# Sleepless Mountain

“They all call this mountain the **Sleepless Mountain**.
which means those who have climbed this mountain
will not be free even after death.
To be a servant of the mountain for seven years.
In the eighth year to truly rest in peace.”

## (1)
This incident is what I heard when I was studying in Japan.
One time I went to climb Mount Tsukuba (筑波山) with a friend.
In the end, it seems to have taken a wrong turn on the way down the mountain.
Turned to a rather distant place.
Luckily, we met a kind-hearted uncle. Not only did he take us down the mountain. He also treated us to a meal of Oden (おでん).
He heard that my friend is a Chinese student. He remembered something sad and his tears stayed.
In Izakaya (いざかや), he begins to tell the story after the sake (さけ) is poured down his throat.

It turned out to be the anniversary of his best friend's death. His close friends and he are both mountain lovers. Unfortunately, his dear friend died in the mountain of another country. Nowadays, every year on this day, he goes hiking on Mount Tsukuba near his home to commemorate him.

As a rule, it's ok that the story ends here.
My friend was stupid to ask a redundant question. To ask uncle how his friend died.

The result is so great. After listening to this story, my friend and I were scared. We were afraid to sleep that day. We sang at karaoke (カラオケ) until the next morning. I went back to my place staggering. As long as the story comes to mind, I feel goosebumps all over my body.

The uncle...
Let's just call him Uncle Ishikawa (石川さん).
The following story is told from a first-person perspective.

The story begins with a certain mountain disaster in the 1990s. The site of the incident is in a M-mountain in present-day China. The location is quite remote. It has been a sacred mountain in the hearts of the local people since ancient times.
However, the climbing fever that started in the 19th century. The world's lonely heights were conquered one by one. Only K peak of M mountain range is one of the few virgin peaks above 6000m. Previously, there were several climbers who hoped to make a name for themselves by reaching the summit. But in the end, they failed.

This year, the Japanese K-University and the Chinese climbing team formed a group to prepare to reach the summit. When we reached not far from the summit. Suddenly the storm clouds came, and it snowed heavily. The top team had to give up reluctantly. After a few difficult moments, the team went down to meet up with the others. Suddenly, the mountains shook, more than ten members of the mountaineering group were suffered an unknown disaster and not heard from that night. Once the news came back to Japan, of course, the whole country was shocked and formed a search and rescue team immediately. Recruiting well-known climbers from all walks of life, including me and Mita (三田さん). We had just returned from a life-threatening experience on Kangchenjunga, having given up on the summit and returned home from our adventure.
In fact, we should rest for a while after returning home. However, the leader of the climbing team that was hit by the disaster is Mr.Kitai (北井さん), is Mita's mentor when he was at K-University. In addition, Mita and Mr. Kitai's only daughter, Sayako (清子), have a considerable degree of ambiguous relationship. As soon as we both arrived in Japan, we jumped on another plane before we even returned home. We went to China with a group of search and rescue team.

Helplessly, the road was long, and we met the New Year period. The snow remained everywhere on the road. By the time the search and rescue team finally pushed into the base camp location, it had been a week since the incident. As far as the rescue is concerned, it is almost certain that the victim was killed. But Mita still holds on to the hope that a miracle will happen. After arriving at the base camp, we quickly met up with the Chinese rescue team. After the briefing, we immediately assigned the route to the mountain, and waited for the weather to get up the mountain. In our group, besides Mita and I, there are Chen Ming (陳明) and Wang Yi (王義)from China. They are also experienced climbers who have just completed the anaerobic challenge of Everest. We humbly made some mutual concessions, finally decided that Chen Ming would be the team leader and Mita have appointed as liaison member.

Expected to depart at 3：00 a.m. the next day. Take the R1 route from U Glacier to C2 direction of the missing team. For people who do not climb the mountain may be a little difficult to understand. Why choose to go up the mountain at 3：00 a.m. when the visibility is bad and the staff is tired?
On this point, people who have not climbed the glacier cannot experience the horror of the glacier. Unlike other parts of the mountain, glaciers can be said to be alive. It changes all the time. One must proceed with caution, one step at a time. If small mistake occurred that you could slip into a crevasse of ice dozens of feet deep. Even if you don't die instantly, you still must get help from your companions as soon as possible. You will let the cold water quickly take away the heat from your body and die from heat loss. If you are lucky enough to slip and fall on a flat slope. It might be sprains, broken bones, and severe concussions, or even death on the spot. Therefore, experienced climbers try not to stay on the glacier for too long. We will choose to climb in the early morning when the temperature is low. The glacier flow is slowest currently. The ice is also relatively stable. It can relatively minimize unexpected variables.

