The Last Man on the Mountain: The Death of an American Adventurer on K2 (17 page)

Cranmer gets his first look at K2 from Concordia.
(Courtesy of the George C. Sheldon Family)

Dudley below Broad Peak on the last day of the trek into base camp.
(Courtesy of the George C. Sheldon Family)

Base camp.
(Courtesy of the Cranmer Collection)

Kikuli and Durrance at Camp II.
(Courtesy of the George C. Sheldon Family)

Pasang Kikuli.
(Courtesy of the George C. Sheldon Family)

Route of the 1939 K2 Expedition trek from Srinagar to base camp.
(Courtesy of Dee Molenaar)

K2, the route, the high camps, and Wiessner’s high point, 1939.
(Courtesy of Dee Molenaar)

For the next week, Dudley contented himself alone at Camp V, cooking and cleaning up from his meals, writing in his journal, and endlessly watching the mountain. At any time of day or night, the sharp crack of an avalanche cutting loose from the slopes above would herald the thunderous torrent to come. Luckily, the tents were in a relatively safe alcove so the freight train of snow, rocks, and ice moving upward of 150 miles per hour would rain down all around him but not on him. Once the initial terror of being swept away passed, it was like standing under a waterfall.

Above him, Fritz, Kikuli, and Tendrup established Camp VI at 23,400 feet on July 5, and the next day they hauled 45-pound loads up to what would become Camp VII at 24,700 feet. Every day they climbed and awaited food, equipment, and fresh men from below, but none came. Frustrated and angry at the “setback” of having to descend rather than continue up toward the summit, Fritz and the Sherpas finally went down to Camp V, where they found Dudley still alone and his supplies running low.

Fritz couldn’t believe it. Here he was climbing and establishing camps, practically alone, while his foot soldiers lounged at Camp II. Why, he wondered, weren’t they able to push through the exhaustion and the pain of frostbitten feet the way he was? Why couldn’t they embrace the difficulty of the task at hand and just do their jobs? Wasn’t he climbing in deep snow? Wasn’t he suffering headaches and swollen feet? Were they boys or were they men? While wishing he could, Fritz knew he wouldn’t be able to climb the mountain alone and “finish it single-handedly,” so on July 9 he descended to Camp II to demand an explanation from Jack and Tony. Once again leaving Dudley in camp, he took Kikuli and Tendrup with him so that they could carry more loads to the high camps.

“Lo and behold,” Jack wrote, “Fritz came forth from the hanging fogs of K2…looking somewhat worn since I saw him last 18 days ago.”

Eighteen days. It is an eternity on a mountain, particularly when you are left without a leader, foundering in boredom and ennui, and not knowing what is happening above. The men greeted each other and Fritz explained in great, enthusiastic detail how he had pushed all the way to Camp VII. While Jack was energized by Fritz’s speech, Tony announced sullenly that the day of departure from base camp was set for July 24 and that he had already called for the porters to come and take them out.

Fritz couldn’t believe his ears! How dare they make the decision without any consultation with him and Dudley? Tony tried to remind Fritz of the note he had sent Tony at base camp about splitting the team if the weather slowed their progress, but Fritz continued to rage. Tony looked down at his feet and almost petulantly reminded Fritz that it was difficult to consult him when he hadn’t been seen in nearly three weeks.

Fritz ignored the comment and continued his harangue, assuring them how close he—they—were to victory. While Tony finally agreed to carry a load to Camp IV, he said he would go no further than that on the mountain. But Jack was revitalized by Fritz’s purpose and energy. It felt like a shot in the arm and he was suddenly envisioning himself on the summit; his European climbing boots had at last been delivered to the mountain and, once the weather gave them a window, Fritz assured him, they would go for the top together.

With Fritz breaking trail through the new snow that had fallen overnight, Jack, Tony, and Joe left Camp II in the morning and headed up the mountain. The going was slow and the rope between Joe and Jack frequently became taut as Joe stopped and gazed off into the distance, as if he were sitting on a park bench watching the clouds roll by. Increasingly incoherent, Joe had clearly reached the end of his climb and perhaps was showing the first signs of cerebral edema. In all fairness to the man, liaison and transport officers are rarely climbers, and the fact that Fritz needed and expected him to be part of the support team on the mountain said a lot more about Fritz’s management than it did about Joe’s lack of team spirit or climbing acumen.

Meanwhile, Dudley had been waiting at Camp V for nearly a week. It had begun well, but each day he felt himself growing weaker. He needed to keep moving, but he had to wait for Fritz; this was not a mountain he could climb alone. Every day he sat vigil at the top of House’s Chimney waiting to help with loads as they came up. But none had. Finally, on July 10, two Sherpas, Tendrup and Sonam, appeared from below and started up the chimney, calling to “Wolfe Sahib!” that they had mail for him. Dudley waved to the men with excitement but then watched in alarm as neither took the time to tie into the rope that had been anchored at the top of the chimney and instead started to climb without any protection. The chimney was the steepest section of the mountain; knowing Sonam was young and inexperienced, Dudley immediately felt apprehensive as he watched the two men inch up the narrow rock. Suddenly, Sonam’s feet slipped from under him and Dudley, horrified, watched as he fell twenty feet down the chimney, bounced off the rock and then slid down the steep slope beneath. Powerless to help, Dudley yelled to Kikuli, Sonam’s brother, who was lower on the slope. Kikuli ran as best he could over the uneven rocks and icy slope toward his brother as Sonam rolled and tumbled hundreds of feet down a scree slope. Finally, Kikuli was able to grab onto Sonam at the edge of a cliff before the young man fell to the glacier 6,000 feet below. Dudley tied into the rope and clambered down through the chimney to help and to make sure that Sonam was all right. Badly bruised, Sonam was alive, but seeing blood trickling out of his ear Dudley thought the man might have suffered a concussion. He doubted whether Sonam would be able to climb any further on the mountain. Climbing back to Camp V after the accident, Dudley spent another night alone.

The close call with Sonam had actually done Dudley some good. After days of sitting and waiting, the adrenaline of Sonam’s fall and his own trip down and back through the chimney had revitalized him for the summit bid. He eagerly waited for Fritz and the others to appear so that they could resume the climb.

The next day, Dudley again descended to Camp IV to check in on Sonam. Assured that he was okay, Dudley looked up to see Fritz and Tony appear at the edge of the slope. They soon lumbered into camp.

Tony stretched his hand out to Dudley. He had not seen the “K2 Hermit,” as he and Jack were calling Dudley, since the first week of June.

“Dudley! How are you?” Tony asked.

“Fine, but it’s been pretty rough,” he admitted. “There’s been a lot of waiting alone in the camps.”

Tony nodded his head. High-altitude mountaineering involves a lot of “hurry up and wait.” A climber has to have the patience of Job.