Into the Death Zone
A Mount Everest Adventure
Sean McCollum
t was late April 2010, and 13-year-old Jordan Romero was halfway to the
top of Mount Everest, the worlds tallest mountain. Jordan, his father,
and a team of climbers were just beginning a journey that could, if
everything went right, lead them to the highest point on Earth.
So far, so good, Jordan thought. They had already climbed to 23,000
feet-higher than some jets fly. He knew, though, that troubleand death
could come without warning. Violent snowstorms could trap them. They
could be injured at any time. Or they could simply become too weak to
continue. Altitude sickness, a serious and sometimes fatal condition caused
by the lack of oxygen at extreme heights, posed another danger.
But Jordan had been preparing for this expedition for months. So he
kept placing one boot in front of the other. That, Jordan knew, is how a
person makes it to the top of any mountain.
Suddenly, a deep crunching noise sounded behind them. Jordan turned
and saw a heart-stopping sight. Enormous chunks of ice were tumbling
down the slope. The ground beneath him and his dad gave way. He was
knocked off his feet and began sliding down the mountain. It was an
avalanche!
Was this trip turning into a deadly disaster?
Unmerciful Mountain
Climbing teams began exploring Mount Everest in the 1920s. It was not
until 1953, however, that two men stepped onto the snowy summit and
returned to tell about it. Sir Edmund Hillary, from New Zealand, and
Tenzing Norgay, from Nepal, pioneered a route up from the mountains
south side. Their feat is still considered one of the great accomplishments of
human exploration.
At first, only expert mountaineers dared to follow in Hillarys and
Norgays footsteps. By 1980, though, several companies were offering
guides and gear to less-seasoned climbers. For a very high fee, these outfits
promised to help adventurers try to reach the summit. (Today, they charge
as much as $100,000 per climber.)
Into the Death Zone
page
May be photocopied for classroom use. 2015 by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH).
Year after year, the number of attempts grew. Climbers reported being
stuck in lines, waiting their turn to stand on the summit. Trash piled up at
base camps. Hillary said Everest had become a circus. Experts feared it was
only a matter of time before a big disaster struck.
Their fears came true in 1996, when a blizzard took dozens of climbers
by surprise as they struggled to reach the summit. Eight people suffered
agonizing deaths in the thin air, high winds, and freezing temperatures,
beyond the reach of any help.
Most climbers who die on Everest remain where they fall, frozen
mummies in the cold, dry air. Retrieving them is too difficult and
dangerous. To climbers who must pass by them, these corpses are gruesome
reminders of the risks of climbing Mount Everest.
Jordan knew all of this. He knew that Everest was, in his own words,
a crazy, tough mountain. Still, he believed if he prepared carefully and
showed proper respect for the challenge, Everest would let him reach its
summit.
Dreams of Everest
Jordans quest to climb Mount Everest began in a hallway of his California
grade school. As a third-grader, he was fascinated by a mural depicting the
Seven Summitsthe tallest mountains on each of the seven continents.
Mount Everest, on the border between Tibet and Nepal in Asia, dwarfed all
the others. My dad picked me up from school and I told him that I wanted
to climb them all, Jordan recalls. Especially Mount Everest.
His father, Paul, took his son seriously. As a paramedic, long-distance
runner, and mountain climber himself, Paul believed in setting tough goals.
He explained to Jordan that this would be more difficult than anything
Jordan had ever done.
Jordan soon proved that his idea was more than a daydream. He
toughened his body by running and riding his bike. He built his strength
by attaching a tire to a chain and dragging it up and down the familys long
driveway. With his familys help, he organized events to raise money and
get donations of climbing gear.
Jordan and his dad and stepmom Karen formed Team Jordan. During
the next three years, they climbed five of the Seven Summits. Jordan
discovered how right his dad wasclimbing these mountains was the
most difficult thing he had ever done. Sometimes he broke down in tears
Into the Death Zone
page
May be photocopied for classroom use. 2015 by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH).
struggling up a mountain. Sometimes he even felt like quitting. But with his
familys encouragement and support, he found the will to reach each peak.
