Chapter 378 Entering the Mountain
The helicopter, which had originally had a good atmosphere, suddenly became quiet. Jarrett and the others looked at each other and suddenly shuddered.
Saito Tomonobu silently put on his shoes and socks, and said the longest sentence since they met: "An unexpected situation will not only cause you to lose your toes, but more likely your life. Your blood will gradually solidify and turn into blood crystals at the altitude covered with ice and snow."
"Even though the mortality rate of climbing Mount Everest has dropped from 14.8% ten years ago to 4.4% today, this is the mortality rate of all climbers, many of whom have given up at only C1C2. The higher you go, the higher the possibility of death."
"I started climbing in 2013. That year I stopped at 7,400 meters because I saw a body in front of me. My brain was severely deprived of oxygen at the time. I didn't react for five minutes. Maybe I was scared, so I retreated. I failed in 2014 and 2015. My luck was not very good. There was an avalanche during the window period in 2014. In 2015, there was a major earthquake in Nepal and another major avalanche. No one succeeded in the whole year."
Saito was halfway through his speech when he suddenly took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes, as if he saw the boundless sky after reaching the summit. After a while, he continued in his stiff accent, "I have never been here since then, but I came again this year. This is my fourth time climbing Mount Everest, and my 40th birthday is approaching. I hope to use the summit as my birthday present. I heard from Rob that you haven't even climbed a 7,000-meter mountain. The human body's functions don't work at the flying altitude of a Boeing 747. Once you reach Camp C4 at the South Col of Mount Everest, your body will slowly die."
"Ha, how is that possible?"
Withers laughed, trying to break the silent atmosphere, but unfortunately no one else was laughing except him, and Saito stared at Withers expressionlessly.
The laughter died down, and Withers awkwardly covered his face with his fists. After two dry coughs, Saito's voice sounded again: "You may not believe it, but I stopped in front of death the first time I climbed the mountain. Even though my mind was stagnant and I couldn't think normally, I could feel it, clearly, that the god of death was sitting in front of me, so close that I could hear his breathing."
"Climbing Mount Everest is a game, a game to see if you can reach the top and return before your body dies. If you win, you will have conquered the world's number one mountain. If you lose, your body will become part of this tombstone."
"Gulp."
Yao Jun and Wang Yongbo swallowed their saliva at the same time, their foreheads sweating slightly, and their hands and feet felt sore. It sounded, it sounded so scary...
Is it too late to turn back now?
Even the audience in the live broadcast room were a little confused. Although Saito's English was very broken and his accent was very heavy, the subtitles were very accurate. From the sound of it, it seemed as if Bifang was going to climb not a mountain, but a tombstone.
Suddenly, a hand patted the two men on their shoulders. They shivered, beads of sweat dripped down their cheeks, and Bifang's voice rang out: "Why are you panicking? I didn't ask you to reach the summit. It's already a big deal for the two of you to reach C2, but don't even think about C4 or anything like that."
"Chinese, are you the one who wants to reach the summit without oxygen?" Saito watched coldly, staring straight at Bifang beside him.
Bifang raised his eyebrows and looked straight at Saito, even raising his chin: "It's me."
Saito stared at Bifang silently without saying a word. Everyone was confused by the two of them. It was not until three minutes later that Saito avoided his gaze.
"Then I hope you can come back alive."
"I will bring back the snow from the summit."
…
Half an hour later, the helicopter flew over the mountains and came to a small airport. The helicopter slowly landed on the runway. Rob was the first to jump off the plane. He covered his hat and pointed around.
"Before the construction of Lukla Airport, this place was a land of rocks and bushes. After Edmund Hillary obtained the land license, he hired 100 local people to build the airport. They chiseled rocks and cut bushes during the day, and walked on the runway at night to flatten and compact the ground. The airport was built in December 1964 and has been serving this area since then. To this day, there is no road to Lukla, and all daily necessities are transferred from Lukla Airport. In 2001, Lukla laid an asphalt runway, but the airport is still very dangerous. You see, even this runway is not flat and has a very steep slope."
When Bifang landed on the ground, he immediately felt the unevenness of the ground. The overall slope was very steep!
"It's at least more than fifteen degrees, which is a very scary angle even on the road, let alone an airplane, and..." Bifang half-knelt down and showed everyone what he saw in first person.
Through the line of sight, the audience not only saw the terrifying slope, but also the ups and downs!
[Shit? This is a runway?]
