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And now, tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.

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Tonight, we bring you a story of man's assault against nature.

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We call it The Mountain.

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So now, starring Harley Bear and Ben Wright, here is tonight's suspense play, The Mountain.

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We made Camp Four on the East Glacier, 22,000 feet above sea level.

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In that cold, thin air we stood looking up, and in the great loneliness we saw it.

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For a few seconds as the mist cleared, we saw it.

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The mountain, the peak towering over us.

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It was beautiful and terrible.

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Then a swirling curtain moved around it, and it was gone again.

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There were six of us in the forest.

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Anton and Leeds had been sent back to Camp Three, some 4,000 feet below.

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Both had been badly frostbitten.

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So then there were six of us left to make the attempt.

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Nobody had done it before.

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No one had ever reached the top of that tremendous, windswept place.

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And now we were ready for the assault.

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That night we held our last meeting in Camp Four.

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Thomas, Feldman, Elridge, Gaines, Perucci, and myself.

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It's the best way, the most practical.

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Three of us stay and three of us try to make it.

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Now we stand a better chance if we all do it together.

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What do you think, Bob?

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I don't think so.

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Thomas is right.

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If three of us go and have to turn back, the other three will still be fresh, and they can have a go.

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That's right.

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All right.

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I think it has to be.

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Okay, two parties.

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Thomas, you'll head out the second.

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Stay at the camp.

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I'll lead the first one up.

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Right.

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Oh, now wait a minute.

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Don't we get a vote on this?

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No, it's a waste of time.

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Start voting and we'll start arguing again.

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Those monsoons aren't going to hold off forever.

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Yeah, but how's your leg, Harry?

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Oh, it's not bad, but I might hold you back.

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You better leave me down here.

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All right.

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Perucci, you want me to go?

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Do you feel up to it?

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Sure, you bet.

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Gaines?

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Okay.

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Uh-uh.

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You're not acclimated.

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Cough?

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Nothing.

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It'd get a lot worse, Harry.

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You better not.

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Well, look, why not let me go with you and leave Harry and Charles down here?

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That leg will be all right in a couple of days, don't you think, Harry?

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It ought to be.

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He hasn't had enough experience for a lead man.

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Oh.

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There's nothing wrong with me.

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Or is there?

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Well, I don't know, John.

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It's going to be pretty tough.

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Well?

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Listen, John.

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You'll keep out of this, Thomas.

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What about it, Bob?

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I'm in good shape.

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Well, I guess so.

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Okay, you, Perucci, and myself.

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That'll be it.

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We'll start at daybreak.

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And that's the way we decided there was no other possibility.

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It wasn't that we didn't like Elridge.

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It was just that he was always flying off the handle, and because of that, he wasn't a good risk.

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Nerves don't go so well with mountain climbing.

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Not that mountain, cold and dangerous.

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It's never gained peak, hidden in mist.

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Later that evening, Thomas and I were going over the equipment before turning in.

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You know, someday they'll invent an oxygen tank that's light.

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I don't bet these things weigh over 30 pounds.

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Yeah.

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Say, about Elridge.

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What about him?

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You think he ought to go?

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It doesn't matter.

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It's the only way, I guess.

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You're taking a big chance.

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He'll be all right.

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We could only wait just a couple of days.

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Harry'd be all right.

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We're late now. If the mountain starts, none of us will be able to do it.

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Yeah, that's the trouble.

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While you're out producing alone, he gets on pretty well with Elridge.

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That'll help.

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Yeah, it'll be fine.

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We're all in good shape.

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I think we're going to make it.

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In a way, I hope you don't.

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I'd like a crack out of myself.

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Wouldn't that be something?

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The first man to get to the top.

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You understand why I didn't take you, don't you?

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Of course.

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Wishful thinking, that's all.

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Well, you'd better turn in.

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I'll finish checking this out.

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Okay. See you in the morning.

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On May the 18th, we started to climb the Northwest Bridge.

