亮了，但能见度极低，除了包围我的雪花，只能模模糊糊地看见旁边有个雪坡。要不是希望能在开早饭前到达营地，这个条件下真不想起来。

在大雪中收睡袋真是不得已，因为难免顺便收进了很多的雪，把睡袋搞得更湿了。但我还是足够狠心地完成了任务。

喉咙干得冒火。昨天从大本营出来时只带了1升水，到ABC吃午餐时为止喝了一半。我的习惯是不到不得已，总是留一半水到最后。所以昨天下山和晚上一口水都没喝。现在喉咙干得发疼，就喝了一小口。

装好包，我向山上走到5400米处，然后向营地的方向前进。有时我可以勉强看到坡下方的情况，下面就是那片常常雪崩的峭壁。谢天谢地昨晚没往下走得太远！那简直是奔向死亡之谷呀！看来我离营地比预想的远。算了，不想那么多了，就坚持这个海拔和方向，早晚会到的。保持这么高的海拔肯定不会错过湖的。

山上新雪皑皑，别想找到一点脚印之类的痕迹，也看不见一个玛尼堆。这个山坡的形状和我记忆中的哪个都对不上号。我的记忆出问题了？还是我记性太糟？

我努力寻找玛尼堆。很多石头被积雪装扮得像个玛尼堆，仿佛我在幻视。我知道自己是清醒的，只是太急于寻找线索，就好像登山的新手容易把眼前的山包包当成顶峰。

我经过了一些堆满大石块的路径。记得去ABC时，从湖边抄近道刚下来就经过一片这样的路径。所以过完了这段就该上湖边的山坡了。可是这片好像又不太像？嗯，前面还有一个很平缓的雪坡。

怎么一切都有点陌生？我开始怀疑我的记忆。冰川河谷那边的峭壁也看着可疑，怎么显得那么陌生呢？是我记错了？记得那片像壁画似的岩壁是正对着我们的山谷的，可是好像昨天就经过了？难道是离得近时显得不一样？我开始怀疑，但不能确定。

也许下一个山谷就是我要找的那片大石块的路径？也许前面的雪坡是过了石块路后的平缓山谷区？也许我昨天走得其实比预想的慢了太多？尽管充满了疑虑，我还是继续沿着雪坡走。山坡那边是什么？好像是个玛尼堆吧？

我越来越累了，就越走越慢，每走几步就得停下来一边喘气，一边算计着“还有多远？”等我靠近山坡的边缘，那个想象出来的玛尼堆不过是块大石头，但一瞥山坡那边的情况吓了我一跳。坡那边是令人生畏的悬崖！我走到高一点的地方想看得更清楚一些。几块模样吓人的岩石像鬼的牙齿一样挂在山坡边缘，下面是几百米的悬崖。再往前的山坡上到处是乱七八糟的岩石。眼前的景象很恐怖。

我终于可以肯定地说，我从没到过这里。这时雪依然很密，能见度很低。那么我是已经走过了营地所在的山谷呢，还是在到达前拐错了弯？如果还没到，我在哪拐错弯了呢？如果已经过了，我怎么会错过呢？一切都好像在梦境中。

我完全迷失了！想不明白这一切是怎么回事，怎么发生的。我在哪里？

10:30am, Sept 25th, 2011

I was pretty sure I should not continue this direction anymore. I had not been here before. But I had no clue where I was. I need to get to a high point to orient myself. So I headed up the rocky hill above this snow slope. I was very tired already, but I must climb up this hill. Maybe that will save me; maybe that was my only chance in this low visibility.

9月25日，早10:30

我知道方向错了，我从没到过这里，也完全不知道自己在哪里。我得到高一点的地方去看看周围是什么。雪坡上方的石头山是我眼前的制高点。尽管我已经很累了，但我必须上去，也许这是我唯一的希望。

12:30PM, Sept 25th, 2011

It took me forever to finish the final few rocky steps to stand on the top of that hill. The clouds/fog opened up briefly. The rocky wall across the glacier definitely looked vicious! Definitely looked not familiar at all! But wait a second, maybe I have seen them on my way to BC from Nyalam? I could even see the three-way confluence of glacier rivers at bottom of the valley. I was pretty sure that branch should be before reaching base camp on the way from Nyalam. I became very confident that direction was definitely wrong. I must have passed base camp. But I passed it by how far? Or I had taken a completely wrong turn that I might be on the other side of the mountain?

I really need help! I pressed down HELP button on SPOT. SPOT is a fancy gadget we adopted for the first time on this trip. Pressing the HELP button would send a text message to our team’s satellite phone in base camp along with my GPS coordinate. If I was near camp, someone should be able get here within a couple hours. But would the high tech gadget really work its magic? Would our team be able to receive this message in time and figure out my location?

I wandered around the top of the hill for a while. I wanted to check out the valley to other side of the hill, but the hill top was so gently sloped that other side the edge was much further away from where I was. The visibility was so low that I wouldn’t see anything until I got to the very edge and there was no guarantee that I would see anything even if I got to the edge. It would then be a waste of my limited energy.

So I started to head down hill while trying to approach that side of the edge. More than one hour had passed; I still haven’t seen any sign of a human being.  I continued to circumvent the snow slope towards the other side. Maybe I’m just around the corner now? Maybe this is the hill before reaching base camp from Nyalam direction? Snow can change the perception of any landscape. With hope in my mind, I could almost convince myself that this was that last hill. If I would keep the elevation, maybe I would be there. I was even planning to drink all the remaining water once I can confirm this valley was the one.

9月25日，中午12:30

费了好久才终于走到山顶。云雾稍有些散开了。冰川河谷对面的峭壁看着不对劲呀？慢着，好像在从聂拉木过来去大本营的路上见过？山谷下面是三个方向的冰川河的汇聚点。我记得在（上山时）到达大本营前经过了那个汇聚点。我一定是已经走过了营地所在的山谷！过了多远了呢？或许我稀里糊涂走到山的另一边去了？

我必须求救了！于是我按下了SPOT上的HELP键。SPOT是个野外救援的电子仪器，我们也只是初次尝试。按下HELP键，SPOT就会把我的GPS方位通过短信发到我们大本营的卫星电话上。如果我离营地不是很远，他们应该一两小时之内就能找到这里。但这玩意真得那么灵吗？他们会及时收到消息、找出我的方位吗？

我想去看看另一侧的山谷是什么样的，但山顶的坡度很缓，要走很远才能到“边”上。何况能见度这么低，即使到“边”上也不一定能看见什么。岂不是白浪费我仅剩的这点体力？

于是我一边下山一边向那边靠近。一个多小时过去了，还是没见到任何人影。我继续绕着雪坡走。也许转过去就是了？雪景可以完全改变山的模样。抱着一线希望，我几乎可以说服自己这座山就是（上山时）到营地前的那座山。只要坚持一下就到了。我甚至盘算着一旦确认是这个山谷，就喝掉剩下的水。

3pm, Sept 25th, 2011

Snow stopped. Sun came out. It became hotter and hotter. I took another break and took off my layers.

