To Climb Everest

    White. Blinding white. That’s all I've seen for the past three weeks. I started this expedition thinking I was fully prepared for what was to be coming, and I had been training for months. Long hikes, hard workouts where I limit my oxygen intake, and making sure I had everything that I could possibly need in order to complete this trip. But it turns out, climbing Everest is a lot harder than you would think. The men who were helping me get through his climb had looked at every possible thing that could go wrong. According to them, this was the perfect time for an expedition such as this one. They did warn me of a possible avalanche but that wasn’t supposed to happen for another week and by that time, we will have surpassed its danger zones. I missed my daughter. My little Sarah. She is turning four years old today. I feel so terrible that I have to miss her birthday. A few weeks ago, I sent her a birthday present in the mail in hopes that it would get to her by now. It’s a locket with her favorite picture of me and her together inside of it. My hope is that every time she wears it, she knows that I’ll always be with her. Suddenly, a call from the people back at the base snapped me out of my thoughts.

    “Steven, there is a patch of unstable ice about a mile ahead of you. We suggest you take the long route around it because where you are right now is right in the path of a potential avalanche. If you keep taking this shortcut, you will walk right into it.”

    I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. They had told me the weather was perfect. That I had nothing to worry about. Now they want to reroute me on a path that will add five days to my trip because they have a small suspicion of an avalanche? No. I won’t have it. I’m sure if I go fast enough, I can make it through without so much as a scratch. The sooner I can finish this expedition, the sooner I can go home to my beautiful wife, Abigail, I call her Abby, and our sweet little girl, Sarah. I miss them so much. I don’t want anything more than to finish this and go home to see them. That is why I can’t waste any time taking the long route. I have to risk it. I have to try.

    “If I continue taking this shortcut, I can cut five days off my trip. Don’t bother rerouting me. I'm going to keep hiking this course.” I said to the radio clipped onto my biggest jacket.

    “I don’t think that’s a very good idea Steven. Sure, the chances of an avalanche are low, but they aren’t impossible. I wouldn't take that risk if I were you.”

    “Look, I just want to get this over with as soon as possible. If that means that I have to take a bit more risky path, so be it. I just want to go home.”

    Once I told them this I didn’t hear anything for minute. I wasn’t sure if they’d heard me.

    “Hello? Guys? Do you read me?”

    Then I heard a voice over the radio.

    “Yes, we read you. This is your decision and your risk to take. So, we are keeping you on this route for now. Just do be careful. Remember the ice is still unstable.”

    Yes! I had done it. In just a few weeks I would be back with my wife so we can raise our perfect little angel together. I feel like nothing can stop me now. With the view of a bright future ahead of me, I set off. Ready to conquer any obstacle that comes my way. There’s no way anything else can go wrong.

    I am just finishing setting up camp. I found a good, flat piece of rock where I can pitch my tent and hopefully get some sleep before another big day of hiking tomorrow. That’s when I heard it. A very distant, deep rumbling. I had just started to worry, but then it stopped. I figure it must be a heavy storm about to roll in. But then, not ten minutes later, I heard it again. A very deep and strong rumbling noise and this time, it was closer. Soon enough the ground started to shake, and small boulders from above me began falling and rolling to where I was settled. I quickly grabbed my radio and tried to communicate with the people back base.

    “Guys! Do you read me? What’s going on?! Can someone please tell me what's happening? Guys! Hello? Does anybody copy?”

    I tried over and over again but the signal was jammed. I can’t hear them, and they can’t hear me. I’m on my own. It’s too dark to see anything so I have no way of knowing what’s happening. Then I saw something in the distance. It looked like a gigantic cloud of some sort coming down towards me very rapidly. That’s when it hit me. An avalanche. No, no, no.[AV3]  This can’t be happening. There is no way that this is real. I tried one more time to get into contact with base, but it was just the same. Static. In less than five minutes, an avalanche was going to swallow me along with all of my equipment whole, and there is nothing I can do about it. I feel so stupid. I never should have risked taking the shorter route even if the chance of an avalanche was slim. Now I’ll never get to see my beautiful Abby again. I’ll never get to raise precious little Sarah; see the kind of person she becomes. All of this I’ll never get to do because I wanted to cut five days of off my trip. How could I know that I would be losing the life I always wanted, the life I could have led, with the people I care about more than my own life. All of it gone so fast. I could see the avalanche reaching me. I closed my eyes. I thought about what my future could have been like. Abby, Sarah and I all playing family board games together. Laughing, enjoying each other's company. Then I would tuck my daughter into bed, kiss her on the head, and get ready for another day of the same. I felt the avalanche hit me. I felt myself tumbling over and over again. I couldn’t tell what was happing it all came and went so fast. Then, a big thud. I felt a very sharp pain on the top of my head. But then all of a sudden... darkness.

    “Sarah! Sarah! Get up sweetheart or you’re going to be late to school!”

    The sound of my wife’s voice and daughter’s name brought me out of my slumber. I woke to see my wife rushing away from the bed I was laying in.

    “Good morning sunshine, do you know what time it is?” She laughed.

    “Now, I’m going to make your lunch and you start brushing your hair. We’ve got to be out of here in the next twenty minutes.”

    So many thoughts and questions were rushing through my head as Abby left the room. I looked around and realized where I was. I was in my daughter’s room. The pink bedsheets and the stickers on the wall gave it away. I look down and realize I’m wearing a night gown, and I look smaller than I used to be. I got out of the bed and ran to the mirror on the other side of the room. I looked into that glass and to my astonishment and surprise, saw my daughter’s face staring back at me, the locket that I gave her proudly strung around her neck.