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Chapter 3:Descent from the Death ZoneIt is 4:15 in the afternoon. The two men each turn on a small flow of oxygen and begin to descend. The wind is still gusting to 70 miles an hour. Jersted goes ahead. The path is steep and dangerous with crumbly rock and snow. At one point Jersted goes around a corner, and, the rope connecting the two men wedges itself into the snowy ice that is sticking out. Because of how the rope is caught, Bishop is being pulled towards the edge of the cliff. Bishop calls out to Jersted, but Jersted doesn’t hear him because of the wind. Finally, with no other choice, Bishop unhooks himself from the rope. Quickly he frees the rope and then reattaches himself. It’s a super risky move but he pulls it off and another disaster is averted. By 7:30pm the sky is black. There is no moon, and the temperature is dropping. Very unexpectedly Bishop and Jersted think they hear a voice calling out to them. From 400 feet above them out of the darkness come the voices of their teammates Unsoeld and Hornbein. Unsoeld and Hornbein are the first people in the world to have reached the summit from the West Ridge! They have come across the top of the mountain and are now taking the same descent as their teammates. |
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