Sept 24th -26th , 2011 迷失在希夏邦马 (2)

zzyy

真的很惊险呀！最怕在山里走错路了！更不用说在雪上上了！

㊣●老人

佩服您的心理素质和野外的经验！

王雷

迷失在希夏邦马
(2)

9月24日，晚8点我算计着，只要保持在5200米以上，我就可以自然到达营地。我期待着转过下一个弯儿就能看见营地边的大湖，也许下一个…我一次又一次地失望了。山里天黑得快。我本来还指望着日落后的余光呢。谁想今天太阳还没完全落下去，雾气就已弥漫了整个山谷。天虽还没全黑，却已什么也看不见了。天黑前没能见到湖的影子令我很失望。但我依然坚信，只要坚持走在5200-5300米的线之上，早晚会到的。由于地上有不少积雪，不用头灯也能走路。我继续自信地沿着这个海拔线走。忽然间，一道闪电划过头顶。我的头发太长不至于能竖起来，但我立刻觉得像通了电似的浑身气血上涌，第一反应就是坐到地上。镇静了一会儿，我站起来继续走。不一会儿，又一道闪电划过。几次之后，我有点担心了。5000多米的山上，没有树，我就是最高的导电体了。我可不想成为在这么美丽的山上一具烧焦的标本。尽管我知道概率不是那么高的，但不想靠侥幸。而且，我估计我目前可能就在营地的正上方。所以，当下一道闪电划过时，我立刻向山下跑去。短短几分钟就从5400米降到了5200米。也许营地就在这个山包下面？于是我继续向下走。依然看不见营地的灯光或湖水的反光。各何况由于大雾，其实什么也看不见。然而更让我担心的是，我好像离雪崩和落石的恐怖声音越来越近。我开始怀疑，我到底在什么地方?
不管怎样，向雪崩落石区域靠近不是好事，而且是绝对错误的方向。也许我其实离营地还很远？一看表，吓了我一跳。我已降到了5000米之下！我得回到山上沿着我原来的路线走。当我试图换方向时，突然在雪地上发现了清晰的脚印！我很兴奋，终于有伴了！顺着脚印走了一会儿，忽然觉得不对。谁的脚印也这么小？一比较，其实就是我自己的脚印！原来我刚才在原地转圈呢！要找到这个圈圈的入口我才能找回顺原路回到山上的路线，但这可不是那么容易的。一方面，我自己已经来回走了几次不同方向搅乱了了路线；另一方面，
黑夜和大雾很让人迷惑，连辨别哪个方向是上山的都困难，再加上新雪覆盖了部分足迹。我就采用排除法，在每一个错误的分叉上划叉叉并用数字标记。耗费了极大的耐心和漫长的时间后，我终于找到了来路回到山上。然而，由于新雪覆盖了足迹，回到5200米左右就无法继续追踪。于是我就沿着5200米继续向营地的方向走。走了不到百米，我感觉山势似乎又在下坡，坡下依然是无边的黑夜和浓雾。我在黑夜中完全迷失了方向！但我依然坚信我就在营地附近，于是我开始吹哨子。吹了很久，我不得不相信，我离营地不是那么近，那么刺耳的哨声都没人能听到。看来，我对自己的方位判断完全错了！我不是在营地附近，相反，我离危险区域（雪崩）很近。也许我最好今夜就放弃努力，停在原地更稳妥。等天明后应该会容易得多。

9月25日，凌晨12点我在一块桌子大小的石头旁停下来。坐在上面很舒服，但没有大到可以替我遮风挡雨的。然而在这茫茫的浓雾中，要找到一块更完美的石头绝非易事。至少终于可以把沉重的背包放下来了。今夜我该怎么过呢？我自我感觉好像有无穷的体力。也许我就在这附近来回走上一夜明天也照样有劲？不过那该是一个多么漫长而无聊的夜？我坐下来休息，偶尔可以看到星星从云里钻出来。有时云雾完全遮住了天；有时会有几颗星星钻出来，让我怀疑是山顶上的头灯。我没有想睡觉的感觉，就坐在那里胡思乱想。哈哈，等明天早上发现我其实离营地只有几步远才可笑呢！停下来后就慢慢地感到冷了，特别是因为在雪地里走得久了，我的轻便徒步鞋全湿了，脚感到很冷。与其冷了之后亡羊补牢，最好一开始就做好保暖工作。幸运的是我从ABC带下来不少宝贝。我换上干袜子，套上羽绒鞋套。慢慢地，脚暖和过来了。
9月25日，凌晨2:30一旦停下来，时间就过得特别慢。还有多久到天亮？现在可不是夏天，早上5、6点就可以天亮。由于西藏采用北京时间，天亮时间要比北京晚2-3小时。我们在山上一般都是10点才起床。根据我的手表，天亮时间是8点。这样的夜可太漫长了！这会儿天气还好，不是很冷，也没什么风。虽然雾依然很浓，雪倒是停了。我终于放弃了熬夜的打算，决定还是让自己过得更舒服点。我以前曾在很恶劣的气候中临时过夜过，所以对今天这样的情况倒是没什么担心的。我虽然没有帐篷，但至少有睡袋和防潮垫。石头边上的雪地还算挺平整的，我就把防潮垫铺在地上，再铺上睡袋。我把背包里的东西都倒出来，和鞋子一起藏在石头下面，免得万一再下雪被打湿。然后把空包套在睡袋外面，保护腿和脚部，因为我腿上是穿得最单薄的（腿脚是最容易被冻伤的，所以是保暖的重点保护部位）。为了保暖，我把睡袋的头部全关上了。刚开始，我不停地深呼吸以产生热量。过了一会儿，我全身都觉得很暖和了，舒舒服服地睡着了。

Sept 24th
-26th
,
2011Lost on
ShishaPangma
--
Part 2

8pm, Sept 24th, 2011

I calculated that if I kept 5200m, I should naturally get into camp. I was hoping to see the lake after the next turn, the next turn … but I was disappointed again and again. Dark falls faster in the mountain. I had counted on nautical lights that would still allow you to see long after sun set. But today, as sunset came near, the fog rose in the valley and it became impossible to see through even before sun fully set.