[I feel scared when driving]
[Ace pilot, request to go into battle! ]
[It is worthy of being ranked first in the dangerous airport ranking. 】
Rob, who was standing by, asked the locals to move the luggage, and then came over and said with a smile: "Yes, the runway slope is 18.5 degrees, which is quite steep and undulating. It is rare in the world. This alone qualifies it as one of the most dangerous airports. The most recent plane crash was when it hit the mountain wall at the end of the runway during landing. At that time, 13 German hikers, 3 crew members, and 2 Nepalese were all killed."
hiss.
Jarrett and others nearby all gasped after hearing this, looked back at the helicopter they were riding in, and were extremely grateful that they had landed safely.
Fortunately it was a helicopter. I don’t know how scary it would have been if it was a small plane.
Bifang squatted on the ground and looked for a while, then nodded and pointed to the cliff at the end of the runway and said, "This slope should be used to help the plane slow down. After landing, in addition to braking, the plane needs to increase the slope to avoid hitting the cliff in front as much as possible."
"I just observed the pilots and found that this airport seems to be only flyable visually, that is, it is completely dependent on the eyes. There is no DME, no ILS, and even no approach lights or PAPI lights. The plane also feels very , and the sideways feeling is strong. It should be because the airport is located in the mountains and valleys. The wind along the valley direction requires the aircraft to fight against continuous crosswinds during takeoff and landing. In addition, the generation, accumulation and transportation of water vapor in the valley also makes the airport visibility unpredictable. No wonder it is so dangerous. This requires a lot from the pilot."
The bunch of professional terms at the beginning made the audience feel a little dizzy, but the translations afterwards were all normal Chinese and did not hinder their understanding.
Can you see so many things just by sitting in a helicopter for a while?
[Fuck, can you even feel this? ]
[Strange knowledge has been increased, Fang Shen's skill panel has increased by one]
[Doesn't Lao Fang know how to fly a helicopter? 】
[I almost forgot that Lao Fang is an ace special forces soldier. Damn, maybe he can really do it? ]
"I don't know how to drive, but I know a little bit about it." Bifang laughed, unloaded all the backpacks and luggage on the ground, looked at the mountains hidden in the clouds in the distance, and pointed proudly, "Here is the starting point of Mount Everest. From now on, we are on the road to success!"
Although Jarrett and the photographer were still shocked by the Mount Everest shrouded in clouds, they did not forget their work. They quickly took out their equipment, started the drone and lens, and got into work mode in seconds.
The entire airport was photographed from an aerial perspective, and the view from the sky was even more shocking. It was completely a cliff. There were no fences on both sides of the runway, just cliffs!
The two people were dumbfounded. They actually landed on a runway like this?
The lord who got off the plane looked at the mountains in the distance, also excited. His old face was indescribably rosy, as if he had become a few years younger.
Yao Jun at the side took out a PHS-like thing from the inner lining and pressed it a few times. A fluctuating data suddenly appeared in front of everyone: "Altitude 2845! Altitude 2845!"
【What is that? 】
[An altitude meter? ]
"Yes, it's an altitude meter." Bifang reached out and took the instrument from Yao Jun's hand and showed it to everyone. "It has a GPS inside. It will continuously send out signals and provide precise positioning. However, the accuracy is limited and there may be a certain error, so there will be an error of about one meter."
"Hey, there is a signal here?" Wang Yongbo took out his mobile phone and suddenly found that there was a signal here, which was different from what he imagined.
"What era do you think we are in now?" Bifang rolled his eyes. "Our country has installed a new mobile phone signal base station 19 kilometers from the summit of Mount Everest. From now on, climbers challenging Mount Everest can make phone calls from the summit. British mountaineer Rod Barber became the first man to make a phone call from the summit of Mount Everest."
As he spoke, Bifang took out something like a walkie-talkie from his bag and waved it in front of the camera.
"Initially, climbers on Mount Everest communicated with the ground mainly through Morse code. Later, shortwave radio and satellite phones replaced it as the commonly used high-altitude radio communication means. However, the former has a limited range, and the latter is expensive and easily affected by weather. Compared with other communication means, one of the biggest advantages of mobile phones is that they are cheap. However, as far as high-altitude communication is concerned, shortwave radio is still the most reliable means, but some low-cost expedition organizations cannot provide radio equipment to their members. This is what the guide company just prepared for us. I checked it and it is of high quality. Don't lose it. It's best to keep it in your pocket. Lining. You should know that in 2007, four Italian climbers from a cheap mountaineering team encountered danger near the summit of Mount Everest and had to use expensive satellite phones to call the police back to Italy for help. The reason they survived was because they received timely help from the organizer of the mountaineering team that Barber joined, the "Experience Himalayas" mountaineering company, and received oxygen supplements. The "Experience Himalayas" mountaineering company usually charges each climber 20,000 pounds. Generally speaking, a mountaineering company that only costs 10,000 pounds is not that reliable, so you should be careful when choosing. "
After hearing the familiar information case, Yao Jun and others immediately took out the walkie-talkie and carefully placed it into the lining for close protection.
