Reader\'s Digest Australia - 05.2019

READER’S DIGEST

May• 2019 | 49

Cole and her husband, Carl Schmitt,
had co-founded the American Climb-
er Science Program with All. He
was the guy they referred to as their
‘charismatic megafauna’ – a big, fun
presence with a magnetic personality
who drew people to the organisation.
When Cole read her friend’s cry for
help, she quickly began pinging mes-
sages across the globe to arrange a
helicopter rescue.
On Mount Himlung, All was spend-
ing the longest night of his life. His
throat was parched, but with only one
working arm, he couldn’t open his wa-
ter bottle. He sucked down two energy
gels, and lay in dazed pain.
Finally the sun crept up the tent,
warming his chilled body. Meanwhile,
his friends were trying to find a rescue
team willing to take a helicopter to
such an altitude, where the air is thin
and aircraft can act erratically.
After 18 hours on his back – his
broken body had tensed up, leaving
him near paralysis – All heard the
whir of a helicopter. Soon after, the
tent’s door unzipped and a Nepali
rescuer poked his head through the
flap. The rescuer dragged All on his
sleeping mat before hauling him into
the helicopter.

As the chopper twisted through

the Himalayas, All finally allowed the

relief to flood through him. “I’m alive,”

he whispered.

AS ALL RECOVEREDfrom his inju-

ries, he sometimes felt as if a part of

him had never escaped the crevasse.

In March 2015, All visited Rebecca

Cole in Hawaii. He was physically

healed, but Cole could see that her

friend was still shaken.

One day they climbed Mauna Loa.

As they trekked, it began to snow –

a rarity in Hawaii. Being in snowy

mountains for the first time since his

accident, and discovering that the

experience still made him feel happy

and at peace, marked the beginning

of All’s true recovery.

All is now a professor at Western

Washington University. He is also

fulfilling a lifelong desire to train

the next generation of climber sci-

entists at the Mountain Environ-

ments Research Institute, which he

founded in 2016.

“We all have dreams, but we

usually say, ‘I’ll do it when I get a

chance,’” says All. “Lying on that

mountain, I realised you get only one

chance to live.”

STICKY SITUATION

No parenting book tells you how to get pudding

out of the charging port of an iPad.

@SIMONCHOLLAND