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We were at 23,000 feet.

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Each of us carried a 30-pound oxygen tank besides the equipment we needed for our next camp.

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For three or four hours, it wasn't bad, but as we went higher,

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the wind started to take it out of us.

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We felt the cold more.

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Take ten, huh?

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Yeah.

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Boy, when you look at it up there, that's it.

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You almost feel like you can jump and touch the top.

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It'd be a big jump for Roochie.

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What do you figure, about 3,500 feet more?

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Yeah, something like that.

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If the weather holds, we might make it by tomorrow.

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That's what I thought.

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Not a cloud in the sky.

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Will you look at that thing?

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Boy, what can you say when you see a mountain like that?

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Save your breath.

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We'll move in a few minutes.

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Then we get patches of snow, and the pace slowed down.

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We spelled each other's leader, and it was my turn up ahead.

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Roochie was bringing up the rear when I heard him yell.

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Bob, Roochie's gone down.

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Dig in.

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All right.

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What is it?

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Kravats?

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Yeah, use the ice axe.

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It won't hold.

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The snow's too soft here.

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It's slipping.

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Father, it's slipping.

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I saw the snow crumbling away from beneath Eldridge's feet.

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I saw it, and I thought of a man I knew who slipped from an aerial ladder 100 feet up.

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And as he fell to the ground, his legs raced wildly, arms waving, trying to find their arms to pull himself back up.

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And Eldridge was doing it now, his heels churning into the soft snow at the edge of the kravats.

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And then he found solid ice.

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Bob?

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Yeah?

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Can you pull me back?

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I can't get Roochie up from here.

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I'm afraid I'll go over too.

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I'm right out of the air group.

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Can he get a hold of his axe?

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No, he's acting free.

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The walk's over.

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Hurry.

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I'll try.

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You have to, John.

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I can't do it alone.

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There's too much weight.

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I'm telling you, I can't.

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I'm afraid to move.

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I can feel it going under me or around me.

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There's solid ice a couple of feet back.

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I can grab it with my axe.

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Don't let go!

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Don't let it go slack, Bob.

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I won't.

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You just hang on.

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I knew that if I slipped behind me, it was the end.

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I looked at the figure of Eldridge, his body bent backwards away from the drop beneath him.

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I closed my eyes, reached behind with my pick, and dug into the ice.

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I can't!

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I'm slipping!

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I can't!

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And as Eldridge shouted, I thought I heard another cry.

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And then suddenly the rope's weight was lighter.

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I saw Eldridge get up on hands and knees, crawl away from the crevasse toward me.

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Norman!

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Where's Norman?

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He's gone.

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He fell.

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He's gone.

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He can't be.

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How?

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I don't know.

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Perhaps the rope frayed on some ice at the edge.

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Suddenly it went slacker.

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I heard him.

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Bob, I heard him.

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Well, maybe it's not deep.

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He might have fallen into a drift at the bottom.

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You stay here.

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I've got to see.

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I belayed the rope about the eye pack and paid out the rest of it as I slid down the slope

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of the crevasse.

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But when I looked over the edge, I knew that dark blue, almost black emptiness below, I

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knew there'd be no snow drift for Norman Perucci's body unless it was perhaps 10,000

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feet below us.

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We bypassed that place, found a shelter from the wind, and pitched our tent.

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For a long time, neither one of us spoke.

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I think we were too exhausted to say anything.

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Exhausted and shocked.

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There are only two of us now.

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I keep hearing him.

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Yeah, I know.

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No, you don't.

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Not the way I do.

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He was a nice kid.

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Yeah.

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Doesn't he was cold?

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How high do you think we are?

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Twenty-four thousand.

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Yeah, I wondered.

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A little hard to breathe.

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You better use the oxygen.

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No, not yet.

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We won't need it tomorrow.

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Yes, we will.

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Better save it.

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We're going down in the morning.

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No!

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We've got to.

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You and I couldn't make it up there alone.

