Tibetan Mastiff Notes

Chapter 24 Wolf kills wolf (1)
21. A snowstorm is coming
I also know that climbing such a steep iceberg in such a snowy day is undoubtedly tantamount to death, but seeing a few people who are waiting for rescue trapped to death on the iceberg, I can't help it.I said, "I'm sure, they're on this mountain, but they haven't been able to determine their location yet. They may be trapped at the wind outlet."

Uncle Xianba was sitting facing the door, walked over, opened the door, and looked at Tianzi Peak in the distance, frowning tightly.Dajie said: "Father, wait until tomorrow morning to see the situation. Otherwise, if you are at home, I will go with brother!"

Dajie is as aggressive as I am, and young people probably don't want to show weakness in front of others, especially in front of me, a former soldier.Dajie seemed to want to prove that he would not be worse than me in the future, and said confidently: "Abba, we climbed once last year, and that time it was a sudden blizzard. Didn't we go down the mountain safely?"

Uncle Xianba is an experienced old mountaineer. He knows when to go up the mountain and when not to go up the mountain. He has been hesitant and has not spoken. Later, seeing that Dajie and I are determined to go up to Tianzi Peak, he finally nodded. Promise to see the situation tomorrow morning.Jiang is still old and hot, but Uncle Xianba’s composure and calmness are incomparable to those of us young people. However, he is an old man after all. Both of them are over half a hundred years old, and they are no longer suitable for the physically demanding sport of climbing snow mountains. up.

At night, the two old people were asleep, but I couldn't fall asleep anyway. I stood at the door and looked at Tianzi Peak in the distance.The outline of the mountain was blurred into a watercolor in the dark night, and it was not known whether those trapped on the iceberg could survive such a cold night.Dajie thought about going to Tianzi Peak tomorrow, but he couldn't sleep, so he searched for things.I saw him take out several large boxes under the bed, rummage through them one by one, and put the ones that fit into the bag: seat belts, ascenders, descenders, carabiners, nooses, ice axes , small ice ax, alpine boots, crampons, snow poles, helmets, snowboards, alpine glasses, plateau lighters, knives, ice picks... one after another, shaking all over the floor.I went to help him. It seems that Uncle Xianba was indeed a real mountaineer back then. The equipment at home is very complete, and there is more than one set, and some even have four or five pieces.

Dajie handed me a SUUNTO (Songtuo) Advisor-style mountaineering watch, and said: "This spring asked someone to buy it. I used to have an old one, but it was a CASIO (Casio) mountaineering watch. There are many People say that CASIO is not as comfortable and accurate as SUUNTO, but I think it’s not bad to use, and it’s just fine.”

I know that the main function of the mountaineering watch is to measure the atmospheric pressure. During the mountaineering, the atmospheric pressure of the location can be measured to calculate the altitude.This function can play a great role in snow mountain climbing and general outdoor mountain climbing, and it can even save lives.Coupled with an accurate mountain-shaped altitude map and a mountaineering watch and pointer, you can calculate your geographical location. Therefore, the accuracy of the mountaineering watch is very important. The difference is only plus or minus 20 meters. The calculated difference is will be great.

The biggest feature of the Finnish SUNNTOAdvisor mountaineering watch is that it not only has almost all the functions of other models of "wrist computers", but also comes with a sensitive and reliable heart rate monitor.Combining the heart rate monitor with the altimeter and the countdown function can monitor the state of your body at any time and avoid danger to the greatest extent.

I tried wearing the watch on my wrist, and it felt okay, so I said it was borrowed temporarily, and I would return it to Dajie after I went down the mountain.Dajie smiled and said, "You don't have to pay it back, it's my meeting gift for my elder brother." I said, "How can I do that? It's such a valuable thing."

SUNNTO's mountaineering watches are expensive, and the price in foreign countries is about three hundred dollars. Even in China, a strap costs several hundred dollars.How can you accept such an expensive gift when you meet for the first time?

Dajie didn't argue with me either. He said that he had an uncle in Hong Kong who was engaged in this business. He had a mountaineering watch, which he could afford, and then he went to shake off the mountaineering suit.Dajie and his father earned a lot of money by being guides.