[Redefining cheap]
[I can’t even afford the money from the cheap companies, damn, I’m so angry]
[I feel numb now. Fangshen Mountain Climbing costs 65,000 U.S. dollars per person, and any other mountaineering company costs 20,000 pounds. I even wonder if inflation has not affected me. Otherwise, why do people spend tens of thousands of dollars at a time? I feel sad for a long time when I buy a potato pancake for five dollars this morning.]
"Okay everyone, have you packed everything? We should set off now!"
Seeing that everyone had prepared their things, Rob at the front clapped his hands, and the mules carrying everyone's luggage immediately started moving forward.
"Transportation here is inconvenient, so the means of transportation are still relatively primitive. We basically rely on mules to carry things. It takes about six or seven days to get from Lukla to the Everest Base Camp. Next, we will walk from Lukla to Phakding for about 3.5 hours, from an altitude of 2,840 to 2,610, a 200-meter drop, but we will soon make up for it. " Bifang patted the mule beside him and explained, "The good news is that the altitude of this section of the journey is less than 3,000 meters. Generally speaking, healthy people will not have altitude sickness."
It was eleven o'clock at this time and the sun had risen to a higher position. After two hours, Bifang even started to sweat due to the heat.
After crossing a narrow suspended bridge, the path became muddy, perhaps because the humidity in the mountains was too high. The road was crowded with trekkers, herds of mules and horses, monks in red robes, and barefoot Sherpas bent over by the weight of wood.
"I found that climbing Mount Everest is not as poetic as the story says. You can see that the whole road is covered with livestock excrement. I even feel that the road is not a dirt road, but a dung road. It may be a bit exaggerated to say this, but you really have to be careful with every step you take, because there are so many herds of cattle, horses and donkeys. But you can see that the scenery on both sides is still good. The roadside is full of yellow flowers, which is exactly the same as what we saw on the plane. It is really beautiful."
Bifang squatted down and picked up a small flower. The water vapor from the mountain rushed towards him. The sea of clouds turned into drizzle, making every leaf of every plant covered with water droplets. The small flower also looked brightly colored.
"It looks a bit like azalea, but I don't know which species it is. There are also small yellow flowers over there, but I don't recognize them either."
Bifang shook his head regretfully. There are tens of thousands of animals and plants in the world. Although he can now identify most of them, he cannot accurately identify the genus and species of each one, especially plants. He can only roughly identify the Rhododendron family, but he doesn't know which specific rhododendron it is. Perhaps only a professional botanist can know.
At this moment, a slightly old voice sounded in everyone's ears, which was very familiar: "This is the yellow scaly-gland azalea, and there is also the goldenrod over there."
Beside Bifang, the Lord also squatted down. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and picked up a small yellow flower to examine it carefully.
"Haha, I almost forgot, I brought the Lord with me this time!" Bifang scratched his head, he actually forgot that there was a great god accompanying him!
When it comes to identifying plants and animals, there are few people in the world who can compare to Attenborough!
"The scaly-gland rhododendron usually grows at an altitude of 3,000 meters. It's not much different here. And if I'm not mistaken, there should be pink bristle rhododendrons higher up."
The Sir pointed to the upper peak in the clouds. The photographer next to him let the drone continue to fly high, then adjusted the focus and checked the images on the computer screen.
Slowly, a touch of pink suddenly appeared in everyone's sight.
Is it true?
Bifang was surprised. It turned out that age is always the best!
Can you even recognize the genus and species of wild flowers you encounter on the roadside?
The azalea was just a small episode. While interacting with the audience, the team kept very fast. Fortunately, with the help of the mule, an old man like the Sir could keep up.
The journey into the mountains is not uninhabited. There are many Sherpa clan villages in the Himalayas, such as the small town of Nam in front of Bifang and others.
The city of Nam is like a huge, tilted disc-shaped satellite hanging on the hillside of a steep slope, and the paths between the houses are spread out like a maze.
There was a normal human society and service industries such as hotels in the city. That night, Bifang and others stayed in Nam City.
The next few days were the real difficult period.