In March 2010, Team Jordan flew to Tibet, a region of China. Mount
Everest, the tallest mountain of all, was next.
Questions and Criticism
As their Everest attempt approached, Team Jordan gained international
attention. Questions about Jordans age constantly came up. At 13, he was
three years younger than the youngest person who had ever reached the
summit.
Some critics argued that a 13-year-old lacks the judgment to risk his
life this way. Others said the high altitude could damage his growing body
and brain. Some even wondered if Jordans dad was using his son to get
attention.
Jordan and his family believed they were the best judges of Jordans
abilities, and they agreed that he was up to the challenge. Jordan believed
his quest was making him a stronger, better person. It is not the mountain
we conquer, but ourselves, Sir Edmund Hillary had said. This was one of
Jordans favorite quotations.
Going for the Summit
Mount Everest is so tall that it must be climbed in stages. Base camps are set
up along the route, where climbers can rest and let their bodies adjust to
the altitude before climbing to the next camp. Karen, Jordan, and his dad
hiked into the first base camp on April l6. They were joined by four Sherpa
teammates: Ang Pasang, Lama Dawa, Lama Karma, and Kumar, the talented
camp cook. The Sherpa are a mountain people native to the area. Since the
first explorations of Everest, they have helped and guided foreign climbing
expeditions.
By late April, Team Jordan had climbed as high as 23,000 feet. Their
bodies were getting stronger in the high altitude.
Then came the avalanche.
Jordan fell and slid. His crampons, the ice-grabbing spikes strapped to
his boots, stabbed his dad in the thighs. But the main flow of ice and snow
had missed them. Their nerves were shaken, but they were able to continue.
Not everyone was so lucky. Some distance away, two other climbers had
also been caught in the avalanche. One was hurt. The other disappeared
into a crevassea large crack in the glacier ice. His body was never found.
Into the Death Zone
page
May be photocopied for classroom use. 2015 by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH).
By mid-May, Team Jordan felt ready to try for the summit. They
strapped on their packs, roped themselves together for safety, and began the
climb.
This was the big push.
On May 21, they reached 26,000 feetthe Death Zone. At that
altitude, the air is so thin a person can suffocate in minutes. Like most
climbers, Jordan and his teammates used oxygen masks. Even so, they
found that climbing in the Death Zone took every ounce of their willpower.
They climbed through the night. They had to be on and off the summit
in the morning. Afternoons are when the worst storms roll in, and the
mountain is most deadly.
As they approached 28,000 feet, Jordan spotted Green Boots. He was
an Indian climber, Tsewang Paljor, who froze to death in 1996. Now his
body and lime-green boots are a landmark on the trail. The sight shook
Jordan as he stepped around the corpse. It also reminded him to stay sharp.
The sun rose as Jordan, his dad, and Karen reached the final ridge to
the summit. This proved to be the hardest part of the climb. They had been
climbing for 14 hours and Jordan felt totally exhausted. The temperature
was -30 Fahrenheit. Strong winds beat against them. On either side of
Jordan, the mountain plunged thousands of feet. If he slipped, the safety
rope might be all that would save him from disappearing forever into the
valley below.
A few more breaths, a few more steps. And then, there was nowhere
higher to go, nowhere in the whole world. Jordan was looking out on one
of the most spectacular views on Earth. The jagged snow-capped peaks of
the Himalaya mountains poked through the clouds to the east and west.
To the north, the Tibetan plateau stretched for hundreds of miles. Gazing
south, Jordan could see the country of India. Jordan hugged his dad, Karen,
and the Sherpa crew. They snapped pictures, their faces peeking out from
their hoods. Jordan used a satellite phone to call his mom and sister in
California.
Jordan had become the youngest person ever to summit Mount Everest.
The record mattered less to him, though, than the incredible view and
thrilling experience, and the knowledge that he had done what he set out
to doone step at a time.
Into the Death Zone from Storyworks, February/March 2011. Copyright
2011 by Scholastic, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Scholastic Inc.
Into the Death Zone
page
May be photocopied for classroom use. 2015 by Lucy Calkins and Colleagues from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project from Units of Study for Teaching Reading (Heinemann: Portsmouth, NH).
