http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/24/newsid_2538000/2538093.stm
The cold was intense. I couldn't feel my feet at all, and the hairs in my ears felt like icicles. I was getting snow-blindness and had great difficulty keeping my eyes open. The wind roared all around us, sounding like an express train in a tunnel.
Slowly we moved upwards until we saw the top. Even though every bone in my body ached, I felt as happy as I have ever felt in my life. We had finally reached the one place on Earth where you can truly say, "The only direction is down!"
Even with the wind nearly blowing us off our feet, we looked around in a 360 degree vista, looking into China, back into Nepal, and on the horizon, the glow of India, hundreds of kilometres away. I even thought I could see the azure blue of the ocean - the Indian Ocean, but I think it was my snow-blindness playing tricks with my vision.
With a splitting headache but my heart full of joy, I finally stepped down from the summit of Mount Everest, knowing that I would never forget this moment - never in a million years.
Robert L. Fielding
The cold was intense. I couldn't feel my feet at all, and the hairs in my ears felt like icicles. I was getting snow-blindness and had great difficulty keeping my eyes open. The wind roared all around us, sounding like an express train in a tunnel.
Slowly we moved upwards until we saw the top. Even though every bone in my body ached, I felt as happy as I have ever felt in my life. We had finally reached the one place on Earth where you can truly say, "The only direction is down!"
Even with the wind nearly blowing us off our feet, we looked around in a 360 degree vista, looking into China, back into Nepal, and on the horizon, the glow of India, hundreds of kilometres away. I even thought I could see the azure blue of the ocean - the Indian Ocean, but I think it was my snow-blindness playing tricks with my vision.
With a splitting headache but my heart full of joy, I finally stepped down from the summit of Mount Everest, knowing that I would never forget this moment - never in a million years.
Robert L. Fielding
