<1>
I write this manuscript at the C2 camp at an altitude of 5,000 meters. At 3 o'clock in the morning, we will be ready for the final summit attack. I had a headache, a sleepless night the night before, vomiting, diarrhea, and coughing. Hiking at high altitudes was not easy. Every day was exhausting and exposed to the scorching ultraviolet rays. I have severe cervical spondylosis and have never been able to adapt perfectly to high altitude sickness, but I don’t need to live in a place as warm as spring.
There were some very steep snow slopes today, almost impossible to climb simply by walking. We had to grip our ascenders and cling to the slope like leeches. My appetite has been poor these past few days, and today took an enormous amount of energy. After so much melted mountain snow, everything tasted bland. Even though it felt like chewing wax, I still wolfed down an energy bar.
The sky is nice, a mountain wind has just blown, and now the sky is bright and quiet. The vast world of dust in all directions stretches magnificently before my eyes, and the golden light cast by the setting sun is beautiful. It is wider than I have ever seen in my life. Ten miles ahead and ten miles ahead, the clouds are still surging. I have been living in the few kilometers under this sea of clouds, which is the field of sorrows, joys and sorrows of the world.
I feel fairly strong today. Although the altitude sickness is still severe and I have vomited several times, my thoughts remain clear; I am not yet so short of oxygen that I cannot speak properly. People say that oxygen deprivation while climbing at high altitude can make even a moderately complex sentence difficult to say, such as: ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.’
I caught a cold before leaving Guangzhou, which made the technical training and acclimatisation at base camp difficult. At night I could breathe only through my mouth and could scarcely sleep for ten minutes at a time.
I have always had a dream. In this life, I want to climb Mount Everest, reach the South Pole and the North Pole, and follow the spacecraft to outer space. I don’t care how hard it is to get these things and how much money it costs. Life is really the most amazing and unpredictable journey. How difficult is it to take this trip? How to remain calm? How to use a heavy sword without a sharp edge? Without experience and experience, how can one establish a person and achieve success?
<2>
At 7:30 in the morning, facing the rising sun after four hours of climbing, I finally stood on the summit of Banjifeng. My teammates were cheering. Fierce winds howled across the summit, and my phone switched itself off after taking a single photograph.
I stood on the peak of more than 5,400 meters, as if standing on the shoulders of giants. I believe that few people have seen such magnificent scenery and such aggressive mountain winds. We trekked and climbed so hard and finally stood on the top of this snow-capped mountain.
Climbing brings me far more than the joy of conquest, but it tells me: The reason why the road you are taking now is so difficult and dangerous is because you are going up. Based on this premise, climbing is one of the dreams in life.
Nearby stood Yaomei Peak at about 6,200 metres, its notorious, blade-smooth rock face looking directly toward Banjifeng. At the time of writing, I understood its climbing fatality rate to exceed 20%. The glaciers are active, and the highly unstable weather can readily trigger avalanches and crevassing.
Looking at Yaomei Peak, I can vividly imagine that there must be many bodies of dream chasers hanging on those rock walls. They will stay there forever. They chase heights, altitudes, honors and auras, but they will always leave their dreams on the mountains. And returning alive is the most humble and fervent prayer of those little people living at altitude.
People who have no dreams are indeed scary, and people who live in dreams all day long are even more shunned.
<3>
I read a book on the plane back to the city. Although the road of life is long, there are often only a few steps to the critical point. Although it certainly cannot be said that I have experienced life completely, passing through those few steps is considered important. Living a wonderful life is a winner.
Those who guard the weak will gain, and those who guard the fear will survive.