On this day, we turned off the lights at 8：00 p.m. to rest to save energy for tomorrow's trip. As usual It's hard to sleep well in the mountains at high altitude. However, Mita and I have just returned from Kangchenjunga. The adjustment state in the base camp is good, so we slept intermittently. However, I had a strange dream. I dreamed of a very majestic and steep mountain. The pale blue mountain was covered with a little snow and then I saw a white stag. It is unusually large probably as big as a North American grizzly bear. No...maybe even a little bigger. The big antlers of the stag shine with golden light. I've seen that golden light several times, most recently on the Kanchenjunga. It is the golden light that is characteristic of the first light that shines on the summit when dawn appears. The entire peak of the snow-capped mountain will shine with the sunrise. I was fascinated by the scene, and then I noticed that the white stag was gazing at me with an expression of majesty and pride. I felt guilty at the time and avoided staring at each other. Perhaps it is my illusion that the white stag seems to show a contemptuous sneer before turning its head and slowly leaving. At that moment, I found a silvery gray wolf behind the white stag, glaring at me with a face full of anger. I felt my whole body stiffen and sweat when the wolf glared at me. I could not move my limbs at all. The wolf roared with indescribable fury. It was not a wolf's roar that anyone had heard before. It sounds like a train or a truck or a plane passing by with a huge high-decibel noise. I thought to myself, "Oh crap!"

Suddenly I woke up from my dream. I rushed to the tent without putting anything on and dragged Mita outside. Mita was still in a daze and mumbling, "What the hell, asshole!" But then he also came to his senses. Experienced climbers are afraid to hear such sounds, especially in their sleep. If there are two kinds of death on the mountain, a good death or a bad death. Slipping and freezing to death both fall into the category of a good death for me. Asphyxiation from avalanches is one of the top three on my list of malignant deaths. Especially when people are buried in their sleep along with their tents and sleeping bags. That is simply a nightmare that haunts climbers in the dead of night. Not surprisingly, in less than 10 seconds, Chen Ming and Wang Yi rushed out of the tent, disheveled. Then in the darkness of the night, four people could only kneel together on the ground. Praying to heaven in my own native language that we don't die here tonight. But on the other hand, we also know that the fate of those who love the mountains is to die in the mountains. There are few mountain fanatics like Sir Edmund Percival Hillary who can live out his final years in peace. The annual gathering for friends of the Mountains is always full of new friends and few familiar faces. Occasionally, I hear about who has been seriously injured and can no longer climb, or who has gone to the place where this trip will stay forever. No matter how skillful and physical, if you keep challenging the mountains and you will be stayed by them one day. The good news is that we may not die this time. After about 30 or 40 seconds, the loud noise finally stopped. Chen Ming returned to the tent and took out the headlamp to survey around and found that there was a medium-sized avalanche not far from our BC about 300 meters away. It wasn't big, thank God it didn't come crashing down on our tent. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to sit here and tell this story today.