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There's 2,500 feet to go, maybe more.

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No, we've got to go back.

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We'll let the others try.

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Just because he's gone, is that why?

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Look, I've done more climbing than you out here.

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What happened today is bad for the nerves.

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We couldn't make it.

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We'll go back and try again later.

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The monsoons will be here later.

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We've got to do it now.

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Thomas and the others can do it.

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No, we'll keep going.

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I've got to.

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I'm not going back.

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What's the matter with you?

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You're talking like a kid.

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Look, I was the last one on your list when you got the party together, wasn't I?

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Yes, but...

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Why?

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Why was I last?

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I don't know.

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Somebody had to be with you, that's all.

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You're a liar.

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You didn't want me along.

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None of you did.

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You're here, aren't you?

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You know I'm afraid of climbing, don't you?

252
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Whiz into everybody a little.

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Isn't that why we do it?

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Isn't that part of it?

255
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No, I mean really scared.

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I'm really scared.

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You know that.

258
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No, I don't.

259
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Well, something happened when North...

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Something happened to me today and I've got to go onto the top now.

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You think I'll call you a coward if we don't?

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No.

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All right, then forget it.

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We'll try again.

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Maybe next year you'll be along too.

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I'll do it alone then.

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I'm going on alone.

268
00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:52,000
You want to come along with me, all right?

269
00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:54,000
If not, it doesn't matter anyway.

270
00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:56,000
Well, I'm going.

271
00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:57,000
So long.

272
00:10:57,000 --> 00:10:58,000
John?

273
00:10:58,000 --> 00:10:59,000
John!

274
00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,000
He didn't stop.

275
00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:09,000
He just moved up the ice slab and around a hammock out of sight.

276
00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,000
I went back inside the tent to get my pack.

277
00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:15,000
I couldn't let him do it alone and I was trapped into going with him.

278
00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:18,000
Then I saw that the fool hadn't even taken his rope.

279
00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:21,000
It was neatly coiled in the corner.

280
00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:25,000
I grabbed it up and as I did so I saw the end of it.

281
00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:29,000
The end which had broken when Paruti hung over the crevasse.

282
00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:33,000
The rope which Eldridge had said was parted by the ice.

283
00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:36,000
But there were no frayed ends.

284
00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:38,000
The break was clean.

285
00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:44,000
It had been cut through and the oil of Eldridge's knife blade was still on it.

286
00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:47,000
When Eldridge had thought he was going over the crevasse,

287
00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:51,000
he'd cut the rope which had held Norman Paruti's body some 20 feet into the chasm.

288
00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:54,000
To save his own life, he'd done this.

289
00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:58,000
I pulled the coil through the straps of my pack and left the tent.

290
00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:08,000
I caught up with Eldridge about a hundred feet higher.

291
00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:14,000
He was standing on a shallow ledge catching his breath and his head was tilted back,

292
00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:17,000
eyes fixed on that mountain.

293
00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:29,000
Nasty foot back there. I was cutting steps up the cliff. I nearly fell.

294
00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:31,000
You didn't though.

295
00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:34,000
No I didn't.

296
00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:36,000
You're coming with me, huh?

297
00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:40,000
I want to see that you get down alive.

298
00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:44,000
You forgot your rope. I found it in the tent.

299
00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:46,000
I didn't think I'd need it.

300
00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:48,000
You might.

301
00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:50,000
Here.

302
00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:51,000
Thanks.

303
00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:53,000
We better tie on together.

304
00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:55,000
All right.

305
00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:56,000
You want to go first?

306
00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:58,000
No.

307
00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:01,000
It's your party now.

308
00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:03,000
You lead.

309
00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:05,000
See?

310
00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:08,000
He had a funny look on his face as we roped together.

311
00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:12,000
I think he must have known then that I'd found out what he'd done.

312
00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:17,000
He didn't say anything though but turned and began to move upwards.

313
00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:21,000
At three o'clock that afternoon we were at about 25,000 feet.

