May 20, 2002
Base Camp: 17,600 feet — The last trip through the Khumbu icefall proves to be the worst. Early this morning, Dave, Jody and Alison cross a series of large crevasses, and pause at an island of safety, when the glacier begins to rumble. Kim, Lynn and Lisa are on the other side of the crevasses — but guide Ben Marshall is smack in the middle, suspended over a yawning crevasse while balancing on an aluminum ladder.
"All of a sudden it gave way," says Ben. "Literally thousands of tons of ice collapsed in a split second. It was like a trapdoor that just fell away. I turned quick and grabbed the rope. All of a sudden I was just falling in space, it was all white and (I heard) a tremendous roaring noise. I thought: 'If the anchor fails, I'm going to die. If the rope breaks, I'm going to die.' I'd just get crushed amongst these huge blocks of ice."
Lynn jumped on the anchor and screamed. Alison cried. Jody began praying, and Dave called in a strained voice into the radio: "Lisa! Lisa!"
"I was holding on with one hand, and I just grabbed the fixed rope with the other hand and held on for dear life," says Ben. "I was just suspended there and I started yelling, 'I'm OK! I'm OK!"
Ben had to drop his pack in the crevasse in order to ascend the rope. He pulled over the lip of the crevasse, then rappelled back inside to retrieve his pack.
"It was a miracle that no one died," Ben says.
It's late May, the heat of spring makes ice move, the pickets melt out and anchors look unsure. The route was destroyed, but several Sherpas with ropes and anchors made fast work of creating a new escape route through the maze. Within 30 minutes the team was moving again, as quickly as it possibly could. The entire group returned safely to base camp at 1 p.m., thankful that they never have to traverse the Khumbu icefall again.
"That was the scariest thing I've ever been through," says Alison. "A whole ice shelf just fell. I looked up and saw the ladder dangling and Ben dangling from it."
"It feels really good to get down to safety and not have to concentrate quite so hard on getting down," says Lynn.
"Mount Everest is a hard, hard mountain, and a lot of fun," says Jody. "And scary."
"Everyone did their personal best and I am relieved," says Kim. "It's time to get off the mountain."
Midge, the group's senior spokeswoman, has this reaction: "The mountain is saying get out of here; the season is over."
And so it is. Jake Norton, Riley Morton and I have spent nearly two months recording this story in words, photos, video and audio for Discovery.com. On a personal note, we leave with tremendous respect for the mountain, the Sherpas who live here and five capable women who gave it their best shot.
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