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| Baljit Kaur, who spent 27 hours in Annapurna's death zone: 'I dragged myself through the night after seeing the light of Camp Four' |
"Rest in Peace Biljit." How many people were you inspired by?
After news of the deaths of Indian climber Baljit Kaur and Irishman Noel Hanna from one of the world's most dangerous peaks, Annapurna in Nepal, on Monday, mountaineer groups and social media were abuzz with messages in their memory.
Arrangements were being made to bring Noel's body down from Camp Four, but no one knew anything about Baljeet, where she was missing and when the world had assumed her dead, she had 'high altitude cerebral edema'. After spending more than 27 hours in the death zone of Annapurna, the victim Baljit was busy trying to drag herself down.
'High Altitude Cerebral Edema' is a condition in which most climbers' brains stop working due to the altitude and lack of oxygen, they lose their ability to think, they become delirious and their imaginary worlds disappear. I reach
On Tuesday, it was suddenly reported that Baljit was alive and that one of the three helicopters searching for him had rescued him from the 7,600m high Annapurna via a longline. As far as she had dragged herself.
Baljeet is currently undergoing treatment in a hospital in Kathmandu.
Speaking to the BBC on the phone, Baljit recounted the events that took place last Sunday at 2:00 a.m. until he was rescued 49 hours later.
What happened to Baljeet on Annapurna, before hearing her story, it is important to know a little about this brave girl so that we can know how she could show such courage.
"If I am from a landlord family, I am connected to the fields, I am connected to the mountains"
Born into a landlord family in Himachal, Baljit Kaur grew up in the mountains.
The 27-year-old mountaineer is the eldest of three siblings. When she is not pursuing her passion for mountain climbing, she is teaching dance to disabled children as well as giving fitness and yoga training.
Baljit says that if you belong to a landlord family, you are 'connected to the fields, connected to the mountains'.
His home in Himachal is at a point where the mountains begin and 'in winter he longed to see the white hills of Kashmir beyond.'
In college, he opted for the National Cadet Course under the Indian Army. At the age of 18, he got an opportunity to do a mountaineering course in the Army Wing and it was only from here that his journey to plant flags on high mountains began.
First, he climbed Mount Teba (6001 m) in Himachal and never looked back.
Last year, he climbed five 8,000-elevation peaks in Nepal in 30 days, and that's when he decided to summit Annapurna for the second time without artificial oxygen.
Baljeet has done Manaslu without an oxygen head which gave her confidence that she can also do Annapurna without an oxygen head.
But the altitude in Annapurna is very high for which she needed a good team but according to her, where she became a victim of indifference by Nepali companies commercializing mountaineering.
'It was becoming difficult to control the mind'
Baljeet tells that she left for the summit last Sunday at 2 am.
By Monday evening, she had reached the summit, but by then she had been on the mountain for more than 27 hours without oxygen and was beginning to show symptoms of high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE).
"As soon as I reached the summit, I started having dreams." "It was becoming very difficult to control the mind and I was constantly fighting with it," she says.
It should be remembered here that the human body is designed to live at an altitude of up to 2100 meters above sea level, and at higher altitudes, the saturation of oxygen in the body begins to decrease rapidly and negative effects begin to occur in the body. are
At such altitudes, climbers usually suffer from hypoxia (lack of oxygen). With hypoxia, the pulse quickens, the blood thickens and clots, and the risk of stroke increases. At worst, climbers' lungs fill with water, and can suffer from high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE).
Here the chances of 'altitude sickness' increase due to the lack of oxygen required for human breathing, while strong winds at such high altitudes prove to be deadly for climbers.
Extremely low temperatures can also cause frostbite in any part of the body.
According to Professor Herbert N. Hultgren, the author of the study on the medical problems of the human body at such altitudes, climbers who climb this far may experience cerebral edema, retinal hemorrhages, severe headaches, nausea, disorientation, hallucinations, or vision loss. Can also suffer from medical conditions like delusions etc.
Above eight thousand meters there is no room for error in the death zone of the mountain and you cannot spend more than a certain time here and sleep or staying too long here means death.
