Lit Device Short Story

For my whole life, ever since I was kid, I had always dreamed of achieving the unachievable. Climbing Mount Everest, has been my lifelong dream. I’d imagine the icy mountains, covered in a bright white sheet of crisp ice and snow. While the idea of -50° weather, extreme isolation, and the lack of comfort scares most away, it’s always excited me. But, after living through it all, and constantly risking your life, the feeling you must get at the top must be most amazing feeling ever. You look out at the world, everything you’ve ever known is now below you. It gives you a new perspective on life.

In March of 2016, I got the opportunity to make my dreams a reality. My best friend, his brother, and his brothers’ fiance were preparing to go on the adventure of a lifetime and they invited me. We flew out to Nepal and prepared our gear and ourselves for the two month journey. The first official day of the climb, we didn’t make it very far. It was mostly smaller mountains so it was a lot of up and down. My face looked like a strawberry and my hands had turned to ice. I had never been so cold in my life, but this wouldn’t stop me. I had a goal, and I was going to reach it no matter what.

We began to set up camp. The skies were clear and the temperature was bearable, so it was fairly easy. That night I barely slept. Not because I was too cold or too uncomfortable, but because I couldn’t wait for the next day. Just as I was drifting away into dream land, I heard to a voice.

“6 AM! Pack it up and move out, we have places to be!” yelled by best friend, Parker. Parker and I have been on countless adventures together. We had been skydiving, cliff jumping and we’ve travelled to four different continents together. “Lara, UP! Didn’t you hear me? We gotta go, NOW.”

“Yeah, I know, I know.” I said trying to compose myself and get my stuff together.

“I don’t know about you, but I can’t sleep soundly on the side of a mountain.”

“No time for snarky comments,” Parker was almost finished packing up the camp while I had just stood up for the first time that day. I finally got up and packed my personal equipment bag. It was so heavy, my back was stiff as a board.

We got climbing again around 7 AM. Up and up, down, up, down, down, up. There was no time for stopping to eat or rest. Hours and hours passed as we climbed. The sun was out and the air was still. It was perfect climbing weather. Everything was going great, this whole trip had been much easier and enjoyable than I imagined.

“Hey, you hear that Parker?” Parker’s brother, Gabe asked.

“Hear what? I can barely hear you!” Parker yelled back. I didn’t hear anything until a minute or two after Parker said that. It was just a subtle grumbling noise, no big deal, I thought.

“Nobody hears that?” Gabe asked.

“I do, kind of,” I said.

“Me too,” Hailey, Gabe’s fiance responded.

Everyone was stopped in their tracks. We all looked around for any signs of where the noise was coming from. I watched Parker's face as he tried to hear what everyone else was noticing. In an instant, his face turned from confused to horrified, his expression more frozen than the ground below us.

“Back track! Run! Head down! Now!” Parker yelled. We all looked up the mountain to see a huge cloud of snow rolling towards us. We all looked at each other, panicked and started making our way down the hill together. I tried running as fast as I could, but the large amounts of snow mixed with the slippery ice, it was difficult to keep my feet from sliding. My heart was beating out of my chest. My hat slipped off my head, which I barely noticed until my face went completely numb and I couldn’t speak. The snow was still coming down behind us. I looked around, the only other person I saw was Gabe. I assumed Parker and Hailey were just behind us.

In the moment, I had no idea what to do or what was going on. I could feel the snow right behind me. I feared for my life. I thought there was no way of getting out of this. Just as I had begun feeling like giving up, I felt my body being jerked roughly to the left. All of the sudden, I was crouching behind a tree. Everything was blurry, but I felt my equipment being removed and something plastic cover my nose and mouth. I opened my eyes to see Gabe, attaching an Avalung mouthpiece, which would end up saving his life and mine. Gabe was a very experienced climber, so he always came prepared for emergency. He proceeded to duck me down and cover me. The pressure of the wind and snow was unbearable. It lasted just a few minutes, but it felt like hours.

Then all at once, it became silent. Everything stood still. The world moved in slow motion. I looked up and around. All I saw was a tired, weak looking Gabe lying on his side. There was no sign of Parker or Hailey. Gabe was right there, I could touch him and talk to him, but still, I had never felt so alone.

“You’re okay?” Gabe asked me breathlessly.

“Yeah, thanks for saving me. Also, where are we?”

“I wish I could tell you.” He responded.

Gabe used his emergency communication device and called for help. A helicopter had to come with a full rescue team prepared. They lifted us off the mountain and took us to safety. We’re extremely lucky they came when they did. It turns out, our bodies had begun experiencing extreme hypothermia at the same time we were saved. In the days following the avalanche, multiple rescue teams had scanned Mount Everest for Parker and Hailey. They were never found.

It has been almost two years since that day. Many memorial services had been held in their names. I felt horrible, not just for what my friends had gone through but for Gabe. He had just lost his fiance, and his brother. That’s a kind of love that can’t just be rebuilt. The experience humbled me and gave me a new outlook and appreciation for life. It’s not until you’ve stared death in the face that you really know what it’s like to have lived.