How I felt on conquering Everest (Reading)

Four climbers who succeeded in climbing the world's highest mountain write about how they felt when they reached the summit.

How I felt on conquering Everest 

A. Roddy Makenzie

It has occasionally been claimed that people climb for the smell of it. Air at very high altitude smells completely different. When I reached the South Summit, I was suffering from a lack of Spanish olives. I was preoccupied with thoughts of a tin of them sitting in my tent at base camp. This was the result of a very intense dream about olives that was interrupted by the alarm summoning me to our summit attempt. At the South Summit, the view of the main summit fascinated me from a mountaineering point of view and all dreaming of olives evaporated. On the summit, I felt a mixture of apprehension and curiosity. It seemed to me that the curvature of the Earth was apparent, and I spent some time trying to think of a means to test if this was a real observation or an illusion. Many people on the Indian subcontinent believe that the ascent of Everest confers on the climber a greater wisdom in manifold subjects. That is something I do not agree with but never dispute.

B. Anna Czerwinska

When I reached the South Summit, I looked back at the mists rising from the valleys and I could feel their damp touch on my face. They prevented me from looking down on the long painful way up, but it was not only that. The curtain of mist had closed over my past. My oxygen was running out, and common sense demanded that I return, but before long I was climbing on an exposed ridge to the foot of the Hillary Step. A crampon had come undone and I painfully put it on again. Everest was doing everything to discourage me. I registered that dreamily and, as if dreaming, conquered the final metres of the snowy slope. Suddenly the coulds above me lifted in one blue moment and, very low down, I saw a rugged precipitous ridge. The wind was growing stronger and it was snowing lightly. I did not get the beautiful view as a reward and I felt fleetingly disappointed. However, those few minutes on the highest spot on Earth were worth every effort and have given me joy ever since.

C. Andy Politz

On the summit, I set out to get some sponsor photos, which at 8.850 metres without oxygen gives a unique insight into hypoxia. At one point, I looked down at Nepal and the South East Ridge only to be surprised by another climber coming up through the clouds. He was startled to see someone looking down at him. He was also climbing without oxygen and was tiring. The other thought I had, remembering six years of attempting to climb Everest, was 'He could take my picture'. Through scudding cloud, I saw that the colour and design of his clothing were unmistakably French. I do not speak French. As this Frenchman was taking his last stepts to the summit, I made the international hand sign for 'Stop and I'll take your picture'. While I was struggling to focus the camera, he looked hard at me and exclaimed 'Andy!' To my amazement, it was my close friend Ed Viestours on his second ascent of the mountain.

D. Frits Vrijlandt

I approached Everest with respect and was well aware of being just a small human being. An excellent preparation is very important but far from a guarantee that you'll reach the summit. You have to be mentally ready to go for it, sufficiently experienced and a brave and careful climber. Before our summit bid, our team agreed that returning without injuries was our main objective. Some people can be blindly obsessed by Everest. I reached the top after eight hours of climbing. After I contacted base camp and they had congratulated me,I replied, 'Thank you, but first I have to get back down safely'. After my return to Kathmandu, I felt like a super-being because I had stood on the top of the world. I still had this feeling when I came back home but it soon faded away. The world or your life doesn't change because you climbed a mountain, even if it is the highest. But climbing Everest was a spiritual experience for me. It puts your feet back on the surface of mother Earth.

In which article is the following mentioned?

• A remarkable coincidence.
• A suggestion that other climbers sometimes take risks.
• A determination to continue climbing despite a problem.
• An awareness of the dangers of the descent.
• An obsession the climber briefly experienced.
• The temporary nature of the sense of achievement.
• The fact that the writer made the climb without some support that could have been used.
• The appeal of climbing to one of the senses other than sight.
• Something that failed to live up to expectations.
• A claim that the writer rejects.