The Climbers.

[Kitosdad]

Bill and Maurice were two very experienced mountain climbers. They had been friends since their early school-days and both had had their imaginations fired by their school master, who would read them stories about Sir Edmund Hillary and the brave Sherpas' who had carried their equipment up Mount Everest in 1953, many years before they were born.

They had joined a climbing club shortly after leaving school at fifteen years old, and they both took to mountain-climbing as though born to the task.
They did their early climbing in the company of their experienced instructors, but pretty soon they were allowed to climb unaccompanied.
They made a great team and each had absolute confidence in the capabilities of the other.

Bill had inherited a vast fortune on the death of his Father, and with the money he and Maurice travelled the length and breadth of the continent, scaling every mountain that they came across.
Their fame travelled before them, and pretty soon they opened their very own climbing school.
Trainees came from all over the world to be trained by them in the art of climbing and survival.

After several very successful years in the business, they decided that they wanted to do something more interesting with their lives, and so they sold the business and had a holiday in the Alps.

It was whilst holidaying that Maurice came up with the idea that they should try to scale Everest.
Bill, who had never before backed out of an adventure was a little wary of this. He pointed out that most of their climbing had been on mountains that were not subject to the notoriously harsh conditions of Everest. Maurice appeared disappointed at his mate's decision, but he accepted it. No use climbing with one unhappy team member.

The next day Maurice awoke to find that Bill had already left the apartment. He went into the restaurant expecting to find him there but he was nowhere in sight.

After a couple of hours Bill returned to the hotel. He was all smiles.
He said that he had been researching routes and weather forecasts for the coming days, and it appeared that it was feasable that they could have a crack at climbing Everest.
Maurice was overjoyed and they set about immediately hiring Sherpas' for the climb.

Two days later they set off on their long trek.The weather was just as Bill had been told, and he was confident that they could make it to the peak and back in record time.
The higher they climbed the more difficult it became. Their breathing was laboured in the thin air, and they were happy when they reached the point where they would make their final camp, and where their Sherpas' would remain.

With only four hundred feet to climb they set off in high spirits. The weather was glorious and they were confident that they would reach the peak within six hours.
After only one hundred feet things became really difficult. The ground was mostly shale and they constantly lost their footing. They had to constantly hammer their pitons deep and fasten their ropes securely. One slip here could mean certain death, and they both knew it well.

They laboured on, and six hours later they eventually reached the summit. They were exhausted but elated. They had climbed the South-West face of Everest. What a story to relate to their friends.

It was late afternoon as they set-off back down the mountain. The darkening sky did not bode well for them and they tried to move as quickly as they were able.
It was imperative that they reached camp before this weather broke. All too soon the weather did break, and they found themselves being bombarded with sleet and driving rain.
They had to keep moving. They would surely die if they stayed here on the face of the mountain.
They were alarmed by a sudden rumble above them, and turning to face the noise they became aware of the starting of a tremendous rock-slide. Bill saw a huge rock hurtling toward Maurice, and knowing that it was too late to yell a warning, he flung himself at his friend.
Maurice slid away and hung by his life-line, but Bill was struck by the huge boulder and started to plummet down the face of the mountain, all the while being bombarded by boulders and heavy shale.
He came to rest forty feet from the Sherpa's tent and they rushed out to attend him.
The rock-slide slowly abated and Maurice continued on his way down, but now alone.

It took him a further three hours to reach the camp, and he was filled with horror to be told that Bill was dead.

The sorry party finally reached Tibet, and the body of Bill was flown back to England. Maurice followed after attending to the formalities of filing the accident report and other official regulations.

The funeral was attended by hundreds of fellow climbers and Maurice was touched by the many tributes paid to his life-long friend.

It was a few days later that Maurice was contacted by Bill's solicitor. It appeared that Bill had left his entire fortune to Maurice.

So that's where he had disappeared to that morning in Tibet Maurice thought.He obviously had doubts that we would make the climb without accident, and had made his Will in the Tibetan township.

I hope you find this entertaining Gray.

Kitos.
_________________
If you need me, I'm here.

[Gray]

Imagination can get us anywhere (I just returned from Mount Everest )

I am addicted to your stories now
_________________
First lesson - English, not english. I, not i. ~A student of English