Encountered such an unexpected event, we didn't sleep during the rest of the break. So, we stayed up until 2:30 a.m. and got up to prepare. Then as soon as three o'clock arrived, the whole group left for the U Glacier route. As mentioned above, although glacier climbing is not as difficult as rock climbing skills or the physical exertion of climbing above 8,000 meters, but there is no room for sloppiness. Even for experts, the death rate from sliding down a glacier is no less than some steep slopes with high vertical difficulty. As the glacier is constantly moving, the sound of breaking ice can often be heard when walking on the glacier. The ever-changing ice squeeze displacement caused one alternating death trap after another. It tests not only the judgment of the climbers, but also their own luck. A former mountaineer once described a glacier as a big roulette wheel. Today you passed smoothly just because you did not turn to the Snake eyes. (Snake eyes, in any gambling game, this outcome is very disadvantageous for the player) But your companions may not be so lucky, and you won't always be. We each group of two people, taking turns to rest for half an hour and continue to move forward. The two men in the front were setting up aluminum ladders, measuring the thickness of the ice and judging the route.
The two men in the back were responsible for carrying luggage and resting. Around 6:30, I went with Mita to pick up our luggage. This time it was Chen and Wang's turn as the front two when the sunrise. The golden light shines from the east to the summit of K Mountain, which has been covered by clouds for several days, and now the clouds have opened. The turquoise blue mountains are covered with white snow. The summit shone with a golden glow and I couldn't help but stop to admire and appreciate it. However, at this time I also found some strange situation. Although I could see the golden light of the distant mountain tops due to the sunrise, I felt the darkness in front of me. However, I touched in front of my eyes this time I have not put on sunglasses. (Because the glaciers and snow in the mountains are reflective, we will bring goggles.) The vision should not be so dim...so I called out to the team leader,"あきら!" I said with a gesture that my body was in a little bit of trouble, and then I took out the oxygen tank from my backpack and took a breath. However, Chen Ming replied with a gesture "The ice is unstable in this place, further ahead before resting." I felt strange as I continued to move forward. Logically, Mita and I just came back from Kangchenjunga, and the height adaptation should be adjusted very well. How could I have visual blindness on a glacier at an altitude of less than 6,000 meters? In addition, if the loss of vision is due to lack of oxygen, I should feel improvement after inhaling oxygen. Why do I still feel the darkness around me? At this point I stopped to observe the state of the surrounding environment again. Suddenly, I realized that only about 50 meters from my center was in this state of darkness, but 50 meters away it was still bright. It was as if something was covering my head with sunlight. I looked up at the sky with a slight fear in my heart, but there was nothing in the blue sky again. I simply ignored it and continued to push forward a hundred meters. This strange shadow also pushed 100 meters with me as the center. I have climbed many high-altitude mountains and seen many strange phenomena. But this was the first time I had seen this happen. I had to stop and wait for Mita, who was at the end of the line, to catch up with me. The weird thing is that I don't know if this force read my heart. Just when I was thinking about it, the dark figure left me and disappeared in the direction of the summit. When Mita followed me, I mentioned to him about seeing the black shadow. Mita was astonished. To be honest, he had never encountered this phenomenon before. Mita's explanation is as follows “This may be due to the angle, which side of the mountain the shadow shines through. With the sun angle change so it will move with and finally run to other places, right?” I superficially coped with him and said "Oh, oh, that's probably true. The actual mental thought is, how could this happen? As the angle of the sun climbs, which mountains have bottomless pie-shaped specific shadows? The shadows only retreat to the foot of the mountain. How is it possible that the shadows are climbing back up the mountain...? But after staying in the mountains for a long time, I encounter some unexplained phenomena. No way to pursue this matter.

On the contrary, Mita looked like he wanted to say something, which made me feel very strange. “In fact, I just saw something inside the ice layer when I was setting up the aluminum ladder. I thought I was mistaken, so I didn't tell you. Now that I think about it, the stranger I feel.” Mita suddenly said something surprising at this time.

“Did you see something? Don't scare me!”

“Do you remember the hiking stick that I gave to Mr. Kitai for his birthday a few years ago?”

Of course, I remember this incident very well. This dude was trying to curry favor with Mr. Kitai so dragged me to pick hiking stick. Finally, he was too embarrassed to send it himself, so he pretended that the professor's daughter, Sayako, had bought it and passed it on to him. Mr. Kitai was so happy that he took it with him when he went out to show it off to people.

“Did it fall in the ice crack?”

“It would be nice if this was the case.” Mita looked like he had something to hide. He thought about it for a long time before saying it slowly. “The hiking stick is frozen in the ice.”

Frozen in the ice? Is this guy serious? The formation of glaciers often takes close to tens of thousands of years. Usually things get washed to the bottom when they fall inside the ice cracks. With the water of the underground liquid glacier washed out from the foot of the mountain after a long time or stuck in the crevice waiting to be discovered by the later.

