Abandoned on Everest!
Sudeshna Sarkar
T he cry was: Oxygen. Oxygen. I must have oxygen. Winds tossed the
desperate cry among the implacable mountains in the Death Zone the
freezing, oxygen-scarce no mans land above 8,000 m. But there was no answer.
I could feel my lungs bursting, says the wire-thin woman slumped
despondently in a chair, both her feet still in bandages and the right thumb.
My pack grew too heavy and my body buckled. Then everything grew black,
says Usha Bista, the Nepali woman who hit the headlines last week after she
was abandoned by her teammates on Mt Everest but was miraculously rescued by a
group of Westerners and their Sherpas, The next memory Usha has is of someone
giving her a vigorous massage.
There were three of them, she remembers. They dragged me down and tried
to revive me. But I couldn't get up.
An aerospace engineer with Canadian Air Force, Meagan McGrath, 29, an unnamed
Western male climber and his Sherpa came across Bista on May 22, at a height
of about 8,600 m while they were descending from a successful summit of the
8,848 m peak. They alerted other climbers below, setting in motion a Herculean
rescue operation.
The 22-year-old whose father, a watchman at Ajmeri Gate in New Delhi, died
when she was only a year was brought up along with nine siblings by her
mother, an illiterate peasant woman in Patheriya village in Kailali district,
one of the most backward areas in Nepal.
The seven-member Democratic Everest Expedition was headed by Ang Ngima Sherpa,
who had summited the peak earlier, Everest legend Ang Rita Sherpa, known as
the Snow Leopard because of his ascent 10 times without bottled oxygen, and
Dorjee Sherpa, with 12 summits to his credit.
I felt I was in safe hands, Usha says. Even if I couldnt make it to the
summit under my own steam, they would drag me to the top. However, things
turned out different. When the journey to the summit began, Usha says she was
mentally tortured by the team, who did not cooperate.
I had hired a Sherpa with my own money, she says. But Kami Sherpa
refused to go any further after we reached the last camp. I have frostbite, he
told me. I cant go any further. She also says Ang Ngima tried to dissuade
her from going any further.
I was mad, she says. After having spent so much money and effort and
having come so close to my dream, how could I go back? I told them, if no one
comes with me, I am going on my own. She says she had lost her water bottle
and asked her teammates several times to give her water.
No one listened, she says. Then someone said, you can drink once you get
to the summit. When she had climbed up to nearly 8,600 m, Usha could see Ang
Ngima summit. Incredibly, he was accompanied by Kami Sherpa, who had claimed
to have frostbite.
The Bistas want unwary climbers to know about the pitfalls lurking behind
expeditions. Some of them are into it to make a quick buck and dont care
what happens to the people with them, they say.
Snow Leopard Ang Rita never went beyond the third camp. And Dorjee, after he
had set out with the Democratic expedition, went off with a western team.
Ang Ngima has not contacted the family since the fateful day when he left Usha
in the Death Zone. The phone number he had provided now belongs to someone
else.
Nepal Mountaineering Association, the key agency for mountaineering, was
reported as saying it would undertake an investigation. But with Nepals
record of not a single commission having ever dealt justice to victims, it
remains to be seen if the promise is kept. (IANS)
http://sentinelassam.com/
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