Wang Shi's near-death experience of climbing Mount Everest

202 1 1.26 The son of Li was taken from Wang Shi: My Change.

Recently, I was reading Wang Shi's autobiography My Change, in which his near-death experience when climbing Mount Everest for the first time left a deep impression on me. One of them realized that "what people needed to get rid of at that time was not the feeling of pain, but the sweetness." I was very moved and had a long aftertaste.

Extract this paragraph for easy sharing.

(The following is an excerpt)

At an altitude of more than 7500 meters, the living space of human beings is extremely narrow. No matter how well the adaptive training is done, most people have to supplement oxygen to survive and continue climbing after crossing that height.

But in fact, even with oxygen, people's brains and bodies are damaged every minute at that altitude. A large number of brain cells died, blood became sticky, and capillaries in the retina began to bleed. Hypothermia is prone to high altitude pulmonary edema, high altitude cerebral edema and frostbite, and sometimes the vision is seriously damaged. What is even more frightening is that people's judgment will also decline rapidly. According to the estimation of alpine medicine, at an altitude of more than 8000 meters, a person's intelligence is probably equivalent to a six-year-old child.

At noon on May 22, 2003, on the way to the top of Mount Everest for the first time, I met the limit state caused by lack of oxygen.

On the day of the summit, the captain gave me special treatment considering my age, equipped me with two mountaineering guides and brought an extra bottle of oxygen. I used to take care of myself at ordinary times, but I was not sure on the snowy mountain, so I accepted the arrangement of the captain.

Because one more bottle of oxygen, the flow will be greater and you can have a better state. However, during the summit, a member of the British team was injured, and one of my mountaineering guides joined the escort and took away another bottle of oxygen. After climbing the second step, the remaining bottle of oxygen was used up ahead of schedule.

When the oxygen ran out, I immediately felt difficult to breathe, and my chest seemed to explode. It is only more than 600 meters from the summit, but my steps are getting smaller and smaller, and the pause time is getting longer and longer. On the intercom, the captain ordered me to retreat immediately! At this time, there is almost no feeling, even no fear, only the will is still there: go up and talk.

After reaching the top, I only stayed for a few minutes and then began to descend. It's cloudy, windy and snowy. But when walking, why does the back of your head feel warm? Is there sunshine? Instinctively nodded. Of course there is no sun. Walking again, I feel this warm feeling, from the back of my head to my forehead, to my cheeks, to my chest ... Besides, I feel very, very sleepy. There is a feeling that as long as you squat down and close your eyes, you will immediately enter heaven. It will be beautiful. But at the same time, another voice warned himself that he couldn't sleep squatting, and he couldn't get up squatting.

I struggled for more than 20 minutes in this state, and then my drowsiness disappeared and I felt the snow again.

On the way after that, the tour guide helped me pick up the remaining oxygen bottles and put them on. It was not until the altitude of 8550 meters that we found a bottle of oxygen bottles with a surplus of 1/3, which was out of danger.

I read relevant books before going to Everest, and I know that people will feel sleepy under severe hypoxia. If you can't sleep, you basically won't wake up. The team doctor later said that when I had the illusion of sunshine, I was already in a state of dying. The warmth of the whole body is the last light when people are dying, which means that the last energy supply has been mobilized. But when I was in that state, I didn't expect that feeling to be so sweet, and the whole person was surrounded by a very strong sense of sweetness. In fact, those more than 20 minutes were the most dangerous time in my life, but it was not painful at all. What people at that time needed to get rid of was not the feeling of pain, but the sweetness.

Although another world makes you feel beautiful, you'd rather stay in this less beautiful world, and it's really hard to get rid of the temptation of that sweet feeling right away. I have a deeper understanding of why many climbers fell asleep after sitting down in this situation and never woke up. Maybe they can't resist the temptation.

When I got rid of the temptation to slow down, I felt that the snow was heavy and it was difficult to walk, but it was easier to get rid of that sweet feeling than to suffer again.

Life, is it the same?