I have waited for a long time for my chance to trek to the peak of the great mount Everest and t I have finally got my chance after a lot of heavy training. I am now in a camp in Nepal. Tomorrow we will start our climb with pride taking more than enough food, canteens of water as well as oxygen tanks and tents and sleeping bags for spending the nights. I also had two

compasses and anti-bear spray. My team of 16 people,7 men including me, 7 women and a 12 year old boy, and a teenager, around 19 years were celebrating, almost unaware of the grave dangers of Mount Everest. at the time. These people and as their leader, I have to take care of them. I also spoke to the 19 year old in my team. He was an expert who was a geography student whose parents were mountaineers. He knew the way to mount Everest as he went there at 11. My team rise with the sun ready and cheerful.

We go on a bus and with ropes and supplies, gear up to start climbing at 9:00 in the morning and because it is summer time, there is no snow on the great mountain. Finally we stepped foot on the mountain. We joyfully rise in altitude without any problems. We see a lot of vegetation including bamboo stalks which rose as high as 10 feet. We see a crystal clear stream in which we fill our canteens. We observe some deer drinking water from the icy cold stream as the crisp cold air blows on our faces, calming the team

down. There is an old willow where we sit down for lunch. At 1:00 we start moving. I look through my binoculars to find the easiest climb, Instead, my binoculars pick up a red panda, gleefully munching on bamboo! And nobody missed it. We observed every movement until it leaped out of site. We move up the mountain as evening comes, the temperature drops, and it starts to snow. We notice the lights ahead; it looks like a village. We go to the place and the people are hospitable. They help us set up our

tents to halt there. One of the villagers took us around the village. When we return, we take out our food and we eat as they tell the village's history in front of a fire. The fire with its sweet and spicy, burning pine smell and warmth, morale raises as we decide to go to our tents. We set our heavy and warm sleeping bags and have some rest. The sun rises as a chilled morning breeze wakes me up. My group members and I took down our tents to move forward. We thank the villagers for their hospitality as we leave. We

scale a few 100 ft and meet heavy snowfall. We stride forward until the snow is too heavy and there is a small cave that we take shelter in. The place is swarming with bats. A man starts having a headache, he also starts gasping for breath. I realize that he has altitude sickness. I instruct him to go down the mountain. His hands start shaking but he refuses to go down. I try my best to convince him, but he insists that he will stay with the group! The snow stops and there is a 35 degree climb which has a bed of snow. I

suspected it would create an avalanche. The 12 year old got excited and placed a step on a sheet of ice.There were cracks in the ice and the boy rushed back. The snow, at lightning speed, sped down the mountain Most of us went into the cave but the shivering man and 2 women were not so lucky. The avalanche hit them hard. The rest of us were horror stricken. The brutal avalanche passed, and we began to search for survivors. There were two hands sticking out of the ground! The 19 year old and I

started digging up the people. The man was miraculously found! But parts on his face had a tone of blue. He was panic stricken. The woman, although buried in snow for 10 minutes, brushed off the snow and got up prepared for the future!