Mingma Gyalje Sherpa tried to focus the shaky
orb of his headlamp on his next few steps, but
the cold overwhelmed his thoughts. Clad in
a bulky down suit, with another down jacket
underneath, plus two layers of long underwear
and breathing bottled oxygen, he should have
been OK. But in all the peaks he’d summited,
all the blizzards and frigid gales he’d weathered,
he’d never felt temperatures quite like this—a
piercing, otherworldly cold.
He could sense his body shutting down. His
left side bore the brunt of a stout wind, with
each gust sending icy tendrils slicing through
everything he wore. But his right foot was espe-
cially worrisome. It had tingled, then burned,
and finally ebbed into numbness, a precursor to
Porters assemble K2
Base Camp on the
Godwin Austen Glacier,
in the heart of the
Karakoram Range.
The site serves as a
logistical hub and rest
station between forays
up the mountain, but
brutal conditions often
make life there miserable.
SANDRO GROMEN-HAYESSWALLOWED
BY
THE
EMPTY
BLACK
NIGHT,
84 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC