Free Hell Is Above Us: The Epic Race to the Top of Fumu, the World's Tallest Mountain by Jonathan Bloom Page A

boat in rough seas. The winds of the Bellows may be unpredictable, emanating up from the Earth via the Oculus and down from the heavens, but one can always depend on the snow drifts moving from one side of the bowl to the other in perfect, yearly cycles. On the other side of the summit, the South Face, opposite the Bellows, the mountain above the scree is comprised of snowfields. Climbing these is not difficult, except where the fields are interrupted by steep rock cliff. And then there is Rauff’s Maw, cleaving in half the route the Rauff expedition took. That route started at the bottom in the southeast and zigzagged up to meet the Eastern Ridge just before the summit. The fate of the Rauff expedition makes it clear that part of the mountain is also not at rest. Finally, there is the summit. So busy is this part of Fumu that it cannot be seen through plumes of grey smoke. Maps of the mountain assumed a perfectly pointed top for centuries. No one truly knew what the top looked like until the Hoyt and Junk expeditions.
    Getting close enough to study the mountain has always been a source of difficulty. Forgetting the brutal challenges one must face in order to climb her, simply getting to Base Camp is nearly impossible. Like Nanda Devi, Fumu is ringed by four smaller but by no means small mountains. Most Europeans and Americans still call these mountains by the labels bestowed upon them by the Great Trigonometric Survey – H57, H58, H62, and H63 – but the locals call them Mitya, Abel, Lata, and Asha. Their names are as mysterious as that of Fumu. No in-depth investigation has been pursued. Each of the four peaks soars to heights ranging from 26,000 to 28,000 feet. They are connected by wall-like passes reaching more than two thirds of the peaks’ heights. Seen from nearby mountains like Ama Dablam, the effect on the human eye is that of looking at a castle or fort built for gods. This may be why the entire area is locally referred to as Qila , the Urdu word for ‘fort.’ The four peaks are the towers and the passes the outer curtain walls. The problem with this castle is there is no portcullis. The only way a human can even consider reasonably entering Qila is over a sixteen-thousand foot pass on the southern perimeter, aptly called the Qila Pass (also known as the Fumuri La to locals). The pass is shaped like a giant shoehorn, wide at the bottom, narrow at the top, and concave toward its center line the entirety of its length. It starts off gradually at roughly a forty-five degree angle; then it steepens, and by the top it takes the form of a chute rising consistently at a sixty degree angle. That pitch would be very possible for most technical climbers except the fifty-foot wide chute is made entirely of amethyst. The rare version of amethyst called ametrine is beautiful to behold. It is purple like most amethyst, but because of heating from volcanic activity, it is streaked with glittering yellow. In addition to being beautiful, the bumpy face is very hard and devoid of cracks. There is no purchase for climbing equipment. Countless men have tumbled to their deaths, tenderized while they fall on rough, rare stone, their twisted bodies reflecting in bright, brilliant colours from the gemstone wall. Climbers who have gotten over the pass have usually done so by moving at a sloth-like pace and by being lucky. Needless to say, Qila Pass is usually the first filter of climbers making their way to top of Fumu.
     
    Measuring Fumu has been a source of much tension ever since the first summit attempt was made in 1881. At that time, it was given short shrift for a variety of reasons and assumed to be almost one thousand feet shorter than Everest. It was not until Hoover’s fateful summit attempt of 1939 that people started learning what many had already felt might be true – that Fumu was the tallest mountain in the world. But before the Hoover expedition, people did what they often do: Rely on the word of experts who may or