It took me forever to get to the “edge” because the hill basically was round! Haven’t eat or drink much since the light lunch at ABC yesterday, I was already so tired that I was moving at crawling pace.

The visibility was improving fast as the heat evaporates the fog/clouds. The shape of valley looked promising. It had a very wide and flat mouth, and there was a stream flowing out. Maybe that’s it! But as I continued to turn around the valley, the mountain at end the valley did not look the one I was expecting! Well, don’t conclude too early, maybe it’s because of a different angle.

Not too long before I could completely see the valley. There was no lake! I was at 5400m. Maybe I am at the high plateau above base camp? I had hiked up there and this did not look like it! I was convinced this one really looked like that valley but it was not!

I was exhausted from walking and the rising heat. I didn’t think I have the energy to walk too far anymore today. Still haven’t seen any sign of help coming. Maybe the messages couldn’t reach our team in base camp?

As the last resort, I pressed down S.O.S. button on SPOT, which would send the message to emergency contacts/supports outside the mountain.

9月25日，下午3点

雪停了。太阳出来了。温度迅速升高。

自从昨天ABC的那顿午饭，我几乎一直没吃没喝什么，这时已经只有蜗牛爬的速度了。再加上这山的形状是圆圆的那种，仿佛永远也转不到“边”。

随着气温的升高，雾气渐渐散去，能见度迅速好转。这个山谷的形状看着很像，有个很宽很平缓的入口，还有一条小溪流出来。很可能就是它了！但接着向里转，似乎山谷尽头的山形不太像啊？不要太早下结论吧，也许是角度不同？

然而，不一会儿我就可以看清整个山谷了，没有湖！我现在5400米，也许我是在营地上面的那个高地上？不过我去过那个高地，也不是这样的。这个山谷长得的确很像，但不是！

走了一天，此时我已没有体力再走多少路了。一直也没见到救兵的影子。也许他们没收到求救信息？

我不得不使出了最后一招，按下了SPOT上的S.O.S.键，请求外援。

8pm, Sept 24th, 2011

I calculated that if I kept 5200m, I should naturally get into camp. I was hoping to see the lake after the next turn, the next turn … but I was disappointed again and again. Dark falls faster in the mountain. I had counted on nautical lights that would still allow you to see long after sun set. But today, as sunset came near, the fog rose in the valley and it became impossible to see through even before sun fully set.

It was disappointing that I still didn’t see the lake by dark, but I figured that if I just kept 5200m-5300m range, I would be there eventually. With enough snow on the ground, I didn’t even need headlights. I kept walking along the same elevation or higher, believing I would be there eventually.

Suddenly, lightening stroke across sky above my head. My hair would be too long to stand up, but it definitely got my blood pressure high instantly. I immediately sat down. After a few seconds, I stood up to continue my walk. Another lightening came. After a couple times, I got nervous. I didn’t want to become a charred body on this beautiful mountain though the chance of getting stricken here maybe very low. I didn’t like taking chances. Anyway, I might be just above camp right now, maybe it’s just below that edge. So as the third lightening came, I immediately ran down the hill. Before I even got the chance to check, I dropped from 5400m to 5200m within just a couple minutes.

Maybe camp was just below that edge? So I continued to walk down towards the edge. Still couldn’t see any light from camp or the reflection from the lake. The fog did not help either. On the other side, I seemed to be getting closer to the scary sound of avalanche and rock fall. I became suspicious of my location. It would be not be good idea to be close to that sound. That wouldn’t be the right direction. I began to doubt my previous judgment. Maybe I was still quite far from camp? Checking my watch, I was shocked. It’s almost below 5000m now! I need to get back up hill to continue my original direction.

As I was attempting different directions, I found clear footprints in the snow! I was excited and started to follow them. But very soon I found them suspicious. They are too small! Compare them with mine, they were from myself! So I have been walking in a circle before I realized it.

I tried to find the entry to this circle so I could retrace back up the hill, but it was not an easy job.  I couldn’t even tell easily which way would lead back up hill, the darkness and fog was very confusing. Snow covered part of the track, making it hard to trace. I used exclusion method by marking each wrong track with a combination of a number and “//” strikes. With a lot of patience and forever time, finally I found it and followed up hill to maybe near 5200m, then the trace became too hard to detect because of the new snow. So I decided to continue along 5200m line towards the direction of camp. I went maybe less than a hundred yards. It seemed that I’m heading towards an edge again and it was heading lower. Still endless darkness and fog over the edge.

I knew I was hopelessly disoriented by the darkness by now.  Still believing I must be close to the camp, I tried whistling using my whistle. After long enough, I was finally convinced that I was not that close to camp that anyone could hear me.

I must not be where I thought I was. Actually I might be closer to danger (avalanche site) than to safety. I had accept that I wouldn’t find the camp tonight anymore with this confusion of mind and disorientation. I didn’t want to be more off-tack. Maybe I’d better just stop here and give up tonight. Suffer a night to be safe. It should be easier with day light tomorrow.

9月24日，晚8点

我算计着，只要保持在5200米以上，我就可以自然到达营地。我期待着转过下一个弯儿就能看见营地边的大湖，也许下一个…我一次又一次地失望了。山里天黑得快。我本来还指望着日落后的余光呢。谁想今天太阳还没完全落下去，雾气就已弥漫了整个山谷。天虽还没全黑，却已什么也看不见了。

天黑前没能见到湖的影子令我很失望。但我依然坚信，只要坚持走在5200-5300米的线之上，早晚会到的。由于地上有不少积雪，不用头灯也能走路。我继续自信地沿着这个海拔线走。

忽然间，一道闪电划过头顶。我的头发太长不至于能竖起来，但我立刻觉得像通了电似的浑身气血上涌，第一反应就是坐到地上。镇静了一会儿，我站起来继续走。不一会儿，又一道闪电划过。几次之后，我有点担心了。5000多米的山上，没有树，我就是最高的导电体了。我可不想成为在这么美丽的山上一具烧焦的标本。尽管我知道概率不是那么高的，但不想靠侥幸。而且，我估计我目前可能就在营地的正上方。所以，当下一道闪电划过时，我立刻向山下跑去。短短几分钟就从5400米降到了5200米。

也许营地就在这个山包下面？于是我继续向下走。依然看不见营地的灯光或湖水的反光。各何况由于大雾，其实什么也看不见。然而更让我担心的是，我好像离雪崩和落石的恐怖声音越来越近。我开始怀疑，我到底在什么地方? 不管怎样，向雪崩落石区域靠近不是好事，而且是绝对错误的方向。也许我其实离营地还很远？一看表，吓了我一跳。我已降到了5000米之下！我得回到山上沿着我原来的路线走。

