Five young mountaineers had prepared to climb Mt. Everest for months and months. Mark, Alicia, Hans, Mary, and Tenching, the guide, were the world’s best mountaineers, mountain climbers. They began on a warm, windy day, and snow had been piling near the top for weeks. Tenching knew the signs of an avalanche, but Mark, the team leader, wouldn’t hear of it.
They set out during a calm in the wind. Tenching was wailing behind them, “There will be an avalanche today. I can feel it!
Mark shouted, “Quiet! You are a fool! If you are afraid, go home and hide under the bed like a child!”
A rumble shook the air and a huge cloud of snow rose. Alicia was gone. Suddenly they heard a faint voice. They were shocked to see Alicia’s head above the snow. She was saying, “ Help! I’m stuck. Help!”
Mark said, “She’s stuck. There is no way of helping her.”
Tenching was already rushing down the mountain to try and help her. Suddenly, with a loud crashing noise, he was gone!
Mary and Hans both agreed that they should go down the mountain a different route, and they forced Mark to agree. He demanded that they go a little further.
The team then faced a huge storm. They had to turn back or die on the tallest mountain in the world.
A whole day later Tenching and Alicia trudged into base camp. When asked how they survived, Alicia said, “Tenching was sucked into a natural snow-cave. I soon fell in, too and we had to break our way out. It took us half a day to break out and half a day to get back.
The two were frostbitten and were suffering from hypothermia.
But they still survived.