“I didn't mistake about the hiking stick, it did not fall in the outer layer, but was frozen in a meter of ice.”

“You must have mistaken!” I ignored Mita and urged him to go ahead and meet up with Chen and Wang. Because of the fog blowing down from the mountains, it will soon catch up with us. This time if we spread out, there will be a big problem. At this point, we all know that the mountain seems too odd and it is best to be more careful. When we caught up with Chen and Wang, found that they seemed to be arguing about something. The main point seems to be that Wang thought he saw something, and Chen said it was a hallucination produced by the thin oxygen in the mountain. Anyway, this is not the time to quarrel. The four of us just tied on the safety rope, followed by the fog. As we cautiously walked forward, Wang Yi suddenly pointed to the right and said, "Look!" About 30 meters away from us, a group of people were walking on the glacier. As the fog is very thick, only vaguely see the dark shadows swaying. I wondered, “Is this our own reflection?” There are only four of us on this route. Take a closer look. It's not right. There are many people. Counting up, there are 17 humanoid shadows. Mita and I looked at each other and thought, “We don't have so many people in the rescue team this time.” There can't be that many people here, except for the victims of the climbing team.

“Hey, don't move! I'm coming to your side now” Wang Yi, as the leader of the group, shouted to the other side after seeing this situation. However, the figure on the other side still seemed to be unheard and was moving rapidly toward the summit of the mountain. Wang Yi saw the situation and began to anxiously change course, moving in the direction of the right front. Chen Ming, who was following behind, he suddenly felt bad. He wanted to call Wang Yi, but it was too late. Wang Yi stepped on the cover of the ice crack without warning. Although invisible on the surface, there is an endless abyss beneath the thin layer of ice. Eager to get past Wang Yi did not notice the thickness of the ice beneath his feet, directly stepped on the thin ice cover and fell. After he fell and Chen Ming immediately pulled down by the safety rope around his waist. He immediately rolled over and slammed his ice axe on the glacier, but still couldn't stop the fall and was dragged all the way to the edge of the crevasse. Mita and I immediately sat down, desperately using the ice claws of our feet against the floor in front of us. We pulled the safety rope with both hands until the rope was firmly in the glove and both palms were painfully numb. It took nearly half an hour to pull the two people up from the ice crevice. As Wang Yi slipped, we have lost the progress in the morning. Chen Ming bruised his left elbow during the slip and fall, but the injury was not serious. On the contrary, Wang Yi hit his head during the fall and was suspected of having a slight concussion and was still under observation after resting for a while.

## (2)

“As you can see, right?” The first person to speak at lunch was Mita, and then there was a silence.

“I don't know what I see when the fog is too heavy to confirm. It could also be an illusion of our reflection or refraction of light.” As the leader of the team, Chen Ming calmly analyzed.

While there is another possible explanation, none of the four of us thought that the climbing team would still have a chance of survival after 10 days, given the lack of food and equipment. Not to mention that the group just moved so fast that even I and Mita are such experienced climbers are not sure to catch up. It is unlikely that the first climbing team, which was a mixture of academics and researchers, had the physical and mental strength of people who had been in the mountain for 10 days.