当我试图换方向时，突然在雪地上发现了清晰的脚印！我很兴奋，终于有伴了！顺着脚印走了一会儿，忽然觉得不对。谁的脚印也这么小？一比较，其实就是我自己的脚印！原来我刚才在原地转圈呢！

要找到这个圈圈的入口我才能找回顺原路回到山上的路线，但这可不是那么容易的。一方面，我自己已经来回走了几次不同方向搅乱了了路线；另一方面， 黑夜和大雾很让人迷惑，连辨别哪个方向是上山的都困难，再加上新雪覆盖了部分足迹。我就采用排除法，在每一个错误的分叉上划叉叉并用数字标记。耗费了极大的耐心和漫长的时间后，我终于找到了来路回到山上。然而，由于新雪覆盖了足迹，回到5200米左右就无法继续追踪。于是我就沿着5200米继续向营地的方向走。走了不到百米，我感觉山势似乎又在下坡，坡下依然是无边的黑夜和浓雾。

我在黑夜中完全迷失了方向！但我依然坚信我就在营地附近，于是我开始吹哨子。吹了很久，我不得不相信，我离营地不是那么近，那么刺耳的哨声都没人能听到。

看来，我对自己的方位判断完全错了！我不是在营地附近，相反，我离危险区域（雪崩）很近。也许我最好今夜就放弃努力，停在原地更稳妥。等天明后应该会容易得多。

12am, Mid Night, Sept 25th, 2011

I stopped at a big rock of table size. It was comfortable to sit on but not so big to act as a real shelter. With the impenetrable fog, I couldn’t see better candidate nearby anyway. It was nice to finally drop the heavy pack.

What shall I do for the night? I felt I have endless energy to last forever. Maybe I could walk around the rock all night and still be energetic tomorrow? But that would be long boring night. I sat down to rest and watched stars come in and out from clouds occasionally. Sometimes it was totally cloudy that I couldn’t see anything in the sky; sometimes, a few stars would come through that I would even wonder if that’s headlights on the mountain. I didn’t feel like to sleep yet and sat there thinking of random things. It would be really funny to find out tomorrow morning that I actually spend the miserable night just a few steps away from camp!

As I stopped moving, I began to feel the coldness getting on to me, especially my feet were feeling cold because my light hiking boots got quite wet from walking in snow so long. It would be better to keep myself warm instead of trying to warm up after getting cold. I began to dig out stuff from my pack. There were a lot of goodies from my ABC inventory. I changed into dry socks and put on down booties. Slowly, my feet began to feel comfortably warm.

9月25日，凌晨12点

我在一块桌子大小的石头旁停下来。坐在上面很舒服，但没有大到可以替我遮风挡雨的。然而在这茫茫的浓雾中，要找到一块更完美的石头绝非易事。至少终于可以把沉重的背包放下来了。

今夜我该怎么过呢？我自我感觉好像有无穷的体力。也许我就在这附近来回走上一夜明天也照样有劲？不过那该是一个多么漫长而无聊的夜？我坐下来休息，偶尔可以看到星星从云里钻出来。有时云雾完全遮住了天；有时会有几颗星星钻出来，让我怀疑是山顶上的头灯。我没有想睡觉的感觉，就坐在那里胡思乱想。哈哈，等明天早上发现我其实离营地只有几步远才可笑呢！

停下来后就慢慢地感到冷了，特别是因为在雪地里走得久了，我的轻便徒步鞋全湿了，脚感到很冷。与其冷了之后亡羊补牢，最好一开始就做好保暖工作。幸运的是我从ABC带下来不少宝贝。我换上干袜子，套上羽绒鞋套。慢慢地，脚暖和过来了。

2:30am, Sept 25th, 2011

Time passed slowly once I stopped moving around.  How many more hours till day light? You would wish day start at 5 or 6 am. But here is not New England summer. We normally don’t get up until nearly 10am here (part of the reason is Tibet use Beijing time though it’s actually 2-3 time zones away). My watch says the sunrise should be 8am. It would be long time!

The weather is still good, not too cold and almost no wind. It was cloudy and foggy but not snowing.  I finally gave up the idea of staying up for the night and decided to make myself more comfortable. I have  bivouacked in very bad winter condition before, so I was not concerned at all. I laid out the sleeping pad next to the rock. It’s very flat and smooth with the snow padding on the ground. I took out the stuff from my backpack and hid them along with my shoes under the rock. I pulled up my backpack outside my sleeping bag to provide extra shelter for my legs. They just reached above knees. I fully closed the head section so I don’t expose myself to the cold air outside at all.

At beginning, I was breathing hard for warmth. After a while, I warmed to a comfortable level and fell asleep.

9月25日，凌晨2:30

一旦停下来，时间就过得特别慢。还有多久到天亮？现在可不是夏天，早上5、6点就可以天亮。由于西藏采用北京时间，天亮时间要比北京晚2-3小时。我们在山上一般都是10点才起床。根据我的手表，天亮时间是8点。这样的夜可太漫长了！

这会儿天气还好，不是很冷，也没什么风。虽然雾依然很浓，雪倒是停了。我终于放弃了熬夜的打算，决定还是让自己过得更舒服点。我以前曾在很恶劣的气候中临时过夜过，所以对今天这样的情况倒是没什么担心的。我虽然没有帐篷，但至少有睡袋和防潮垫。石头边上的雪地还算挺平整的，我就把防潮垫铺在地上，再铺上睡袋。我把背包里的东西都倒出来，和鞋子一起藏在石头下面，免得万一再下雪被打湿。然后把空包套在睡袋外面，保护腿和脚部，因为我腿上是穿得最单薄的（腿脚是最容易被冻伤的，所以是保暖的重点保护部位）。为了保暖，我把睡袋的头部全关上了。

刚开始，我不停地深呼吸以产生热量。过了一会儿，我全身都觉得很暖和了，舒舒服服地睡着了。

As if the drama of the past few days was not enough, the final days that were supposed to be relaxing turned into a survival game.

迷失在希夏邦马 (1)

仿佛过去几天发生的事情还不够，最后的几天本来该是很轻松的，却变成了对生存能力的考验。

12pm Noon, Sept 24th, 2011

As usual, we got up after sun heat up our tents around 10:30am and slowly enjoyed our breakfast until noon. The weather was decent, light snow and hardly any wind. I was planning to leave the mountain on 26th and need to get my gear back from ABC within the next couple days.  Who knows what tomorrow would be like? I’d better go today when the weather was not too bad. Shortly after 12pm, I left base camp for ABC.

I took a long and relaxed detour around the valley instead of the ridge way we did before. I was always curious about what the mountain looks like from a different side and had been wondering what it would be like down low in the valley since looking at it all the way from high up on the ridge last time. To avoid unnecessary up and down, I kept walking along 5400m line so that it would take me to the entry of the last valley before I need to go up the high plateau that ABC was on.