The Xianba family has grown quite tall, and Dajie is about the same size as me. He dug out a mountaineering suit for me to try on, and it was just right.Dajie said how many sets he had, including three-layer underwear, socks, and gloves. Dajie dug out one by one, and then arranged them together, saying that he could wear them when he got up early in the morning.The colors of the mountaineering clothes are very bright, either red or orange, which is convenient for searching and keeping in touch with each other on the ice and snow peaks.In fact, it is not right for us to do this at all. If we decide to climb the mountain tomorrow, we should ensure adequate sleep and physical strength tonight. I suggest Dajie to rest early.

Dajie let me go to bed first. He said that the equipment has been stored for a long time and has not been used this winter. It needs to be baked overnight to remove moisture.Keeping warm on plateau icebergs is the most important thing. The cooling power of water is 23 times that of cold air. A little moisture in clothes can make the body temperature drop rapidly.

This is my first time preparing to climb a snow-capped mountain, so I naturally know much less than Xianba's family, who live at the foot of the snow-capped mountain.Climbing the snow mountain is far more complicated and dangerous than the usual downhill or rock climbing. I helped Dajie tidy up his clothes and put them on the stove to dry.Early the next morning, the clothes were dry and light and soft to the touch, with the warmth of the stove.

Dajie and I got up at dawn and put on the equipment one by one according to the three-layer wearing method. The inner layer wears polyethylene water-repellent material underwear and socks, and the middle layer is pure wool and pile (soft fleece) The warm layer of the material, and the outermost layer is covered with cold-insulating, windproof, and waterproof mountaineering clothing.

Until the time of eating, Uncle Xianba did not say whether to climb or not, but said that we should not wear climbing clothes so early, and we may sweat when eating.Dajie and I didn't drink the steaming broth, but just ate two pieces of dried yak meat.Uncle Xianba finished his meal, and then went outside to look at the sky, shook his head while looking at it, and said, "The weather is not good, maybe there will be heavy snow again today."

Dajie said: "Father, you stay at home with Ake Duoji, it's fine for me and elder brother to go, it will be troublesome if there are too many people."

Uncle Xianba didn't say anything, turned around to sort out the equipment, then put on the hiking suit layer by layer, and while putting on the hiking boots, he said: "Don't look at me as an old guy, I still have more experience than you. The first boy is much richer. Duoji, I rely on you to take care of the house, and if you don’t come back before dark, you will definitely go down the mountain tomorrow.” Uncle Xianba said, and asked Dajie to roll up the alpine tent and take it with him.The weight of the alpine tent is not light. In addition, they are all thickly dressed and packed with a lot of mountaineering equipment. Dajie and Uncle Xianba are a bit overwhelmed.

I carried the tent on my back and brought the equipment with me. I used to carry [-] to [-] kilograms for a quick march, and I didn't find it difficult, but when I walked in the snow, it didn't feel like that.Especially when I got to the foot of the mountain and prepared to climb the mountain, I had walked a long way, and my physical strength was exhausted. Tianzi Peak is very steep, and it is extremely difficult to climb even when there is no snow. Coupled with carrying a lot of heavy equipment, food and water, it is extremely difficult to maintain the balance of the center of gravity.

It was past noon, and an hour later, we only climbed up less than 100 meters. The wind was so strong that even wearing alpine glasses felt the wind hurt our eyes, and every step up was very difficult.

When I was writing this book, I was sitting in front of the computer, and I remembered that not long ago, Mount Everest passed the torch and climbed more than 50 meters in a few hours. Compared with them, we were much luckier when we climbed Tianzi Peak, at least in terms of speed. Not too slow.Although the wind was strong and the snow was thick, it was lucky that it hadn't started to snow yet.

We climbed up another 50 meters. Uncle Xianba pointed upward to a pass on the side of the iceberg and said: "This mountain is very steep. Once you go up the mountain, you can only climb up continuously. Except for the pass, it is slightly flat. Some, but the wind is very strong, if we can’t find those people in the dark, we have to go to the pass to set up a tent and wait for the next morning to go down the mountain.” I said: “I heard those people’s help from the radio, listen to There is a lot of wind inside, and it should be on the edge or near the valley, otherwise, I might not be able to receive any signal." Dajie said to his father: "The place my brother mentioned should be more The place where the couple was trapped last year was much farther away, it was a valley mouth, and it was the only place where they could temporarily rest, the wind was very strong, and although it was a slope, there was a sunken hillside where they could hide.” Uncle Xianba said: "There is still a long way to go to that place, about 800 meters above sea level. I don't know how those people climbed up. When is it not good to climb the mountain, I chose this blizzard weather."