314
00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:25,000
It was hard to breathe now. Terribly hard.

315
00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:27,000
We decided to rest for a few minutes.

316
00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:35,000
I remember looking down from the ridge, looking down into the incredible scene below and then up

317
00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:42,000
and the peak which loomed over us clear against the sky, perhaps 1,500, 2,000 feet over us.

318
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:53,000
I remembered Perucci's excitement as he'd seen it further down and even then I thought it could be beaten, that we might do it.

319
00:13:53,000 --> 00:14:02,000
We'll use the oxygen from here as soon as we start again.

320
00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:05,000
We can't do any more today.

321
00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:07,000
We can.

322
00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:08,000
Go higher.

323
00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:10,000
Then what?

324
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:14,000
When it gets dark, camp.

325
00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:19,000
Finish it tomorrow if we don't today.

326
00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:22,000
If the storm comes up we'll be in trouble.

327
00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,000
They won't.

328
00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,000
They're going to make it I know.

329
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:27,000
I know we are.

330
00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:29,000
They haven't been far.

331
00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:31,000
It doesn't matter after that.

332
00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:33,000
We'll have to go down to the others.

333
00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:35,000
Yeah.

334
00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:36,000
I suppose so.

335
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:40,000
We'll have to tell them about Perucci.

336
00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:42,000
Yes?

337
00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:46,000
Are we going to tell the same story?

338
00:14:46,000 --> 00:14:49,000
I think we will.

339
00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:53,000
Do you know why I followed you?

340
00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:56,000
Why I came along?

341
00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:57,000
Yes.

342
00:14:57,000 --> 00:14:59,000
Just like that.

343
00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:01,000
Yes.

344
00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:04,000
You murdered a man and that's all there is to it.

345
00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:05,000
No.

346
00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:07,000
It wasn't murder.

347
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:09,000
I was afraid.

348
00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:11,000
In Europe I went over with all goats.

349
00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:13,000
Oh, it was the only way.

350
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:18,000
If you'd waited, we could have got him out.

351
00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:20,000
I didn't know it then.

352
00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:22,000
I thought myself, go ahead.

353
00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:23,000
I had to do it.

354
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:24,000
And what's all this for?

355
00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:27,000
To wipe out the sin?

356
00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:29,000
Get to the peak and be a man again?

357
00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:30,000
Yeah.

358
00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:31,000
No way.

359
00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:34,000
Perhaps you won't be.

360
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:36,000
You'll never be.

361
00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:39,000
When this gets out and it's going to,

362
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:42,000
there'll be no place for you to hide.

363
00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:44,000
No place to go.

364
00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:52,000
Well, we'd better get moving.

365
00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:55,000
We began to use the oxygen, sparingly,

366
00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:59,000
and kept moving up, slower and slower.

367
00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:02,000
Our hearts pounding with the effort.

368
00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:06,000
100 feet, 200, 300.

369
00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:09,000
And I began to feel lightheaded.

370
00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:11,000
I couldn't.

371
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,000
Now another step.

372
00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:15,000
I couldn't.

373
00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:18,000
And then it was 400 feet.

374
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:21,000
A hellish collapse in front of me.

375
00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:24,000
Lay in the fine snow, sobbing.

376
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:29,000
And stop.

377
00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:31,000
Stop here.

378
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,000
No.

379
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,000
We've got to go on.

380
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:37,000
No.

381
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:42,000
We've got to.

382
00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:45,000
And sobbed like a child.

383
00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:47,000
His mind willed him to keep going,

384
00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:50,000
but his body wouldn't allow him.

385
00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:52,000
We lay there using our precious oxygen

386
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:54,000
because I think had we not done so,

387
00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:57,000
we'd have died of fatigue.

388
00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:00,000
The wind had disappeared completely.

389
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:03,000
And there was a silence so complete

390
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:07,000
that you could almost imagine it bore a sound in itself.

391
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:08,000
Deadening.