9月24日，中午12点

早上照旧是等10:30左右，太阳把营帐晒热了，大家才起来。待慢慢地享用完了早餐，就是中午了。今天的天气不坏，微微地下着雪，没有风。我计划26日下山，这两天得去把留在ABC的装备取回来。谁也不能预计明天的天气，何不趁今天天气还凑合去跑一趟呢？于是，12点多，我就出发了。

我没有走上次走的山脊路，而是从山谷里绕了个远道。我总是好奇每座山从另一个角度看是什么样子的。特别是自从上次在山脊上一路观望着山谷过来，我一直很好奇山谷下面的另一番天地。为了避免多余的上上下下，我一直保持在5400米的线上走，这样就可以正好把我带到上ABC所在的高地前的最后一个山谷的入口。

5pm, Sept 24th, 2011

The detour was interesting. I got a close look at those intimidating steep walls around the valley and the frozen glacier river separating the valleys. But it definitely cost me more time that I didn’t arrive at ABC until about 4pm. It was snowing harder on the high plateau and the wind was slightly stronger. Windproof layer became necessary.

I debated about staying at ABC by myself or going down to enjoy the nice dinner with team in base camp. Since I already figured out the valley way which was easier and faster than the ridge way, I calculated that I can make it in three hours. It’s downhill anyway. The sunset time is 8pm. I should have no problem getting down before dark and catch the dinner in base camp.

After a late lunch break and sorting out my pack, I started going down at 5pm.

9月24日，下午5点

从山谷里绕道增添了不少乐趣。我可以近距离地欣赏周围那些令人生畏的绝壁和山谷间凝固的冰川河。当然，也要多花不少时间。等我优哉游哉地溜达到ABC，已是下午4点了。高地上雪下得比下面大些，风也紧些，不得不穿上防风衣。

是应该单独在ABC过夜呢，还是回大本营和大家一起享受晚餐？我既然已经搞清了山谷里的路，而且那条路比山脊的路更好走更快，我算计着三个小时应该能到，何况是一路下山。日落是8点，我觉得天黑前下山回大本营吃晚餐应该不成问题。

休息了会儿吃午餐，整理好装备，5点开始下山了。

7pm, Sept 24th, 2011

I went a little lower in the valley on the way back for flatter trail. It was more relaxing and much faster to walk in the valley bed. There were a lot of huge boulders on the trail. Sometimes the movie “127 hours” came to my mind when I passed by some intimating-looked rocks perched on the hill. Hope they don’t roll down the hill in that split second when I walked by. I even entertained my imagination by thinking of my escape plans should the unexpected happen.

Around 7ish, knowing sunset is coming soon, I knew it’s important that I leave valley bed and get back on normal trail immediately so that I could still follow in dark in case I went slower than I planned. The valley bed looked flat from high up, but actually there were a lot of little hills inside it that it was hard to see your surroundings when you were in it. I climbed up one little hill after another, crossed a creek that should be the last one before the camp, and finally, I got up a big hill looked like the last hill next to the base camp. I could even detect some trace that should have been left by someone not too long ago. But I still worried a little bit because I couldn’t see any cairns anywhere.

9月24日，下午7点

我沿着比来时更低一些的线路走，因为山谷低处的路更平整更好走，我一路走得很顺利很快。路上有很多巨石，有的斜倚在山坡上，姿态挺吓人，让我不禁想起电影”127小时”，有时甚至自娱地琢磨“万一”时该怎么办。

7点左右， 我知道太阳快要下山了， 我必须离开山谷里好走的路，回到山坡上的“正道”。这样万一天黑时我没到营地，沿着“正道”走也不必担心。虽然从山上看山谷觉得挺平的，实际上山谷里也有很多小山包，身在其中只能看到很小的世界。我翻过一座又一座小山包；穿过一条小河，像是到营地前的最后一条河；最后终于上了一座“大山”，看起来就是营地边上的那座山包。我甚至可以发现有人曾经走过的迹象。不过我还是隐隐有些担心，因为我一直没有看到一个玛尼堆。

The past few days have been the most painful few days on this trip.

As I mentioned before that the condition on Shisha this season is not ideal. The snow has not consolidated well because of the lack of thawing and consolidating cycles. Earthquake on Sept 18th may have created more risk for the rocky section of the route by dislodging some rocks.

But all these are just some lame excuses. The biggest problem is inside the team. After several days of intense and very emotional debate and evaluating all the options, the dramatic final decision was that I gave up ShishaPangma.

Many decisions in life are not easy. This is not the first time I turned around without even making a summit attempt. On Aconcagua, I turned back twice when overall condition was not in favor. Feb 2008 had been one of the most painful days in my life when I decided to give up Everest trip that originally was planned for that spring when I realized that would be the right decision despite all the effort had been put in.

Again, for ShishaPangma, I sacrificed many high priority agendas and gave it all-in effort during the past year. I have endured and was ready to endure so much just for it. But after all, I think giving up is the right decision. For such a complicated project, natural condition is only one factor. It’s more important is the harmonious internal state of everyone involved. I believe one should approach such sacred mountain with uttermost respect for everything and don’t let personal ambition take over all your heart.

9月23日

痛苦的决定

过去的这几天是此行最痛苦的几天。

我前面提到本登山季节的气候条件不很理想。由于缺乏有利于化雪、冻冰的交替冷热周期，山上的雪一直没有很好地凝聚。9月18日的地震可能松动了不少岩石，增加了路线上攀岩段的危险性。

但这些仅仅是借口而已。最大的问题出在我们团队或组织内部。经过多日激烈的讨论、权衡各种解决方法，最后我决定放弃希夏邦马。

生命中的很多决定是很难做的。这也不是我第一次在登山过程中子弹未出膛就撤兵。爬阿空加瓜时，我连续两年都因为条件不成熟而半路折返。2008年二月，我过去曾经历过的最痛苦的日子，本来曾计划那年春天去爬珠峰，而且已经付出了很大的代价，但当时极为痛苦地想清楚了放弃是最明智的选择。

如今，希夏邦马，在过去的一年里为之牺牲许多重要的事情全力以赴准备，为之忍受了而且情愿继续忍受很多痛苦。然而，我明白，放弃是此时唯一正确的决定。对于这样一个复杂的攀登项目，自然条件只是一方面的因素。更重要的是每一个参与者内心的状态要与自然和谐，即所谓天时地利人和也。我坚信，对于这样一座神圣的山，攀登者应当怀着对万事万物无比尊重的心态，内心关注的不应该只有自己的渴望。

Sept 9th, 2011

carry to intermediate camp at 5500m, still sleeping at base camp

Today, we carried our group gear (tent, climbing equipment, food supplies and cooking equipment) up to 5500m, an intermediate camp before the training climb on Pangpa Ri. Having hiked up to this altitude with students two days ago (sorry kids, the place we went to last time was only 5500m, after verified this time by GPS), today’s going was much easier than expected though each of us carried heavy load. From our new camp site, we were able to see the start of glacier at the foot of Shishapangma. Tomorrow, we are moving up with our personal gear (sleeping bag, clothes, personal climbing gear). This manner of climb is called double carry, e.g. on the first day, carry up a heavy load of gear we need up high, drop it there and come back down to sleep low; then the next day, carry the remaining gear to move to the new camp. This allows us to acclimatize better by “climb high and sleep low”.