I know that Uncle Xianba was also very brave and aggressive when he was young, but when he got older, he had more taboos. How did he know that young people nowadays, for the sake of adventure and novelty, life has been ranked after hobbies , especially those foreigners who like to bet their lives.It may be that those people did not expect such a sudden change of bad weather before they went up the mountain. They didn't realize that the situation was bad until they were trapped, but they could no longer go down the mountain.

The snow on the mountain is very thick, and the violent wind is like an invisible big hand, pressing the snow tightly and tightly layer by layer. When it freezes again at night, the whole Tianzi Peak is frozen like a huge ice sculpture. Another thick layer of snow has accumulated. When I first step on it, I feel my feet sinking, and I have to use force unconsciously. As soon as I use force, the ice shell at the bottom is slippery again. go.I didn't expect the actual situation of Tianzi Peak to be so bad. Uncle Xianba and Dajie have much more experience than me. They told me these situations and reminded me to be careful.

After I learned the specific facts, I formulated a more feasible climbing method for myself according to the local conditions: I fixed the crampons on the hiking boots, and every time I stepped on the ground, I buckled down the crampons vigorously to grab the The layer of ice shell under the snow, and then use the ice ax to stabilize the center of gravity, so that you can use your strength when climbing, which is much more comfortable.

Uncle Xianba and his son may have walked this kind of snowy road a lot in the past, and the bottom few hundred meters did not use crampons, and Uncle Xianba told me to go up a certain distance, because it is a downwind slope, the wind Blow all the snow from far away and accumulate it there. The snow layer will be very thick and loose. When you get there, you can’t use crampons. If your feet get stuck, you have to change snowboards.I looked up, and now I was still far away from the place Uncle Semba said. Looking up from a distance, the sky was gray and the climate was very cold. I couldn’t see the top of the mountain clearly, only a thick layer of fog could be seen. , above a piece of white, like a world of ice and snow.

Three or four hours have passed, the sky is a little cold, and the sky is getting darker and darker. The difficult ice and snow climbing consumes a lot of energy and heat. I feel that Dajie is right.

When I went out, in order to keep warm, I secretly drank a bowl of spicy beef soup. As a result, there was a thin layer of sweat on my back. It may be that the inner underwear absorbed the sweat, but it was not easy to dry. The plateau As soon as the cold wind on the mountain blows, I feel that the body temperature inside the body seems to drop sharply.The cooling power of the water is much faster than that of the air. I felt a burst of cold on the back of the vest, and knew that I couldn't stop to rest. As long as I stopped and the wind blew again, I might shiver with cold.

Uncle Xianba proposed to take a break first and eat something to replenish his strength. At this time, I had no appetite to eat, and I felt a chill on my back and a little nausea.I suggest that Uncle Ba and Dajie take a break first and have something to eat, while I continue to climb up and step on the road first, and then Uncle Ba and Dajie follow my footsteps and come up again.

This idea is actually good, but Uncle Xianba thinks that this is the first time for me to climb such a steep snow-capped mountain. It is really dangerous for me to go up by myself like this. I said that people who have served in the army are afraid of this?It is not the first time for me to climb a mountain, but I have never experienced such a thick snow before.

Uncle Xianba is over half a hundred years old, and his hair is a little gray. He really shouldn't be allowed to come with him this time, he was so tired that he was panting.Dajie's physical fitness is far inferior to mine, and he also feels tired.Hearing what I said, Uncle Xianba and his son looked at each other, nodded and agreed, and pointed me to a road that might be easier to walk.

I re-tightened the crampons on my hiking boots, and climbed up with heavy mountaineering equipment on my back. Although Tianzi Peak is an inconspicuous small mountain, its name may not be found on the map, but it is such a mountain. The little-known hill is so steep.I was carrying heavy equipment and had to try my best to lean forward so as to maintain the minimum balance.In addition, the more I go up, the thinner the oxygen, the colder the air, and the heavier the pressure. Every strenuous step consumes a lot of physical energy, but I can still hold on. The strict physical training I received in the army, This is where it comes in handy.