392
00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:10,000
Awful.

393
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,000
We made camp and cried to sleep.

394
00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:15,000
We were too tired to think of food.

395
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:18,000
And then with the night came a heavy mist.

396
00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:21,000
They began to grow much colder.

397
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:24,000
The morning of May 20th was gray.

398
00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:27,000
The peak of the mountain was shrouded.

399
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,000
And I knew it was going to snow.

400
00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:32,000
Directly ahead of us was an ice wall.

401
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:35,000
There was no way around it.

402
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:37,000
We had to climb almost vertically,

403
00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:41,000
cut our own steps with ice axes one by one,

404
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:43,000
and climb.

405
00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:47,000
This time I took the lead.

406
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,000
And as I nodded the rope, Eldred said,

407
00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:52,000
you don't trust me, do you?

408
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:55,000
You're afraid if I'm leading and you fall,

409
00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:57,000
I'll cut the rope again.

410
00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:59,000
You might.

411
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:02,000
Let's go.

412
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:07,000
At that point we had ascended 25,400 feet.

413
00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:10,000
The ice wall would take us another hundred higher.

414
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:21,000
The wind began to blow again when we were halfway up.

415
00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:24,000
We'll move around to the right after this step.

416
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:26,000
There's a bit of a ledge.

417
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:31,000
All right?

418
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:34,000
Okay. Come on.

419
00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:37,000
No, wait. We can't stop.

420
00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:39,000
The oxygen won't hold out.

421
00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:42,000
We'll go back.

422
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,000
This is it.

423
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,000
Snow might keep up for days.

424
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:48,000
I'm going up.

425
00:18:48,000 --> 00:18:50,000
You can't see six feet ahead of you.

426
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:51,000
That's enough.

427
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:53,000
I'm not going to give up now.

428
00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:54,000
We're too close.

429
00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:55,000
You're crazy.

430
00:18:55,000 --> 00:18:57,000
Yeah, I guess so.

431
00:18:57,000 --> 00:18:58,000
You're coming?

432
00:18:58,000 --> 00:19:00,000
Yes, I am.

433
00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:03,000
I want to get you back alive.

434
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:11,000
The snow on the pyramid was solid.

435
00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,000
Even with the blizzard it was comparatively easy going.

436
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:18,000
And then the slope seemed to lurch.

437
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:22,000
And I had a split second to see the waves of snow pouring down on me.

438
00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:24,000
An avalanche swept us down.

439
00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:43,000
I'd stopped falling.

440
00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:48,000
My first stop when I came through, I wasn't dead.

441
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:51,000
Then I saw a pair of legs pout next to me.

442
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:55,000
I didn't think that you were going to make it.

443
00:19:55,000 --> 00:19:57,000
Where'd that land?

444
00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:00,000
Hanging over the ice wall.

445
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,000
You were behind me.

446
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:04,000
You didn't go over.

447
00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:06,000
No, don't ask me why.

448
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:10,000
There must have been a corner at the avalanche that hit us.

449
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:14,000
You ended up pulling me down.

450
00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:19,000
My axe caught in one of the steps that held us both.

451
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:22,000
Then you pulled me up.

452
00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:25,000
Yeah, yeah, it looks like it.

453
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:27,000
Thanks.

454
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:29,000
How long have you been out?

455
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:31,000
About an hour.

456
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:33,000
A little more.

457
00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:34,000
The blizzard's letting up?

458
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:35,000
Yeah.

459
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,000
You feel like going on?

460
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:40,000
I think so.

461
00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:42,000
All right.

462
00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:44,000
Will you tell me something?

463
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:45,000
What?

464
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:48,000
Why did you pull me out of it?

465
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:52,000
Why didn't you just let me go over the edge?

466
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:55,000
Then you wouldn't have had me around to tell.

467
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:57,000
I'm not a murderer, Bob.

468
00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:00,000
I cut Norman's rope because I was afraid.