Maybe my body does have memory, or maybe it’s because of the difference in terrain, I felt much more comfortable walking and carrying heavy load at this altitude than I felt at same altitude on Everest last year.

9月9日

今天，我们把团队需要的辎重装备，比如帐篷、攀登器材、食物及做饭用的装备等，背到了5500米的过渡营地。两天前刚和学生们到过这个海拔高度（对不起同学们，根据这次ＧＰＳ的数据，上次我们到过的冰川起点海拔实际只有5500米），所以今天虽然每人负重量都很大，却走得很轻松。我们的新营地离希夏邦马很近了，可以没有遮拦得看清令人敬畏的西南壁，冰川的开始点就在我们新营地的坡下。明天，我们将把个人需要的物资，比如睡袋、各层衣服、个人攀登器械等，背上去并驻扎到新的营地。这种登山方式叫“double carry”,直译就是“背两次”。即，第一天，把扎营、攀登需要的重装背上去，然后下来回到低的营地休息；第二天，把其余（个人）装备背上去，在新的高度安营。这样“爬得高，睡得低”会让适应海拔升高的过程变得很轻松。

也许是因为身体有记忆力，也许是因为地形的不同，这次在这个海拔上行动和负重都相比于去年在珠峰南坡同样海拔上轻松很多。

Sept 10th, 2011

moving up from base camp to intermediate camp 5500m

Morning

Wake up to the sound of ice sliding off my tent, knowing it must have snowed or ice-rained last night, but still too lazy to open up eyes. Until it’s almost 10am, time for breakfast, I finally decided to get up. From inside, can see outside of my tent covered in ice. Opening up tent, a chilly air runs in. It’s much colder than the days when we first got here. It’s cloudy outside. Checking temperature inside tent, 3 centigrade. It reminds me that we are heading into winter. But after breakfast, sun broke out from the clouds and it became clear blue sky again, warm and sunny.

Afternoon

Left after lunch to move up to 5500m intermediate camp. I think I’m strong, feeling good with such heavy load.

9月10日

从大本营搬到5500米的过度营地

早晨被帐篷表面冰块滑落的声音唤醒，知道昨夜一定是下了雪或下了冰雨，但还是懒得睁眼睛。直到10点吃早饭的时刻才不得不起来。从帐篷里面可以看到外面覆盖着一层冰。打开帐篷，一股寒气袭来，比几天前到达这里时冷多了！看看温度计，帐子里只有3度。是呀，我们是在向冬天进发呢！不过，早饭后太阳从云层冲出来，又变成了蓝天白云的明媚风光。

下午吃晚饭背上装备搬家到了5500米过度营地。自我感觉不错，虽然负担很重，却感觉很有劲。

Sept 11, 2011

5500m intermediate camp, acclimatize hike to 6000m

Wake up to find rock slippery covered with thin ice.

Hiked up to 6000m in low visibility.

Tomorrow is moon festival. Tonight’s moon is very clear and had an orange ring. The whole plateau is clear that headlight is not needed at all at mid night.

9月11日

在5500米过度营地，徒步到6000米处训练

早上起来，外面的石头上都覆盖一层薄冰，滑滑的。能见度很低。我们延山脊徒步到6000米处训练。感觉良好。

明天是中秋节。今夜的月亮好清晰，套着一圈橘黄色的晕。半夜出去不用头灯也可一览无遗。

Sept 12, 2011 Moon Festival

Move from 5500m Intermediate camp to 5700m ABC

We left too late (4pm), not knowing how far is the hike. Descending down the steep screed slope, we dropped 150m altitude from 5550 to 5400 at the base of valley. Even hardcore mountaineers started cursing, “why we climb?” Such kind of hiking is really not anyone’s favorite.

Going up hill, I started in the wrong path. It’s not a good idea to head up the hill on big boulders. Smaller boulders are safer.

As we were near the top of ridge, I saw four persons through the clouds over the ridge. Our first reaction is “no way, they must be ghosts”, as they appeared again, someone cursed “what the fuck!” It turned out that these are four Nepalese Sherpa for the 2 Korean and 2 Swiss climbers. They arrived at BC yesterday. The Sherpas just did a carry to ABC today via the valley way.

It’s really a long way after the ridge that we didn’t arrive at ABC until after 8pm. A lot of interesting plants at 5700m! It’s amazing! They are so perfect!

Cloudy night, no moon. Snow.

9月12日 中秋节

从5500米过度营地搬家到5700米Pungpa Ri ABC

低估了两个营地间的距离，我们下午4点才动身。先要下一个长长的陡坡，全是大大小小的碎石，很难走。加上背着重装，不得不分外小心翼翼。 下了大约150米后到达谷底，然后还得到冰川对面再爬上去，还是同样的碎石坡。神经很紧张，完全谈不上乐趣。有的队友禁不住开始抱怨，“我们这是干嘛来了？”

刚开始上坡的时候，我的直觉选择路线错误，幸亏即使被叫回。像这样的在冰川上形成的乱石坡，不应当拣大石头为主的路线，以防滚石下来。还是小点的石头为主的线路安全。

快到坡顶的时候，忽然发现远远的山脊上有四个人影，第一反应是，不可能！见鬼了！这山上除了我们怎么还会有别人？等走近了，原来是四个尼泊尔协作，是为昨天刚到达大本营的两位瑞士登山者和两位韩国登山者往ABC运送物资的。好快呀！昨天才到大本营，他们的协作今天就到ABC了！

虽然两个营地间的海拔差不怎么大，但因为上坡下坡，穿过冰川，路途却很遥远。直到8点多才到达ABC。一路上发现在海拔5700米之高处还有那么多绝美的植物！

一夜多云，下雪，没见到中秋的月亮。

Sept 13th, 2011

5700m Pungpa Ri ABC

Wake up to blue sky, light snow cover at 9:30am. By the time I put on sunscreen to get out, it’s dark clouds all over already. As we sit down for our slow breakfast, clouds rise and disappear. Though down the valley, it’s still heavy dark clouds. Gradually, we can see clearly Pungpa Ri, then Shishsa. We just stared at it and talk about routes. It’s not like on Everest where you can just walk up the fixed line. Here, there’s no information on how to climb this mountain. First, we try to find the safest way to descend. Then, we try to figure out how to approach this mountain , from the bottom and near the top?

There are avalanche debris everywhere at foot of the hill. To the left side of the mountain, it’s full of ragged rock ridge. To the right, it’s a wide snow slope with a major rapture line from avalanche crossing the top part, then many parallel fall lines all across the face. Reading such feature, you could estimate where is prone to avalanche, where would be technically hard. No easy approach! Now this becomes the true mountaineering, not a game in the park anymore. How to climb it if we solo? Or if in pairs? Or if big party? Remember how Everest felt mentally hard last year? Now it’s a totally different game. It’s more serious, not counting on Sherpa, not counting on pre-set route. Even though we are a group, each of us needs to be self sufficient. We just stared at the mountain, trying to memorize each price of rock, trying to memorize each feature on the route.

