Chapter 1:

Fire on the Mountain

It is the middle of the night and it is super freezing cold. It might be 15º degrees below zero Fahrenheit without any wind chill factor. The wind is blowing something fierce.

Americans Lute Jersted, 26 years old, and Barry Bishop, 30 years old, are alone in a small two-person tent. They are camping at 27,450 feet above sea level. This is Camp VI.

It is higher here than birds or helicopters can fly. Plants and trees won’t grow here either. Jersted and Bishop are trying to get some sleep on the side of the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest.

Tomorrow, they will try and make it all the way to the top. Bishop and Jersted have spent years preparing for this day. They have had the help of hundreds of people, including: nineteen other American mountaineers; hundreds of porters to help carry tons of food and equipment; thirty-seven local climbers called Sherpas; and the leader of the expedition, a man from Switzerland named Norma Dyhrenfurth.