By 4:30, all of Hall’s team is there, and the last of Fischer’s team arrives even later, during what has become a nasty storm. Pittman intends to send the last group of Internet files from 26,000 feet.
Lopsang, Fischer’s Sherpa, shows up carrying an 80-pound load, largely due to Sandy Pittman’s satellite telephone and hardware. The weather gets worse throughout the afternoon. The South Col is a flat place to put up a tent, but it’s ridge creates a wind tunnel, funneling winds that faster and stronger than those at the summit. Surrounding Camp Four are more than one thousand empty oxygen canisters. From there, Krakauer can see down the Tibetan side of the mountain. They are struggling with the wind and snow Krakauer can see swirling around the peak.Īn area called the South Col, a rectangular plateau, is their launching point for the summit attempt. He notices four climbers on the South Summit of the mountain and guesses that they are from the Montenegrin expedition. He describes the Face as breathtaking, the air taking on a "shimmering, crystalline quality" (209). Krakauer eventually becomes accustomed to breathing the oxygen and makes good time up the Face. Initially, it is hard to gauge whether the supplemental oxygen helps in fact "the mask actually gave the illusion of asphyxiating me, so I tore it from my face-only to discover breathing was even harder without it" (208). Not wanting to get stuck in a pack of people, Krakauer climbs as quickly as he can, trying to pass climbers on the single rope leading up the Lhotse Face. It is crowded on the mountain-at least fifty people are ascending behind Krakauer. The next morning, both Frank and Lou are at the head of the line, climbing toward Camp Four.
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