Look at those rock ridges. It would be at least a 5.8 move there. 5.8 is nothing at sea level, but a couple such moves could kill your strength easily at 7000-8000m with no supplemental oxygen. And imagine how you are going to move with big down suit, big gloves, and crampons.

Look at avalanche zone. There you need to run non-stop.

Through binocular, hard to find a bivy spot on the steep slope.

Listening to music, sun bathing, staring at the route, too much time to kill. I took a walk to look for perfect flower. It’s amazing how perfect their shapes/colors can be at this altitude. High mountain flowers, they go through so many cycles of ice, snow, sun in a day. No wonder each of them has sharp color/shape and personality.

Lunch time 2pm. Too hot to stay in tent, but as I just came out for lunch, sun hid away and it became chilly cloudy again.

We were so sensitive to the sound of avalanche. While we were eating, we suddenly heard a bursting “hong”! We all looked up “where? Where?” Then felt suspicious “ how can it end so fast?” it’s just the cook lighting up stove!

Do I have the courage for this climb? Though by altitude, it’s only 7400s. Height of mountain is for people reading newspaper. For the mountaineers, the difference is the route. A hard route on a small hill can be harder than an easy route on the highest mountain. Am I ready?

9月13日

5700米Pungpa Ri ABC

9:30醒来的时候外面还是蓝蓝的天，地上盖着一层薄薄的雪。待我抹上防晒霜爬出帐篷，却已变成漫天乌云了。等我们慢慢悠悠地吃着早饭，云又升起消失 了。然而同时，脚下的山谷里确实黑压压一片乌云。真是瞬息万变呀！渐渐的，我们可以看到Pungpa Ri了，然后希夏邦马也显现出来。一上午，我们就那么直直地看着山，讨论路线。这里不是珠峰，没有事先设定好的线路让你沿着走。实际上，关于Pungpa Ri ，我们没有任何路线资料。首先，我们研究最全的下撤路线，然后再研究如何攀登，从上，从下，如何走最安全最便捷？

山脚下到处都是雪崩后留下的碎冰、雪块。山左边，到处是岩石；右边，是个大雪坡，一道鲜亮的雪崩断裂线从接近坡顶的地方横穿而过，下面还有很多并行的纵线自上而下辐射。仔细读每一个细节，你可以判断哪里常发生雪崩，哪里会有技术难度。从那面看都不容易！这样的登山可不再是像公园里游戏那么轻松的事了！如果单兵作战该如何上？两人绳组？更多的人？不同情形可能要选择不同的策略。记得去年登珠峰时觉得是意志的极大挑战，如今感觉更难了。完全要靠自己摸索的路线，没有协作，一切的风险度都更高了。我们就那么久久 地盯着山，努力记住线路上的每一块石头，每一个特征。

看那些石头山脊，至少也是5.8的难度吧？5.8在平地上只是个初级难度，但在7000-8000米，没有辅助氧气，几个5.8 的动作就能把你的力气耗尽。更何况，你还要穿着大羽绒服，戴着大手套，蹬着大大的登山靴和冰爪。

看那些易发生雪崩的地段，你必须以最快速度穿过。

用望远镜找了半天，偌大一片雪坡似乎找不到建临时营地的一方之地。

一天的漫长 时光就在听着音乐，沐浴着阳光，盯着登山路线中度过。看久了，我起身去散散步，寻找高山上那完美的花儿们。高山上的花儿们，她们一天要经历不知多少次冰、雪、阳光的轮转，难怪会有那样灿烂的颜色，独特的形状与性格。生存在这样的高海拔上，还有比她们更完美的吗？

午饭是2点，那时正好是最热的时候，然而当我们刚坐下来吃饭，太阳躲到了云后面，瞬间变得寒气刺骨。

我们大概对雪崩太敏感了。正吃着饭，忽然听到“轰”的一声，我们都抬起头来，“在哪儿？在哪儿？”然后开始怀疑：“怎么这么快就停了？”哈哈，才发现是帮我们做饭的协作刚点着了炉子！

我有勇气去尝试爬这座山吗？山不在高。一座小山的高难度路线可以比最高的山更有挑战性。我准备好了吗？

Sept 14- 15, 2011

Pungpa Ri ABC, 5700m

Continue to study the slope, watch for the pattern of avalanche. Took a walk to the base of the climb and found the angle is not that terrible as when looked from far away. We got an idea of a relative safe and easy route on the slope and decided we make an attempt tomorrow night.

9月14 -15日

继续研究路线，观察雪崩的规律。走到山脚下，发现从近处看，似乎坡度不像远看时的那么恐怖。我们计划好了一条相对安全便捷的路线，打算明天夜里上山。

Sept 16th – Sept 17th, 2011

Pungpa Ri ABC 5700m

Pungpa Ri climb

We left ABC at about 7pm, arrived at base of climb just before dark. After making some hot water, dinner, and short rest, we set off on the slope shortly after mid night. The snow was loose and took a lot of effort to break the trail. Since this is only a training peak for acclimatization, our goal was only to get as high as we can that would allow us to get down before sun comes up to heat up the slope.

After maybe about 4 or 5 hours, we stopped at around 6700m. We dug a tent platform in the steep snow. Four persons crawled into the 2 person BD First Light tent. Cold and hard to sleep, but we still managed to have some rest of about an hour by stacking one’s body part above another’s before we descended the hill.

9月16-17日

Pungpa Ri 攀登

9月16日晚上7点我们从ABC出发，在天黑前到达山脚下。休息了几个小时，烧水，煮饭，半夜时分我们开始上山了。雪很松，费了好大劲才开出一条路来。由于这只是我们为适应海拔的训练性攀登，我们的目标是能到多高算多高，重要的是要在太阳照在雪坡上之前下撤，以避免遇上雪崩。

大概爬了4、5个小时，我们在6700米左右停了下来。在陡坡上挖了一小块平地，我们四个人挤进了简单的双人帐，肢体互相架着、压着，虽然又冷又挤，很难入睡，但好歹也算休息了一个小时左右。趁着太阳还没升高，我们都安全地下撤回到了营地。

Sept 18, 2011

Back to Base Camp

After breakfast, we took the long detour around the valley to get back base camp in late afternoon. It was an easier and very scenery way, avoiding going down then up the rock slides, albeit very long. Color of grass on the way is more in the orange and red tone, reminds me of fall. Just slightly over a week, the tone of autumn has arrived!

The Swiss and Korean climbing team set up a much smaller but very colorful base camp with a slight distance from us. According to Sherpa, Sherpa for them already fixed ropes for 2 pitches while the two Korean climbers actually are still resting in base camp. It’s said they would climb up and down their fixed rope to acclimatize before they finally reach the summit.

