Conrad shook his head. “I kind of like that part.”
Wendy’s expression told him how crazy she thought that was.
“We ascended to Camp I, put up a tent, ditched some gear, and made our way back to Base Camp.” A knot formed in his belly. He ignored it. “The next morning, we were up early for the puja—that’s a Buddhist prayer ceremony—and then hit the Icefall at about four in the morning.”
“Can you describe the Khumbu Icefall for me?”
“The Khumbu Icefall is a big-ass glacier that hangs between Base Camp and Camp I. It’s always moving, always changing. New crevasses open up. There are avalanches. There are also seracs—big pillars or walls of ice that can collapse without warning. In the climbing world, we joke that no climber in his or her right mind would set foot on the Icefall if it weren’t the path to the summit of Everest.”
Except that it wasn’t a joke. It was the truth.
“We were out on the glacier. Bruce was leading. The twins were in the middle—first Felix and then Luka. I was bringing up the rear.”
“Was there a strategy to that?”
Conrad nodded. “It’s good to have your most experienced climber leading. Bruce and I had planned to switch off, keeping the twins sandwiched between us.”
“That makes sense.” Wendy waited for him to say more.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
The knot in Conrad’s gut tightened.
Why had he set this up?
“Bruce had already crossed the crevasse. Felix went next. I was on belay as Luka walked across the ladder. When Luka hesitated again, Bruce shouted, ‘Don’t worry, mate. If you fall and your harness fails, it will only kill you.’ That was Bruce—he had a dark sense of humor. But those were his last words.”
“How long had you two climbed together?”
“Twenty years, I think.” He tried to do the math, but his adrenaline had kicked in. “Around twenty years.”
“That’s a long time.”
“Yeah.” Conrad willed himself to go numb. “Luka made it to the other side and belayed me. I was halfway across the ladder when I heard a crack and a rumble and looked up to see a serac collapsing on top of us. The ice beneath the ladder shifted, and I fell to my knees. I had just a minute to think that this might be the end before something hit me on my helmet—and then everything went black.”
* * *
Kenzie foughtto rein in her own emotions, not wanting to make this harder for Harrison. He seemed outwardly calm, cool, professional. But she could tell how much it hurt him to talk about this—the hard set of his jaw, the ice in his voice, the shadows in those gray eyes.
“Did you actually see the serac bury your friends?”
Harrison shook his head. “It all happened so fast. The rumble. Bruce and the others shouting. Then … nothing.”
Wendy waited for him to go on.
“I came to hanging upside down in my harness. I had no idea where I was or what had happened. I hung there, swinging in a slow circle a few feet away from the ice wall of the crevasse.”
His nightmares. This was how they always started.
“Were you afraid?”
Oh, for God’s sake! Why did journalists ask stupid questions like this? Who wouldn’t be afraid in that situation?
Harrison nodded. “Afraid, confused. My head hurt like hell.”
“You didn’t remember you were on Everest?”
“It took a few minutes for me to make sense of things. When I realized where I was, my first thought was that I’d fallen. I wondered why Bruce and the others weren’t looking for me. I called for them, righted myself. Then some big blocks of ice fell into the crevasse, crashing past me, and I remembered.”