That is why climbers who reach Camp Four do not sleep. Just try to summit or reach the top for a while and try to get out of the death zone by reaching the top as fast as possible.
If you have seen the movie 'Everest' which was released in the year 2015, then you understand the condition of Biljit. can be
In the movie 'Everest', while coming down from the summit, New Zealand guide and mountaineer Andy Harris begins to have delusions, throws off his clothes and gear, and embraces death.
Annapurna Mountain is 8091 meters high and has a death zone of 91 meters (the part of the mountain that is higher than 8000 meters).
According to experts, the natural limit of survival of the human body is 8000 meters. Above this, all the organs of the body gradually stop working.
Baljeet has spent 27 hours in this danger zone and what happened to Andy Harris was happening to him.
Inexperienced Sherpa himself succumbed to high-altitude cerebral edema.
According to Baljit, three to four of his Sherpas changed after Camp Four on Annapurna.
"The biggest confusion was that I could not understand who is my Sherpa and who is not."
"There was no Sherpa I could trust."
According to him, the experienced Sherpa who was given to him left him during the acclimatization rotation (the process of acclimatizing the body to the environment before summiting high mountains). Although he left saying that he would come back and Baljit waited for him for seven to eight days, he did not come and sent another Sherpa who was already unwell.
On this occasion, the new Sherpa told Baljit that a new young Sherpa would accompany him who would also be trained and this time he would also complete the summit. Baljit says if you are with me then I have no problem. He stayed with them till Camp Four.
The next day at two o'clock he told Baljit that since you are not using oxygen and will walk slowly, the spearman will accompany him but I will be behind.
Baljeet walked alone all night thinking that she was experienced and would come up running with oxygen, but the next morning they sent a new Sherpa to replace her who was with another client and was collapsing and coming down. was
Baljit was worried but to avoid argument he said ok let's go.
The two Sherpas he finally met were very young and inexperienced.
At 7:30 am she was 100 meters away from the summit but that 100 meters took her 24 hours and it took her 12 hours to reach the summit.
She says that it was not that I had to do the summit anyway, there was a time that they forbade me to do the summit and said 'Summit is not necessary for me, leave it, I will come next year, down.' Let's go.
But they were not listened to and these two inexperienced young Sherpas insisted that we had to do the summit.
Seeing them going and taking pictures, Baljit thought that the distance is a little (10 meters) so I will go and take pictures, and thinking this, he increased his steps.
After wrapping up, they made their video immediately, but Baljit had to beg both of them to make the picture.
After the summit in the evening, Baljeet had understood what was going to happen next and that 'both of them will not be able to handle me'.
Then what Baljeet feared happened.
According to Biljit, the two inexperienced Sherpas were unable to recognize the symptoms of high-altitude cerebral edema in Biljit, "They didn't even know what they were."
But Baljeet is trained by the army and she understood her own situation, and was taking action accordingly. He had suffered from altitude cerebral edema and started playing on the top of the most dangerous mountain in the world.'
"I saw them playing, so I turned down, saying, 'I can't stay here, these two will die here and kill me too,'" says Baljit.
These Sherpas had their own oxygen tank apart from Baljit's oxygen tank.
Baljit was summiting Annapurna without oxygen this time, she says that I don't need oxygen but after some time she started feeling very sleepy.
At that time, Baljit said to these two Sherpas, "I am not able to walk and I think I have got high altitude cerebral edema."
"The world that I wanted started to appear to me"
In Baljit's words, when she suffered from high altitude cerebral edema, 'I started seeing the world as I wanted it to be.' There is a tent. Many people are gathered around me.
But after a while, I notice that there is nothing here, it's all just a figment of my mind, going down quickly.
Baljeet was constantly fighting with her mind at that time. But between 10 and 11 in the night, at a height of about 7800 meters, there was a time when those two Sherpas also started fighting with Baljit.
I had to stop them here and ask if this fight was happening in their imaginations or if they really had a fight with the Sherpas?