It’s nice to be back at base camp again. Everything inside my tent is still the same. Rearranged my small space to make the next few days here as comfy as possible. Home sweet home.

Dinner tent felt quite roomy after having been hunching under the tarp for meals during the past few days. It’s a nice change to sit on a chair for dinner again!

The first dinner was a big one – pasta, chicken legs (I had three! Since most people does not have a big appetite), potato Tutsi (potato pie), and finished with apple pie!

Today happen to be camp manager Igran’s birthday. While we all stood up to sing birthday song to him and gave him a hug, the ground shook a little bit as everyone else claimed though I actually didn’t feel it. At the same time, we heard a loud sound that sounded like stove firing up. John quickly came to the explanation – it’s earthquake and the avalanche resulted from it. How lucky we are to be at base camp enjoying dinner right now! What would it be like if we were climbing on the snow slope or hiking on the rock pile?

9月18日

回到大本营

吃过早饭，我们绕着山谷一圈回到大本营。不过才过了一周多，发现一路上的花草已变成了红色或橘黄的色调。秋天来啦！

瑞士队和韩国队的大本营规模比我们小点，离我们也有相当的距离。据说，当他们还在大本营休息的时候，他们的协作已经把他们设好了几个绳段的固定绳索了。他们将借助这些固定绳索攀登。

回到大本营好亲切！我的小家里一切如旧。重新布置一下，要让下面几天的日子过得舒舒服服的。

吃饭的大帐显得好大呀！过去几天在山上我们都是躲在一块防风布下席地围坐一圈，现在我们可以围着桌子、坐在椅子上了！

今天的接风晚餐好丰盛呀！面条，鸡腿（我吃了三条鸡腿！），土豆饼，还有甜点苹果派！

今天还正巧是大厨的生日。正当我们都站起来给他唱生日歌的时候，大地突然开始摇晃。接着我们听到外面有巨大的声响。大家都跑出去看。原来是地震了！以及地震引起的雪崩。好幸运呀！不敢想象，如果这发生在一天或两天前，当我们正在雪坡上或乱石堆上，后果会是如何？

Sept 19th, 2011

Base Camp

My bed is really comfortable with the extra cushion of the downmat, but I had a hard time to fall asleep. Maybe it was too warm, too soft, too comfortable. It’s weird why here is much more comfortable than Everest. I remember, on Everest, my throat was so itchy every night since about 4000m that I had to keep cough drop in my throat to go sleep; My nose was always stuffed with bloody stuff, and I need to have it covered with buff day and night. But here, I only occasionally need to clean my nose and it’s not so bloody; I don’t need to hide inside sleeping bag to sleep that the air outside is just good enough to breath while sleeping. I seldom need cough drop neither here. Life is just much more enjoyable here. Maybe because of the vegetation and lack of tourist traffic that the environment here is much more humane.

Took my first “shower” since I left Nyalam on Sept 1st. To take the shower, hang a bucket of warm water on the hook in our shower tent, then slowly wet the hair and body from the water dripped down through the tiny faucet hole. It’s nice to feel comfortable to let down my hair again! It’s nice to feel clean again.

The second group of students from ShanTou Univ arrived in early afternoon. They were so energetic that the altitude is nothing for them. They don’t seem to need a moment’s rest!

9月19日

大本营

回到大本营第一夜，软软的气垫太舒服了，再加上比山上暖和得多，竟然令我久久不能入睡。奇怪，这里为什么比在珠峰的日子舒服得多呢？记得去年在珠峰的日子里，从4000米开始我的喉咙就经常因为干痒而难以入睡，天天靠润喉糖度日；鼻子也总是堵塞难受。而在这里，这些都不是问题，我也不需要因为空气干寒而把头埋在睡袋里入睡。这里的生活相对舒适多了。也许是因为没有游客使得植被环境保持得好吧？

早上洗了澡，9月1日进山来第一次！在这里洗澡，就是把一桶水挂在帐子顶上，让水从小小的龙头里滴出来，慢慢浸湿头发、身体。无论怎样，洗个澡是好爽的事！又可以把头发放下来了！

下午，汕头大学的第二批的师生到了。他们好有活力啊！仿佛这里的海拔不是回事儿，他们一刻不停地欢呼嬉闹着，不需要休息。

Sept 20-22nd, 2011

We are undergoing intense discussion about our climbing plan these days. The earthquake on Sept 18th triggered huge avalanche and lose up rocks on mountains. We were lucky to be sitting in the base camp that night, the Korean and Swiss team happen to be under ShishaPangma at that moment. They were lucky to escape the huge avalanche and had pretty scary experience with loose rocks on the route. Monsoon season which was supposed to end a couple weeks ago is still ruling the mountain. We haven’t seen sunshine for many days and were having wet snow every day. The climbing condition is much worse than “perfect” season. If and how are we going to climb is up in the air for now.

9月20-22日

大本营休息

这几天，我们在不停地讨论下一阶段的计划。18日的地震引起了大规模的雪崩，山上的很多石头松动了。我们当时很幸运是在大本营 吃晚饭。韩国队和瑞士队当时正好在希夏邦马峰下扎营，侥幸地躲过了雪崩和落石，但被吓得够呛。本该在几周前结束的季风依然没有离开，还得我们整天阴雪绵绵，多日不见阳光了。登山线路的状况目前很不理想。所以，到目前为止，关于下一步如何行动，都还是未知。

What has been happening:

Sept 3rd, Rest day in Camp 4700m

Sept 4th, Extra rest day. Due to sickness of some supporting staff, we decided to stay at Camp 4700m for another day for the benefit of best acclimatization of everyone. We went with students for hike around the camp to reach altitude of 5000m.

Sept 5th, Hike from 4700m Camp to 5300m, our base camp. Three sick staff members were sent back to Nylam. Whole team arrived at Base Camp in good shape.

Sept 6th, Rest day. Everyone feeling good.

Sept 7th, All went up to glacier around 5900m. Students learned walking on glacier with rope and ice climbing. Everyone is in good shape.

Sept 8th, The first group of 10 students (20 students come in two batches) is leaving the mountain. We are having a rest day.

Sept 9th, We are going up to ABC (Advanced Base Camp) for acclimatization training. We plan to be back to Base Camp within a week before we make an attempt on Shishapangma.