469
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:05,000
If I thought there was even a chance of us not falling, I wouldn't have done it.

470
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,000
But I didn't, though.

471
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:10,000
Now, it doesn't excuse me, but it...

472
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:14,000
It doesn't mean that I'd kill you to get out of it.

473
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:18,000
Well, we've got to save the chalk. We'll need our breath.

474
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:20,000
Now, do you want to leave?

475
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:22,000
Or shall I?

476
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:24,000
I'll do it.

477
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:35,000
The storm had passed, and all we could see was the cold sky again.

478
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:39,000
The peak was still only occasionally visible through patches of mist.

479
00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:41,000
We went up.

480
00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:42,000
Higher.

481
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:43,000
Higher.

482
00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:47,000
Then my oxygen tank gave out, and we had to share altitude.

483
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:51,000
We'd nearly reached 26,000 feet, and we could see the top.

484
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,000
For a moment, it stood out clear.

485
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:57,000
And it looked so easy, the last lap.

486
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:05,000
But by now, we could move only a few steps at a time, till we had to rest.

487
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:10,000
And I couldn't get up again.

488
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:16,000
Hey, look. Looks pretty easy.

489
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:19,000
If I set ridge, I...

490
00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:21,000
I have to wait.

491
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,000
Huh? All right.

492
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:27,000
You wait for me. I'll go off.

493
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:30,000
No, we'll... we'll do it together.

494
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:31,000
Huh?

495
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:34,000
Just wait a couple minutes.

496
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:37,000
It'll be getting dark.

497
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:38,000
I'll be back for you.

498
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,000
No, don't. I'll be back.

499
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:45,000
Here. Here. You take the oxygen.

500
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:46,000
I don't need it.

501
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:47,000
No, don't. No.

502
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:51,000
I won't need it. Here.

503
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:53,000
Wait here.

504
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:56,000
Now, I'll get down again.

505
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,000
Oh, wait.

506
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:03,000
I... I'm sorry I was afraid.

507
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:07,000
I still am afraid.

508
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:10,000
Now, that's why I...

509
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:13,000
I've got to do it.

510
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:16,000
You understand?

511
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:18,000
Yeah.

512
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:23,000
Fell off, Bob.

513
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:29,000
I didn't have the strength to stop him as he untied the rope which held us together.

514
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,000
And he was gone.

515
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,000
And after a while, I felt stronger and I sat up.

516
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:44,000
I could see him, a dark blob against the mountain of snow, smaller, smaller.

517
00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:46,000
And he was climbing upward.

518
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:53,000
He'd reached the final pinnacle and become a dot that was lost in the mist.

519
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:56,000
I saw Eldridge once more.

520
00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:01,000
He couldn't have been more than 250 feet below the peak.

521
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:03,000
For perhaps 10 seconds I saw him.

522
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,000
And then he disappeared.

523
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,000
I waited.

524
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,000
And waited into the night.

525
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:12,000
And the next morning I began to look for him.

526
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,000
But the oxygen was gone.

527
00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:19,000
I knew that if I had to climb another foot, I'd die.

528
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,000
And so I turned back.

529
00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:25,000
There was no wind anymore.

530
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:28,000
It was almost warm.

531
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:36,000
Somehow I got down, down to the base camp, and I told them the story.

532
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:40,000
Almost the whole story, but not quite.

533
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:49,000
I changed a rope which had been cut with a knife into a rope which had frayed and parted on the ice.

534
00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:57,000
I remember as we started down to the valley below, I turned and stood a minute looking back,

535
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:01,000
looking up.

536
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:06,000
And then a cloud softly poured over the peak.

537
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:11,000
And in a moment the mountain was gone.

538
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:34,000
Music

539
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:43,000
Suspense, in which Parley Bearer and Ben Wright starred in tonight's presentation of the mountain.

540
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Next week, a story of what might have happened to the first atomic-powered submarine.

541
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We call it X-915.

542
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:56,000
That's next week on Suspense.

543
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Music