Hell Is Above Us: The Epic Race to the Top of Fumu, the World's Tallest Mountain, Jonathan Bloom [best ebook reader TXT] 📗

notice. First there was Sebastian Drake, a man who had climbed in the Himalaya more than any other person on either the Hoyt or Junk expeditions. On his list of adventures he could count Ama Dablam, Annapurna, Nanga Parbat, K2, and Everest. He had not reached the summit of any of them so his hunger for success was immense. He had no problem joining Hoyt for the expedition because his wife had passed on one year earlier and he had retired from General Motors the previous year. Being the company’s top scientist, he had retired a millionaire. Drake was a short, stocky man, standing only five feet two inches, but practically as wide. He wore spectacles no matter what the situation. He was a natural-born tinkerer and since retiring had already devised several new pieces of climbing equipment he felt would improve a man’s odds of vanquishing a mountain. The Fumu expedition provided him with a perfect opportunity to test his creations out in the field.

Also along for the journey was William Chatham, a Texas billionaire oil baron who hardly worked at all any more. He spent most of his time adventuring; one year in the Amazon rain forest, the next in the South Pole. Joining Hoyt was simply another item to add to his list of cocktail party topics. The old boy did enjoy his alcohol and palaver. Tall and handsome for a man of advanced age, with a tan complexion and a full head of bright white hair, Chatham would hold forth at any social gathering, recounting tales of mystery and daring do at the far corners of the Earth. Without exception he was the hero of the story. In one such tale, a fellow explorer is attacked by a conger eel along the Nile. It has swallowed the man’s arm up to the elbow. Chatham swoops in and administers a judo chop to the eel’s head. It dies instantly. The eel is now in his study acting as a pen holder.

The only issue with Chatham’s yarns was no one was ever around who could corroborate them. And more than once, he had fellow explorers sign off on documentation stating they would not tell their side of the story for ten years, making Chatham’s the sole account. He was able to get several book deals from this and also became a favourite subject for articles in National Geographic and Life. For the Fumu expedition, William Hoyt was confident Chatham would live up to his legend. Even if he did not and he was only one tenth the man he claimed to be, Hoyt would have a solid climber on his side. However, he would have to ignore Chatham’s personality as it was quite the opposite of his own and quite similar to Aaron Junk’s.

Hoyt rounded out his list of older, seasoned climbers with Oscar Wilde. Wilde had no relation to the infamous writer and was very quick to make that clear. In fact, he could not stand the writer, who he felt to be nothing more than a depraved, half-crazed libertine. Like Hoyt, Wilde was a reserved, fastidious man who felt speech is not like a case of cigarettes to be taken out and enjoyed whenever the mood strikes. Speech is more like a hammer, used only in very specific cases to perform specific tasks. These characteristics made Wilde a personal favorite of Hoyt’s. The man was gigantic; six foot five and thick. His neck had the girth of a broken carousel that did not make it all of the way around. His fingers looked like Italian meats hanging in a shop window on the Lower East Side of New York City. However, Wilde kept this large frame very still unless climbing, arms crossed while standing, or hands placed neatly on his thighs while sitting, as if posing for a family portrait. Wilde was a masterful climber, having climbed peaks on all seven continents. He was born into wealth which gave him as much time as he wanted to go off on his adventures.

Less experienced but by no means less able were Ramsey Thornton and Frederick Ferguson. These two last-minute additions to the team were brought in because, although young, they were both known as good climbers and they brought certain required expertise to the team. Referred to Hoyt by academic connections in New York City, Thornton was an assistant professor of linguistics at Columbia University, fluent in both Nepali and Tibetan. Luckily for Hoyt, Thornton happened to be on sabbatical that fall and had no problem joining the expedition to Fumu. He had no climbing experience whatsoever but he exhibited such a level of athleticism many found him off-putting, like being in the presence of a species whose actions mimicked humans but were subtly alien. He had almost gone to the Olympics for track and field in 1936 but chose not to go due to the death of both of his parents in an automobile accident. Hoyt felt such discipline of body, mind, and spirit were sufficient for the task at hand.

Ferguson was the Swiss army knife of the team. Having been promoted to Eagle Scout in his home state of Michigan at the tender age of fourteen, he was an expert at navigation, tracking sign, and general survival. He was also a doctor who in medical school had concentrated on the effects of high altitude on the human body. Ferguson was also a disciple of John Harvey Kellogg, the famous nutritionist from his home state. Ferguson lectured all over Michigan about the efficacy of vegetarianism, celibacy, enemas, and a method Ferguson called “quinine suffusion” - a process in which a patient is given gallons of tonic water both orally and otherwise for the purpose of cleansing the gastrointestinal tract. The liquid is administered until it is literally suffusing out of the patient’s pores. The process was said to promote vim as well as the “stability of intestinal flora.” Kellogg himself had considered employing the procedure on