主要事件日程表

9月3日，在4700米营地休息

9月4日，临时增加的休息日。由于几位支持团队的成员状况不佳，为了保证大家的最佳适应，我们决定在4700米营地多休息一天。我们和学生们一起在周围的山上徒步，最高到达5000米海拔。

9月5日，从4700米营地徒步到5300米大本营。3名生病的支持团队的成员下山返回聂拉木。

9月6日，在大本营休息。大家状态都很好。

9月7日，大家一起徒步到5900米左右的冰川开始处。学生们学习了在冰川上结绳行进和攀冰。9月8日，第一批10名学生（汕大的20名师生分两批来）离开大本营返校。我们在大本营休息。9月9日，我们将搬到前进营地（ABC）进一步适应性训练，为期一周左右。然后回到大本营休整。

Blog:

Sept 5th, arriving at base camp

For the whole hike, we have been treated with refreshing air and beautiful flowers that I totally didn’t expect. I couldn’t believe we can be so lucky to still enjoy the alpine garden so high in the base camp! This has to be the most beautiful base camp I have ever had – turquoise glacier lake, giant flat ground bigger than football field covered in green grass and colorful flowers. We have all these to ourselves as the only group here!

9月5日，抵达大本营

我们这一路上享受着温润的空气和美丽的花海，已经超出了我的预期。没想到，我们的大本营在那么高的海拔上也是同样的美丽！这绝对是我到过的最美的大本营—透绿的湖，足球场那么大的平整草地，还有五颜六色的花儿们！而且，这么美丽的世界完全为我们一个团队独家拥有！

Sept 6th, our new home base

It was cloudy when we arrived in the afternoon that we couldn’t see surrounding mountains at all. It was a nice excitement to see the ragged southwest face of Shishapangma the next morning. On the other side, we were shocked at how far glacier has retreated. When the southwest face was first climbed in 1980s, where we are setting up our base camp was their advanced base camp (ABC) and it was where glacier started. At that time, the beautiful lake we are enjoying was completely frozen. Now, what immediately above our base camp are rocky hills! By our visual estimate, the line of glacier is at least another 500m away vertically.

Seduced by the beautiful reflection of mountains in the lake, I took a walk around our lake in the morning to enjoy the 360 degree view of our new home base. To my amazement, I even found a primitive fish-like life in the lake!

9月6日， 我们的新家

昨天下午我们到达的时候大本营笼罩在云雾里，所以根本看不见周围的山。直到今天早上才得以看到希夏邦马那充满着刚毅性格纹路的西南壁。在兴奋的同时，我们也很惊异于冰川线的萎缩。当1982年西南壁第一次被攀登时，我们现在的大本营（5300米）是他们的前进营地，冰川线就是从这里开始的。我们营地边那个美丽的湖当年是个冰湖。现在，我们营地周围的山上都是裸露的石头。凭视觉判断，我们离冰川线还有至少500米的海拔距离。

早晨，我沿着湖散步一大圈，从360度欣赏周围的山在湖里的倒影。一个意外的收获，居然在这样高寒的湖里发现了一种接近鱼状的全身透明的生命！

Sept 7th

I woke up at the pounding sound on my tent and was surprised to realize that my tent is all covered in a thick layer of snow. Our friendly Sherpa boy was cleaning our tents so that we don’t get crushed. The past few days have been pretty warm that we totally didn’t expect snow to come this suddenly. Some students who haven’t seen snow in their lives yet have been complaining the lack of snow all the way. Now they got their wish. As anyone would guess, students got up early with all the excitement and spent a couple hours snow fighting and making snow man.

After breakfast, we all set out for a hike to glacier at about 5900m. The whole hike before the glacier point was on rocky trail. It was fun to see the excitement on students’ face as we taught them traveling on glacier on rope and ice climbing. This might be the highest introduction to glacier travel and ice climbing class in the world. Maybe some of them will find their passion for climbing too.

9月7日

天还没亮，我被拍打帐篷的声音惊醒，才发现我的帐篷上盖着厚厚的雪。是我们的尼泊尔协作在帮我们清理帐篷上的积雪。过去这几天都很暖和，完全没预料到有可能会下雪，而且来得那么悄悄的毫无征兆的。汕大的很多学生在这之前还没见过雪呢，一路上还挺失望的。这回可让他们如愿以偿了。不用想也可遇见，同学们早早就睡不着觉了，还没开早饭就已经忙了半天打雪仗、堆雪人。

吃过早饭，我们一起徒步去冰川开始的地方，大概是5900米左右。到达冰川前，一路都是石头路。虽然到那里时同学们都很累了，还是很积极地学习冰川结绳行进和攀冰的技术。看着他们兴奋的笑容，我们也很开心。这大概是世界上海拔最高的初级冰川行进和攀冰入门课了。也许他们当中有些人会因此行和山结下不解之缘。

Base Camp Life

Life in the mountain is pretty simple. When we are not out hiking, days can pass really slow: 10am breakfast, 2 pm lunch, 9pm dinner. And you figured, a lot of sleep time between meals. Though our watch is on Beijing time, sun rise and sets on Kathmandu time. That’s why we such late nighters and late risers.

Meals in the base camp are much better than what we had in Nyalam restaurants. We have several very nice Sherpa from Nepal to help us run the base camp. They did an amazing job preparing delicious meals everyday though the supply in the mountains can be quite limited. For breakfast, we normally have muesli, porridge, toast and eggs. For lunch, normally just a couple slices of spam and a few pieces of bread. Dinner of course is the biggest one of the day. Starting with a simple soup and ending with a desert like canned fruit or homemade pudding, the main course often comes with limited vegetable and some meat such as chicken or beef, though each of us would only have a few pieces that would be far from satisfying our endless appetite. Tonight’s dinner (Sept 7th) was a little bit special because this is last dinner for the first group of students. We each had two pieces of chicken leg and a slice of pizza. The desert was freshly baked cake!

大本营的生活

在山里的生活很简单。如果不出去徒步训练，一天一般是这样过的：早上10点吃早饭，下午两点午饭，晚上9点晚饭。不用说你也可以猜到，剩下的时间很多是用来睡觉了。虽然我们的手表是按北京时间，但这里的日出日落是按加德满都时间的。所以我们成了晚睡晚起的动物。

在大本营的伙食比聂拉木的饭馆强多了。我们有好几位来自尼泊尔的协作帮我们管理大本营的基本生活。尽管在山里条件有限，他们还是每天翻着花样地给我们做出可口的饭菜。早饭一般是粗麦片，粥，面包，鸡蛋。中午一般比较简单，每人几片面包，两三片罐头午餐肠。晚饭自然是一天中最丰盛的一顿，饭前有开胃汤，饭后有罐头水果之类的甜点，主餐经常会有鸡肉、牛肉、蔬菜之类的，虽然量一般少得只够我们在嘴唇上抹抹油。不过今天（9月7日）例外，因为第一批学生明天就要走了。每人吃到了两条鸡腿和一块匹萨饼，甜点更是意外 –特制的蛋糕！

Current Status

So far, we are all acclimatizing well. Tomorrow, we are going to have a rest day before we move up to Advanced Base Camp on Sept 9th. From there, we will do acclimatizing climbs in some smaller peaks before we get ready for Shishapangma.

现状

目前，我们状态都很好。明天（9月8日），我们在大本营休息。后天（9月9日），我们将搬家到前进营地去。在那里，我们将做一周左右的最后的适应性训练。