It was disappointing that I still didn’t see the lake by dark, but I figured that if I just kept 5200m-5300m range, I would be there eventually. With enough snow on the ground, I didn’t even need headlights. I kept walking along the same elevation or higher, believing I would be there eventually.

Suddenly, lightening stroke across sky above my head.
My hair would be too long to stand up, but it definitely got my blood pressure high instantly. I immediately sat down. After a few seconds, I stood up to continue my walk. Another lightening came. After a couple times, I got nervous. I didn’t want to become a charred body on this beautiful mountain though the chance of getting stricken here maybe very low. I didn’t like taking chances. Anyway, I might be just above camp right now, maybe it’s just below that edge. So as the third lightening came, I immediately ran down the hill. Before I even got the chance to check, I dropped from 5400m to 5200m within just a couple minutes.

Maybe camp was just below that edge? So I continued to walk down towards the edge. Still couldn’t see any light from camp or the reflection from the lake. The fog did not help either. On the other side, I seemed to be getting closer to the scary sound of avalanche and rock fall. I became suspicious of my location. It would be not be good idea to be close to that sound. That wouldn’t be the right direction. I began to doubt my previous judgment. Maybe I was still quite far from camp? Checking my watch, I was shocked. It’s almost below 5000m now! I need to get back up hill to continue my original direction.

As I was attempting different directions, I found clear footprints in the snow! I was excited and started to follow them. But very soon I found them suspicious. They are too small! Compare them with mine, they were from
myself! So I have been walking in a circle before I realized it.

I tried to find the entry to this circle so I could retrace back up the hill, but it was not an easy job.  I couldn’t even tell easily which way would lead back up hill, the darkness and fog was very confusing. Snow covered part of the track, making it hard to trace. I used exclusion method by marking each wrong track with a combination of a number and “//” strikes. With a lot of patience and forever time, finally I found it and followed up hill to maybe near 5200m, then the trace became too hard to detect because of the new snow. So I decided to continue along 5200m line towards the direction of camp. I went maybe less than a hundred yards. It seemed that I’m heading towards an edge again and it was heading lower.
Still endless darkness and fog over the edge.

I knew I was hopelessly disoriented by the darkness by now.  Still believing I must be close to the camp, I tried whistling using my whistle. After long enough, I was finally convinced that I was not that close to camp that anyone could hear me.

I must not be where I thought I was. Actually I might be closer to danger (avalanche site) than to safety. I had accept that I wouldn’t find the camp tonight anymore with this confusion of mind and disorientation. I didn’t want to be more off-tack. Maybe I’d better just stop here and give up tonight. Suffer a night to be safe. It should be easier with day light tomorrow.

12am, Mid
Night, Sept 25th, 2011

I stopped at a big rock
of table size. It was comfortable to sit on but
not so big to act as a real shelter.
With the impenetrable fog, I couldn’t see better candidate nearby anyway. It was nice to finally drop the heavy pack.

What shall I do for the night?
I felt I
have endless energy
to last forever. Maybe I couldwalk
around the rock
all night and still
be
energetic tomorrow?
But that
would be longboring
night.
I sat down to rest and watched stars come in and out from clouds occasionally.
Sometimes it was totally cloudy that I couldn’t see anything in the sky; sometimes, a few stars would come through that I would even wonder if that’s headlights on the mountain.
I didn’t feel like to sleep
yet
and sat there thinking of random things. It would be really funny to find out tomorrow morning that I actually spend the miserable night just a few steps away from camp!

As I stopped moving, I began to feel the coldness getting on to me, especially my feet were feeling cold because my light hiking boots got quite wet from walking in snow so long. It would be better to keep myself warm instead of trying to warm up after getting cold. I began to dig out stuff from my pack. There were a lot of goodies from my ABC inventory. I changed into dry socks and put on down booties. Slowly, my feet began to feel comfortably warm.

2:30am, Sept 25th, 2011

Time passed slowly once I stopped moving around.
How many more hours till day light? You would wish day start at
5 or 6
am. But here is not New England summer. We normally don’t get up until nearly 10am here
(part of the reason is Tibet use Beijing time though it’s actually 2-3 time zones away). My watch says the sunrise should be 8am. It would be long time!

The weather is still good, not
too
cold
and almost no wind. It was
cloudy
and foggy but not snowing.

I finally gave up the idea of staying up for the night and decided to make myself more comfortable. I
have
bivouacked
in
very bad winter condition before,
so I
was not concerned at all. I laid out the
sleeping pad next to the rock. It’s very flat and smooth with the snow padding on the ground. I took out the stuff from my backpack and
hidthem along with my shoes under the rock.
I pulled up my backpack
outside my sleeping bag to provide extra shelter for my legs. They just reached above knees.
I fully closed the head section
so I don’t expose myself
to the cold air outside
at all.

At beginning, I was breathing hard for warmth. After a while, I
warmed to a comfortable level and fell
asleep.