One Wrong Step

Atlas and Maddie also hear from Chodak, who believes that Mr. Blake could be wrong about the hopelessness of the situation. Chodak has sent some Sherpas up the mountain to help with the rescue. Atlas knows that the chances of success are slim, but he refuses to give up hope. He suggests that he and Maddie use one of the oxygen tanks to gain some strength. They save the other tank for the people they plan to rescue.

After sharing the rest of the oxygen tank, Atlas tells Maddie about George Mallory, describing how the mountaineer and his team built these camps. They made more than one attempt to reach the summit, and on the final attempt, they were told that the weather was clear. They made their way up the Steps and died there; Atlas states that neither Mallory nor his camera were ever found. (Historically, Mallory’s body was finally found in 1999). Atlas likes the idea that Mallory did perhaps reach the summit and then died on his way down the mountain.

Atlas awakens to find that his fingers are frostbitten, but he insists on finding the team before dealing with this issue. When the radio battery dies, Maddie and Atlas are officially on their own. They now stand above and within the clouds, and when Atlas begins to perceive people in the distance, he does not know whether the sight is real or just a hallucination. Despite all the current challenges, he remains confident that he and Maddie will rescue the team today.

As they make their way upward, Atlas thinks about the monk’s admonition that he has been looking “in the wrong direction” (283). He mentions this to Maddie and believes that the monk was referring to Atlas’s many mistakes while climbing. Maddie disagrees; she thinks the monk’s advice was much deeper than that.

Maddie and Atlas reach a high rock and are now running out of strength. Maddie gets boosted up first. When Atlas passes up his pack, he drops the rucksack and the scarf that his mother once gave him. Panicked, Atlas tries to pull the rucksack back toward himself without losing the scarf, but the oxygen tank rolls out. Now the tank and scarf are balanced on a ledge, and Atlas realizes that he will only be able to grab one of them. He freezes in panic.

Staring at the scarf and the oxygen tank, Atlas cannot help but talk about his mother. He tells Maddie that his mother used to climb with him and tell him stories, but one day, she no longer had the strength to climb. By the time the family moved to Utah, it was already too late to save her; her health had declined too far. Atlas reflects on the fact that he has been “frozen” ever since his mother died, refusing to move forward without her. It occurs to him that the monk’s warning about looking in the wrong direction is really a comment on his search for peace, which he was never going to find on a mountain. Atlas realizes now that he must look to his future and move forward rather than remaining caught in the past forever.

Just as Atlas decides to save the oxygen tank, he accidentally pushes both the tank and the scarf off the cliff, losing them forever.

A Sherpa named Sonam suddenly approaches, and at first, Atlas thinks that the man is about to attack. Sonam does not speak English, and Atlas and Maddie must communicate with gestures. Sonam sees the frostbite on Atlas’s nose and puts some yellow paste on it. He then leads Maddie and Atlas to the First Step.

Atlas notices that Sonam’s shovel bears the same symbol as the one he found, and it occurs to him that the symbol is not a swastika but a reversed version of that notorious symbol. Using gestures, Sonam manages to imitate a flowing river and says, “Manji,” which Maddie and Atlas interpret to mean “inner peace” or “going with the flow.” Suddenly, Atlas realizes that the Nazis appropriated this Tibetan symbol of peace and inverted it, changing it into a symbol of war. As the group travels, Sonam stops, seemingly aware that there is a hollow space beneath them. He plunges his shovel into the snow.

Atlas, Sonam, and Maddie frantically dig, fighting their exhaustion and altitude sickness. They manage to reach the hole in which the expedition members are trapped. They call down to the team, but nobody answers. As more help arrives, Atlas begins to lose consciousness. He feels inexplicably hot, and he isn’t sure whether he is imagining the sound of his father’s voice.

As Atlas is carried down the mountain, he drifts in and out of consciousness. When he awakens fully, he finds himself safely ensconced in a tent. He learns that his father is alive but is unconscious; additionally, one of the Sherpas on the team has died. The other men have survived, but Mr. Blake is the only one who is awake. Atlas takes the chance to apologize for accusing Mr. Blake, and the man accepts his apology. Soon, Atlas hears his father speak.

Atlas must have two of his toes amputated, and his father loses three. Mr. Thomley has broken his leg and needs time to recover. (The narrative reveals that five years later, Mr. Thomley dies on another expedition and receives the Military Cross for “courage and honor” [316].) The narrative then states that Mr. Levinsky stays in Tibet and lives with Chodak and the other Sherpas in order to avoid Nazi persecution. He uses the money from his expedition to help other Jews escape as well.

As time goes on, Atlas hears from Maddie once via a postcard, in which she reminds him of the importance of hope during war. Back in England, Atlas works to transport injured soldiers from trains to ambulances when they arrive in London. One day, a woman whose son was injured approaches Atlas and expresses her gratitude for his efforts. She gives Atlas the scarf from around her neck, and Atlas sees this gesture as a sign from his mother, reminding him to hold onto the hope that peace will one day return to the world.