The value of one man’s life
They wrapped him like a mummy and began their descent
It was the summer of 1953. Tenzing Horgay and Edmond Hilary had just been the first climbers ever to climb Everest. Now, in August of the same year, eight men were attempting K2, the world’s second highest mountain and perhaps the most dangerous mountain in the world to climb.
By August, the team had reached 25,000 feet. The weather had been terrible,
pinning them in their tents for nine days, and it had taken it’s toll.
One of their team, Art Gilkey, had developed a deadly blood clot on the lungs—a
virtual death sentence. So, forgetting the summit, the group launched a desperate
attempt to lower him using a technique called a ‘belay,’ which
simply means suspending a person from the end of a rope.
They wrapped Gilkey like a mummy in one of their tents, and began their descent—the highest rescue ever attempted at the time. It was while they descended that one of ‘most remarkable’ mountain survivals ever occurred.
For, on their way down, one of the men lost his balance and fell. Bad as that was, as he tumbled down he pulled a second man off his feet. Their fall took them directly into a second rope connecting two other team members—it ripped them from their positions as well. Four men were now falling, snagging the final rope that connected the remaining three. (Bob Craig was separate from the team and uninvolved in this incident).
The only thing that could stop the four men’s deaths now was that one remaining rope connected to team members, Molenaar, Gilkey and Schoening. Molenaar braced for the shock, was dragged off the ice face, Art Gilkey, unconscious as he was followed. Pete Schoening remained, with his axe embedded in the face, knowing the others lives rested with him.
He leaned into his ice axe and braced himself for the impact. The shock hit him, the rope thinned, then drew taut as a steel wire, and Pete held them. For the next five minutes, he kept those six men from falling off the face of the mountain.
This would have been remarkable anywhere, but at an altitude at which most people can barely think, it bordered on the miraculous. It has become the most legendary ice-axe belay in the history of climbing. “If Pete hadn’t held that anchor, Bob Craig would have been the only survivor,” says Molenaar.
When they came to a halt, of the team—Bell was lying precariously
close to the drop-off, Molenaar was bleeding from a gash in his thigh and
Houston lay crumpled at the edge of the abyss, unconscious. But Schoening
had stopped them from dying.
It’s a remarkable feat—but a stunning reminder too
of the huge difference that one reliable, courageous and strong person’s
can make to the life of others.
Four days later, after the death of Gilkey in an avalanche, the seven survivors stumbled into base camp, as stunned by the unlikely fact that they were alive as by the loss of their friend. But why do I write this? Because we believe that one man, Jesus Christ, can make a stunning difference to our lives when we see what He has done for us in facing death on a cross. He did that for us.
Further details about Pete Schoening can be found at these two sites:
http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200311/200311_mountains_5.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/
2002045151_schoeningobit24m.html
