Hell Is Above Us: The Epic Race to the Top of Fumu, the World's Tallest Mountain (21 page)

Ferguson was the Swiss army knife of the team. Having been promoted to Eagle Scout in his home state of Michigan at the tender age of fourteen, he was an expert at navigation, tracking sign, and general survival. He was also a doctor who in medical school had concentrated on the effects of high altitude on the human body. Ferguson was also a disciple of John Harvey Kellogg, the famous nutritionist from his home state. Ferguson lectured all over Michigan about the efficacy of vegetarianism, celibacy, enemas, and a method Ferguson called “quinine suffusion” - a process in which a patient is given gallons of tonic water both orally and otherwise for the purpose of cleansing the gastrointestinal tract. The liquid is administered until it is literally suffusing out of the patient’s pores. The process was said to promote vim as well as the “stability of intestinal flora.” Kellogg himself had considered employing the procedure on visitors at his sanitarium in Battle Creek, but then decided he wanted nothing to do with it. Ferguson broke from Kellogg and patented the procedure. So far, only one patient had died out of several thousand, although when pressed, Ferguson admitted to a handful having required a stomach pump after near-drowning. Hoyt selected Ferguson for his medical and navigational training, and merely tolerated what he called his “dietary quackery.”

It was with this team – Drake, Chatham, Wilde, Thornton, and Ferguson – that Hoyt intended to conquer the mountain, the world, and “the vermin that married my mother.”

The vast majority of the oceanic journey offered delightful weather and calm oceans. Seamen, thespians, and mountain climbers mingled together in relative peace. Chatham, by far the most garrulous of the climbers, found himself drinking with the film directors and feeding lines to the actors as they rehearsed. Drake wiled away the days at sea with the sailors on the bridge and in the engine room, inquiring about the mechanics of the ship. Wilde stayed mostly in his berth and on deck, reading Dickens and avoiding sailors and actors alike, steadfast in his belief that both groups consisted exclusively of homosexuals who would have their way with him if given the chance. Thornton and Ferguson spent much of their time playing cribbage and flirting with the starlets who happened to be on board (No one was certain why actresses had been recruited for the mission, but the sailors and climbers were not complaining).

Hoyt himself spent hours every day in the galley, one of the only places on the ship where he could spread out maps and books and truly study up for the journey that lay ahead. He had decided that once over the Qila Pass, they were going to take the southern route up Fumu; similar to the route the Nazi Rauff had tried a decade earlier before the mountain had swallowed his expedition whole. Hoyt was certain Junk would go for the northern route. Junk was a gambler, and he liked long shots. The northern route was indeed the long shot. It was harder to get to, but if one got there with enough energy and supplies, the ascent up the ridges ringing the dead volcanic cone was considered easier than the southern route. That was fine with Hoyt, who had enough confidence in himself and his team to believe the southern route “winnable.”

They would set up advanced Base Camp at the southern foot of the mountain, a few longitudinal degrees east from the Qila Pass. From Base Camp, they would switchback up the scree at the southeast extreme of the mountain. Just as the Nazi Rauff had chosen to do, Hoyt made the decision beforehand that no attempt at acclimatization would occur across the scree. In other words, they would skip the usual schedule of climbing up to a camp, down climbing, and climbing up again. He did not want anyone climbing the scree more than once. They would place Camp One at the top of it and use that as “super-advanced” Base Camp.

The next section would actually be the steepest and possibly most technically challenging part of their ascent. They would have to climb almost straight up the southern face toward the Eastern Ridge. But they would not be able to get all the way to the ridge; the final thousand feet being a sheer, featureless wall of granite and ice. The wall was shaped like the tail fin of an enormous automobile. If you were looking up at it and training your eyes right to left, it gradually lost its height as the bottom of it rose northwestward on its way to the summit. Camp Two would be established when the climbing party met the bottom of the wall and from there they would climb northwest, following the wall’s bottom until the wall was almost gone. They would meet Rauff’s Maw along the way. No one had taken the southern route since the Rauff disaster, and so it was totally unknown to Hoyt how they were going to get around the chasm. He did not like to gamble, but in this case he felt confident there would be some sort of ledge where the chasm narrows and meets the bottom of the giant wall. If no such ledge existed, then they would down climb a few thousand feet along the edge of the chasm and go around it. This alternative was not optimal, but certainly possible for hearty souls such as themselves.

