Chapter 597 - 278: Rescue, Warning, and Exploring a New Route!

Fatalities from avalanches are caused by asphyxiation, hypothermia, and trauma, with asphyxiation being the primary cause.

Once the snow buries the chest, the immense pressure prevents the chest from expanding, making breathing difficult.

Besides, the rapid drop in body temperature at high altitudes can also pose a deadly risk of hypothermia.

Li Younan quickly scanned the front mountaineering team, fortunately, this minor avalanche only buried two members below the chest, while the rest were buried below the waist and began self-rescue.

Li Younan first assessed the likelihood of another avalanche before helping to pull out the nearest member.

This was a female mountaineer, and as Li Younan rescued her, she cried out with obvious distress: "I... my arm..."

Li Younan frowned slightly; the female mountaineer had fallen during the avalanche, her arm bracing against the snow, possibly resulting in a fracture.

This is truly troublesome.

Right now, returning to the C2 camp seems impossible.

Everyone started retreating, and Li Younan helped rescue the two critically injured members to the rocky area below.

Once the situation stabilized, Li Younan and the team leader took stock of the damages.

There were 8 team members including 4 guides and 4 commercial mountaineers; two people had probably fractured bones, one in the arm and one in the ribs, and their equipment suffered varying degrees of loss.

The other equipment is still manageable, but the key is the oxygen!

After inventorying the remaining oxygen tanks, it was fortunate that there was enough for the retreat.

This was lucky amidst the misfortune!

Although there were injuries, there were no fatalities.

Adding the member and his guide who had already retreated at the windy pass, this mountaineering team could declare a complete failure to summit.

The captain thanked Li Younan, saying, "The route has been destroyed, and there’s only about ten days of window left, probably not enough time to repair it, I guess climbing won’t be feasible this semester."

Li Younan looked up the route to see the rope system completely torn or buried, anchor points and ice screws pulled out, snow anchors failed, and the original path covered by snow, forming a new crevasse area; their familiar route completely disappeared.

As everyone knows, post-avalanche, this area becomes prone to secondary avalanches, making repairs much harder and riskier.

The captain could only announce the failure of this climb and the decision to retreat to the other team members, saying to Li Younan, "Brother, thank you, you’re impressive, reaching here without oxygen."

Li Younan shrugged indifferently, now considering another problem.

If the commercial route is destroyed, he’ll have to consider exploring a new ascent route.

For the team members, descent was urgent; some were already injured and significant oxygen was lost.

So, after just resting in this area for about ten minutes, they prepared to retreat, fortunately the retreat rope wasn’t destroyed.

As they were about to set off, Li Younan seemed not inclined to join them, the captain said, "Brother, let’s go."

Li Younan shook his head, "You go ahead, stay safe."

Upon hearing him, everyone turned unanimously to Li Younan, "But brother, the route above is already destroyed."

Li Younan smiled lightly, "Every year at the start of the climbing season, isn’t this the situation the repair teams face?"

Everyone was a bit stunned.

Though that’s true... but they’re professional repair teams! Especially this year’s repair team leader Duo Jiciren, having summited Mount Everest 18 times, holds the record for North Slope summits, and most members have summited over 10 times!

They could undoubtedly serve as pioneers, climbing Everest without route ropes.

But Li Younan...

Yet suddenly, they realized Li Younan had displayed professional mountaineering skills at the windy pass earlier, and so far hadn’t used an oxygen mask; his endurance might not differ from top Sherpas.

Seeing this, the captain didn’t try to persuade further, instead sincerely saying: "Good luck brother, stay safe."

Others chimed in: "Stay safe!"

"Go for it, brother!"

Waving farewell, Li Younan embarked solo on his continued climb, needing to choose another route upward.

...

Li Younan wasn’t climbing alone, as he had his live-streaming equipment and a vast number of netizens following him up Mount Everest together.

The livestream host didn’t dare initiate connection with Li Younan, showing a different scene; the host and guests watched Li Younan’s streaming footage, wearing complex expressions.

The host said: "We just saw Li Younan encounter an avalanche on the live stream, he hasn’t given up on summiting Mount Everest, and from their conversation, we know the commercial route forward was destroyed."

"Let’s invite our guest Elder Chen to explain the consequences of the commercial route being destroyed?"