Baljit says that it was true and I could understand that both Sherpas were arguing with me, they started talking directly, so I told them that you both will die here with me, please go away, take your oxygen. is also limited and if it ends, you will also end and because of me your family will also end'.
A Sherpa except BaljitAfter leaving, another Sherpa came and said, 'Should I go?'
Baljeet told her, I am not using oxygen but you have only one tank, leave quickly or both of you will die here. I will come myself and meet you at the base camp.
'Dragged herself all night'
"I probably slept for two to three hours" at an altitude of 7,800 meters after the two Sherpas left, says Baljit.
When he woke up in the night, he felt 'I am in a tent and there are people around me, but when I opened my eyes, there was nothing there.'
She says she could see the light at Camp Four in the distance and she was telling herself 'I have to get there, I don't know how but I dragged myself through the night.'
The instructor had said, "Surely leave the whole world but not your safety anchor and rope."
She attributes this to her training, Baljit says that she has trained in the Indian Army, "I think it was my training that made me drag myself." I was remembering all the words of my instructor when you lose consciousness in the mountains, you should not forget one thing you should definitely leave the whole world but never leave your safety anchor and rope.
'Only one thing was going on in my mind that Baljit you should not let go of the safety anchor and the rope. If you want to remove the safety anchor, you have to think carefully about the shift. It was clear in my mind.
Why is Biljit anchoring? Don't leave, just fly without an anchor.
Baljit says that this was the first time that she suffered from high-altitude cerebral edema on a mountain. It was that now my fight is not with anyone else but with my mind.'
She says that it is very difficult to win this battle because your own mind is telling you 'Why are you anchoring Baljeet? Do not leave the anchor, fly without the anchor.
By the next morning, Baljit had spent 38 hours on the Annapurna mountain and, due to the lack of oxygen, 'I was behaving like a child, when the sun came out I was saying now I will show the sun my fair hands.'
Thankfully, they thought that 'this sun will turn me black, I didn't even apply sunscreen' and they didn't throw away the stories and hid their hands.
"I thought it would be a shame to say come and save me."
Had they not contacted anyone up to this point? She says that 'I could see a lot of people standing up to Camp Four and I tried very hard to reach this camp and turn on the lights. Tried all night but all I could see was Camp Four, nothing below.
Explaining the reason for not contacting anyone, she says, "I told myself this is the last chance, I can't be so weak that I can't go down." I stood up and dragged myself another 100 meters toward Camp Four.
During this time, they once slipped 10-20 meters and fell down. "Looked back and saw my anchor and was very proud of myself that my anchor saved me."
Baljit says that 'I belong to a Sikh family, I often listen to Gurubani and sometimes ghazals and think that I turned to my phone to listen to some bhajans.' But despite losing consciousness, she was able to understand enough to use it to call someone for help.
So why hasn't anyone been called for rescue yet?
Baljeet replies to this and says that 'I thought it would be a shame that you went climbing the mountain and are calling the rescue for yourself to come and save me.'
But then came the time when I had no option left, I was not being stood up.
It must have been seven o'clock in the morning on Tuesday when he first texted his team saying 'I'm alive and well' but Baljeet got no response.
Baljit claimed that he then messaged the company whose services he had hired for the summit, but there was no response either. After some time, Baljit sent a message on the second number and mail of this company saying that 'I am fine and alive but I need help.'
By this time, Baljeet had used up all the food and drink she had.
When he did not get a response from there for an hour, Baljit picked himself up. She says I am from a family where nothing is handed down. We are taught to earn our own money for our dreams, and that's what they had in their hearts Who stood by me before today? There was no one, get up and get out of here.
But an hour and a half later, he got a reply from this number: 'Baljit, are you okay?'
Baljit replied, "Yes, I am fine, but I need your help."
She says that at that time, she was feeling dizzy, and she could not even type properly. Everything was looking blurry but many Heli was coming, I shook hands with all of them but no one saw them.
On this occasion, Baljit thought that 'no one is going to save me, hell, Heli, which one was the first one I went to Heli.'