018 HIMALAYADRENALINE As it turned out, after the ever so often impatient Mallory had left them behind, Finch and Bruce lost their track and got caught in a blizzard that punished them with -40 temperatures. Bruce was haunted by the deadly glance of the Dalai Lama, and his petrified fear at 8000 metres also took hold of his ears and fingers, bruised and darkened in inauspicious rainbows. The pair had to sleep together under a collapsing tent and they were even more petrified by the time they woke up, even though it is unconceivable that they could sleep at all. Next morning, at 4am, Bruce could barely breathe. His condition was worsening as much as the weather, and Finch knew that there was only one way to keep him alive: supplementary oxygen. He also took a dose himself, and the boost almost sent both men sprinting to the top of the world. In the blink of an eye, the morbid Bruce turned into the most agile climber zombie ever seen, while Finch couldn’t have been happier with himself: he had just corroborated that oxygen was the answer. The miraculous effect helped them ascend at thunderous speed to the highest altitude ever reached by a man not named George Mallory: 8333 metres, an instant world record. MOCXYGEN George Finch (1888-1970) had been the only staunch believer of the potential benefits of bringing oxygen to the summit, and was mocked during months by the rest of the climbing party, either to his face or behind his back. The geographer and astronomer Arthur Hinks, an alleged man of science, was already taking the piss months before the start of the expedition. He tried to persuade General Bruce, the army leader of the venture, to drop Finch before starting the mission. “This afternoon we go to see a gas drill. They have contrived a most wonderful apparatus, which will make you die laughing. Pray to see that picture of Finch in his patent climbing outfit with the gas apparatus is taken by the official photographer. I would gladly put a little money on Mallory to go to 25,000 ft without assistance of four cylinders and a mask.” ANGELS George Finch had saved the day, his life and Bruce’s. And yet, he rather triggered than prevented the tragedy that the Dalai Lama had tried to avert in words and envisioned with his third eye. The death of the seven brave porters would be the result of the wounded pride of a man. Finch was alongside Mal lory the most talented mountaineer of the cl imbing crew, and instead of reinvigorate the attempt wi th a cri t ical breath of l i fe, his feat only served to wound the pride of the latter, who then recklessly walked the seven Nepal i to thei r cruel death and himsel f to a state of despai r that would haunt him unt i l his own end, which would happen in a matter of two years chi l l ingly close to the stretch of snow where his porters laid buried. The second Bri t ish attempt to stab the Union Jack on the peak of the world had to be axed in tragic and undesi rable fashion in June of 1922. KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS “ In wri t ing you must ki l l al l your darl ings.” (Wi l l iam Faulkner) NOWHERE: A FURIOUS FARM IN MISSISSIPPI, 1922. On an indi fferent morning of 1922, the quoted wri ter went for a strol l in the outski rts of a town he didn’ t necessari ly love. He was going around a fami ly farm that had known i ts splendour unt i l very recent ly. Instead, the property was now derel ict , and the idle offspring of the ruined parents were running around l ike headless chickens in tattered clothes outside the overgrown garden.
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