On 25 January last, about 7 500 meters on the slopes of Nanga Parbat, Elisabeth Revol and Tomek Mackiewicz reached the point of no return. This crucial moment from which the decision to continue towards the summit inevitably entrains an apocalyptic descent where survival is only a thread. Elisabeth and Tomek have chosen to continue up, like many others before them... Back on some examples, with various fortunes, that have marked history.
Annapurna 1950: "If I go back, what are you doing?"
For Maurice Herzog and Louis Duchenne, everything is played on June 3, 1950, a little below the 8 000 meters on Annapurna. "If I go back, what are you doing?" Suddenly addresses his expedition leader. "I will go on alone" Herzog replied without hesitation. For a long time now, she doesn't feel her feet that started to freeze. At this precise moment, he knows that if he continues to the top, he risks amputation. Herzog also has cold feet but he has made his choice for a long time, he will go to the top at all costs. Duchenne is faced with a crucial choice that will probably be guided by his guiding ethic and this tacit rule that a guide does not abandon his client. Even if Herzog is not his client on Annapurna, Duchenne abdicates: "Then I follow you!" We know the following: Summit, descent Dante, miraculous survival, amputations...
Aconcagua 1954: The Bleausards "condemned" at the top
There we are not in the Himalayas but in the Andes, in the south face of the Aconcagua (6 962 meters) more precisely. The altitude is not so terrible but the problem comes mainly from technical difficulties. On 21 February, when they reached the altitude of 5 200 meters, Robert gossip, and his Parisian buddies decided to change tactics: finished the round-trip between the camps, they will now climb in alpine style. Around 5 800 meters, they cross a rocky bar in which it is impossible to plant a piston and therefore to make a reminder. If they want to get out of it, they will have to reach the top and go down the other side: "Now we are" doomed "at the top. We get there or the south face of the Aconcagua will be our ultimate abode! "* Write gossip. A little higher, Lucien Bernardini will have no choice but to take off his gloves to get through a delicate jump. He will leave the phalanges of his left hand... All his companions (except
K2 1991: The roped Béghin-Profit and "survival instinct that no longer works"
We entered the attraction area of the summit. That means we will go upstairs, whatever the consequences. Survival instinct doesn't work anymore. There is only the top and me, and, between the two, exhaustion. I know it is inconceivable to arrive on such a high mountain at night, and yet it must. * These hallucinating words are those of Pierre Béghin, after having passed the K2 by the Northwest Ridge in the company of Christophe Profit in 1991. A perfect ascent, the Alpine style in its purest form. Two men, the mountain and nothing else. To achieve such a blow, the agreement between the two had to be perfect, especially when approaching the summit. "Even if I had to leave my hands and feet, I think I would have continued," said Christophe Profit after the fact, confirming that the wavelength was the same up there. For both, this success will be the last in the Himalayas. For good reasons as well.
Everest 1996: Rob Hall, Doug Hansen and the time that turns
The context is this time very different since we are in the context of a commercial expedition and a guide-client relationship. There were many other casualties that season at Everest * But if we focus for a moment on the case of Doug Hansen-Rob Hall, we realize that the attraction of the summit is the same among amateurs as among professional mountaineers. The guide, supposed to replace the lack of experience of the climber, can sometimes be faced with difficult cases to decide. By agreeing to drive Doug Hansen to the top while the scheduled time limit for the return had passed for a long time, Rob Hall gave in to the pressure of his client who had sacrificed everything to return to try his luck after a cruel failure the season Previous. The storm suffered at the descent took over the rest... If for the great mountaineer the limit is sometimes held, for fans on the normal way of Everest, it's easy: the point of No return is written on the C
Nanga Parbat 2012: Sandy Allan and Rick Allen, "the crazies of the Mazeno"
Aged 57 and 59 years, respectively, Sandy Allan and Rick Allen, two Scottish climbers, began in July 2012 to climb ten kilometers from the Mazeno ridge to Nanga Parbat, accompanied by three Sherpa and South African climber Cathy O'Dowd. After twelve days on the mountain, they touch almost to the goal but the technical difficulties and the fatigue finally repel them. Back at the advanced camp, the discussion is underway: Allan and Allen want to try their luck again, but the others decide to go down again. The two Scots are short of food and rely on their only stove to hydrate them: Cathy wrote later on her blog that she thought that Rick and I were crazy, plagued by the fever of the summit. For her, Rick and I were in the process of crossing the acceptable risk limit at this time. " On the 14th of July, the two men reach the top but their lighter goes down in the descent. Thirsty, hungry, exhausted and at the edge of the M
Annapurna 2013: Graziani, Behera and the question mark of descent
In the autumn of 2013, Stéphane Behera and Yannick Graziani succeeded in a masterful ascent in the south face of Annapurna. In eight days, they completed, in alpine style, the path begun by Pierre Béghin and Jean-Christophe the Fault in 1992. On October 24th they are in a position to try the summit, but the discussion is between the two friends: we were starting to get frostbite, but maybe we were hiding the thing a little bit. The wisest solution was to go down but I wanted to go up. There was no doubt about going to the top, however after Question mark... Says Graziani in the movie we only walk once on the moon. They will actually go to the top but from the beginning of the descent, Behera collapses. He is exhausted and begins to show signs of pulmonary edema. The descent quickly veers to Calvary and Graziani "switch in survival mode." During the whole descent, I became a fucking robot.
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