Twenty minutes later, I used the fastest speed at that time, against the strong wind blowing from the side, and climbed up another 10 meters. This speed was already very fast at that time, and I didn't even believe it.Stretching out my wrist, I looked at my mountaineering watch and calculated according to the atmospheric pressure at that time. I was already close to 50 meters above sea level.

Uncle Xianba and Dajie have started to continue climbing. Uncle Xianba took out a small horn and shouted at me from below: "Stop, stop first..."

The wind was very strong, and the sound of the small trumpet was quickly blown away by the wind. The wind blew up all the snow on the mountain, making the whole mountain foggy.I vaguely heard the voices below, so I stopped, waiting for Uncle Xianba and the others to come up.

Uncle Xianba had a hard time walking, so I had to step back a little way to pick him up. Uncle Xianba said: "It is almost impossible to go up any further. The mountain was originally sloped, but now there is a layer of ice , and covered with a layer of snow, it becomes almost a right angle. When climbers arrive here, they usually have to go around the slope next to it. The mountain on the side is relatively sloping, so it is easier to walk, but the wind is strong and the snow is thick. We're going to have to switch to snowshoes here."

We found a slightly flatter snow field where we could put our butts down, took off our backpacks, and the snowshoes tied outside, I untied the tight crampons and put on the snowshoes .

Originally, we could put on snowboards when we first climbed the mountain, but because the road was too slippery, we were afraid of slipping, so we didn't have them.Snowboards are similar in shape to snowboards. Although they are shorter than snowboards and do not have such a good decompression effect, they are much more flexible and more suitable for climbing snow-capped mountains.After putting on the snowboard, part of the pressure on the body is broken down, and it is much easier for us to climb again.I was the first to change the snowboards. Uncle Ba tied up his snowboards first, then checked mine and Dajie's snowboards, and then set off again.

I thought the wind along the way was strong enough. According to Uncle Xianba's instructions, after turning a steep slope, I realized what a strong mountain wind is.That section of the slope was very difficult to walk, very sloping, and a bit steep. I almost leaned my whole body onto the mountain, stepping on the snowboard hard with my feet, holding the snow wall tightly with my ten fingers, bit by bit. overturned.As soon as I turned over, the wind that suddenly swooped towards my head almost staggered me. I completely underestimated the strength of the wind behind the slope, so I hurriedly stabilized my body's center of gravity, and slid down a big step on the snowboard.I immediately adjusted the direction of my body, and pulled that leg back abruptly.

Uncle Xianba was the second to climb the slope, but he didn't turn it over. Maybe it was not a difficult task for him when he was young, but now that he is old, the slope is slippery and steep, and Uncle Xianba couldn't climb it. He was hung there.Uncle Xianba couldn't get up, so Dajie was stuck below, and he didn't dare to push his father with his hands, otherwise both of them would roll down.I leaned half of my body out, hung on the other side of the slope with my two legs, pouted my buttocks, leaned out most of my body, and shouted at Uncle Xianba: "Give me your hand! Hand! Hand!..."

Uncle Xianba handed me his right hand, and with his left hand he squeezed the snow on the mountain wall tightly. As soon as I grabbed Uncle Xianba's hand, I pulled it up hard.Uncle Xianba's family is not short in height. Both father and son are about 1.8 meters tall and have heavy bones.As soon as I grabbed Uncle Semba's hand, I felt a force also pulling me down.I gritted my teeth, pressed my left hand hard into the snow, and grabbed Uncle Xianba with my right hand, pulling him up with all my strength.It's not that I can't pull a big living person, but the slope behind me is too slippery, my legs can't support it, and I don't dare to use all my strength. Roll all the way to the foot of the mountain.

I put all my strength on the right arm and pulled Uncle Xianba up bit by bit. Uncle Xianba was also climbing up with all his strength.Taking advantage of the footprints of his father, Dajie also climbed up smoothly. I pulled Dajie over, and the three of them heaved a sigh of relief.I guess: those few trapped people must have suffered a lot when they climbed this slope, and consumed a lot of energy. Sometimes, it is almost impossible to help yourself, and you can only ask for help.

(End of this chapter)