Charlotte Fox’s eyes were frozen behind her contact lenses. The snow had begun falling as Fox and her fellow climbers descended from the top of the world, the peak of Mount Everest, where she could see for 100 miles in every direction. But now, trapped in the middle of a blizzard with the force of a hurricane, in temperatures somewhere south of 40 below, she couldn’t see anything. She was out of oxygen. Her feet were numb with frostbite. No longer able to stay moving, she scrunched herself into the fetal position, huddled with her climbing mates in the ice and snow, and waited for it all to end.
Charlotte Fox, climber of the tallest peaks, survivor of 1996 Everest disaster, dies after an apparent fall at home