After Rauff’s Maw, they would set up Camp Three. The wall separating them from the Eastern Ridge would have dwindled to only a few hundred feet now, and its gradient drastically decreased. Their group of Sherpa would also dwindle at that point to only five and they would begin their windy route up the former “wall” to meet the Eastern Ridge. That leg of the climb would be predominantly easy. However, the path was scarred in one place by a short but treacherous step, no more than thirty feet high but straight vertical and running almost the length of the entire southern side of the mountain. The step was bountiful with footholds, handholds, and solid ice into which to drive a pick, but it began at an elevation of 25,000 feet. At that height, with oxygen depleted and an exhausting journey behind him, a step even half as high would be demanding on a climber. Because of that, Hoyt set the same rules for the step as he did for scree: No acclimatization. His team would go up it only once and then down it again when they were ready to go home.

After they got over the step, their reward would be Camp Four and a fitful sleep before the final push for the summit. Anyone on Hoyt’s team who was still physically and mentally capable was invited by him to go into the cloud and try for the top, although he demanded he be the first up. Once he had planted a flag – one with his name on it - the rest of the men were welcome to have at it. Chhiri Tendi, the sardar who he had chosen for the expedition, was required to assist Hoyt all the way to the top. For everyone else, the top was optional.

The weather turned tragic just off the coast of the Marshall Islands. They had entered a part of the South Pacific known as “Freytag’s Triangle,” a rather nasty patch of ocean in which ships and planes simply went missing. William’s brother Randolph Hoyt wrote in his personal journal:

The sun disappeared turning day to night and the wind became violent. Rain did not so much “fall” as “fire” in varying directions. Visibility dropped to zero. Randolph estimated the swells reached forty feet at the height of the storm but even at that size they could not be seen until they were already upon them.

The crew went about their business as calmly as possible, running around securing everything, minding the hull for leaks, and keeping the engines running. Randolph focused his entire being on steering the boat directly into oncoming swells. If they took one of these beasts on the beam they could capsize and sink. If they took one from behind they could broach and sink.

The climbers stayed in their hammocks trying to keep their meals down and focusing their thoughts on the fact a storm of this magnitude would not last too long. It would subside soon enough. Thornton and Ferguson, being the younger members of the expedition, had the hardest time. According to Drake, “They both looked as white and clammy as steam.” The vomit came soonest for them. Hoyt, Drake, Chatham, and Wilde took longer to succumb.

By far, the strangest response to the storm came from the Hollywood denizens. According to Randolph:

The actors’ behaviour would have been merely an oddity to discuss at journey’s end, except that it began to escalate and impair Randolph’s ability to control his ship. The male actors could not stand being on the periphery of the unfurling crisis. They all wanted to “save the ship.”

Now at the mercy of someone who clearly had no experience steering a ship or mastering the concept of ‘Self’, the
Auxesis
began to take swells from the side. Several sailors were lost overboard as walls of water passed across the deck. Randolph and his men banged on the windows of the bridge, trying to get this Jack Meacham – or person playing Jack Meacham - to come to his senses and open the door, but he would not. He had instead tied himself to the wheel.

William Hoyt could not stay still for long and made the decision to help his brother in any way he could. He left the other climbers, took the stairs to the deck and then climbed the stairs to the bridge.

Randolph could not afford to lose any more of his crew, lest they end up at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. He, William, and two first officers went below and came back with the first thing they could find that would end this problem. It was a movie studio light and its stand - long, heavy and made of metal. A film director saw the sailors coming up from below with the equipment and raced after them, begging them to reconsider. The light and stand were expensive and “would set Paramount back hundreds.” The men ignored him. Now outside of the bridge again, William and the sailors positioned the light-stand horizontally and distributed themselves evenly along its length. On the count of three, they ran forward, and the lighting became a battering ram. Glass shattered; Randolph reached his arm through and opened the door of the bridge. Meacham, who was still lashed to the wheel, could not untie himself in time to stop the intruders. He began swinging his free arm wildly at those who were stealing his moment. William held the studio light high in the air and brought it down on Meacham’s head. The actor fell to the ground and his tied arm caused the wheel to turn. Randolph untied the unconscious man and took back control of the ship.

The storm died down in an instant. The sun shone down. The subsequent halting of the rain was so sudden as to be jarring. The wind seemed to go elsewhere. The swells took a little longer to go away; it would be several minutes before their peaks stayed lower than the deck. All was then calm.