“Maybe it is a distant place where the climbing teams are reflected by light and shadow and projected in front of us.” Mita also echoed Chen Ming's desire to find a reasonable explanation for the figure he saw. But I think we all know in our hearts that the figure we just saw was not an illusion, but something real passing us by. After lunch, in the afternoon the route is relatively easy. On the way to C2, we walked along the ridge. No need for oxygen bottles at this altitude yet. The order of the team is still Chen Ming walking in front of Wang Yi followed by me and Mita at the back. After about three o'clock, I saw another strange sight. I see something on the ridge line between the main peak and the side fronts in the distance. So, I took the telescope out of my backpack to check what it was. The conclusion is that it is better not to see, I looked and saw what appeared to be five people standing in a row above, with their backs turned in our direction. So, I thought to myself “Oh, so reaching the summit has been successful! That's great!” But a chill immediately rushed to the brain “No, who is the person above?” If the climbing team is safe and sound, why didn't they contact the base camp for more than 10 days? And if there is still energy left to reach the summit, as a rule, should not be the first to call down for help? Not to mention the fact that the line where the five people were located did not belong to any of the three glacier routes. Normally, I would not go to that place, even with the right equipment, climbing that ridge is not an easy task. While I was thinking about these questions, the first of these five figures suddenly fell. I couldn't help but scream out on the spot.
Then the second,
The third,
The Fourth,
The Fifth,
One by one, they fell down to the other side of the mountain.
I have so many years of mountaineering experience to see more than one slide down the cliff mountain friends have also seen many examples of gusts of wind blowing down the valley, but these five people fell in a way too unnatural. It was like the way I watched on TV a few years ago when the bronze statue of a dictator was pulled down after the people's revolution in a Central Asian country had overthrown the dictator, and the body kept a straight posture and fell straight forward. After hearing my screams, Mita rushed up from behind and asked me what was going on. I froze for a moment, wondering if I should say what I had just seen. I looked up and saw that the top of the peak was surrounded by clouds again. Only to see a blanket of white, not to mention what the shadow of a person cannot even see the mountain ridge. I waved my hand with Mita to indicate that it was okay, but Mita certainly did not believe and showed a skeptical look. Finally, Mita came to my ear and said to me in a very low voice. “Be careful. It seems we are not the only ones on this route. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like I've been under surveillance ever since I got up the mountain.” When Mita said that I was also surprised. It is true that we have climbed several mountains over 8000 meters, but it is the first time that a mountain exudes such a strong hostility. This strange uncomfortable feeling seems to protest our arrival.

Now think about it I was stupid. I usually teach people that if they feel something strange on the mountain, they should get off the mountain as soon as possible and not hesitate. I've seen too many people not trust their instincts, rely on experience and skills, and end up dying on the mountain. However, the fact that I felt wrong but thought I was fine plus excessive belief in myself and my companions' abilities and eagerness to complete the task entrusted to the search eventually led to the road of no return.

## (3)

That night, we camped near the original site of the first team C1. There are many annoying sounds at night in the high mountains. First, the air pressure in the high mountains produces the phenomenon of ringing in the ears, plus the extreme cold makes people feel uncomfortable with headaches. The strong wind outside hit the tent and made a sound like sandpaper rubbing. But the most frightening thing is that in this case you will hear a lot of hallucinations and even see people who no longer exist replaying scenes that happened in the past before your eyes. Most of the mountains over 5000 meters have magic like I have suffered repeatedly from the challenge of the demons on the Lhotse before. I saw my predecessor who taught me how to climb, but he went to K2 ten years ago and never came back. His smile was still as kind as ever and he told many anecdotes that only he and I knew. Although I felt very moved for a while, my reason clearly told me that my predecessor was dead. This in front of me is just a vision projected in my own brain, so when my predecessor asked me to go with him, I refused coldly. Because of this experience, I was not surprised when I heard the women's cries. But what happened next, I can't explain at all...Because all the visions I heard were about Mita and they were stories I had never heard of before. It's not strange at all to hear your own secrets, but it's different to hear someone else's secrets. It is very strange. I shook Mita beside me and found him awake, with a frightened look on his face and a cold sweat on his body. I asked him "Mita, are you listening to the same thing? The whisper in the wind says you failed her. She was so happy to tell you she was having a baby, but you said coldly that you didn't want it." Mita turned his head in disbelief and stared at me with wide eyes and a slight rumble in his throat without saying a word and nodded his head. "And she said do you remember the promise you made in front of the fountain that day? Why did you never wear the cross pendant you were given afterwards?" "And she called you Taji. What does that mean?" After hearing these words, Mita's pupils quickly narrowed and his breathing became very rapid. I knew he was in a state of extreme fear. In the high mountains, even for a minute, if you are in a panic, it will cause a great crisis, and you must not lose your mind in any way. So, I hurriedly jumped out of the sleeping bag. I sat directly on Mita's chest and squeezed him Slapped him several times. Sure enough, Mita's breathing began to ease and slowly regained his senses. We both stared at each other like this for about five minutes before Mita slowly opened his mouth.
"I'm sorry. There's something I should have told you before we went to the mountain. Sayako was among the team that was killed this time. She was also on this mountain." I was surprised to hear Mita say that because I didn't see Sayako's name in the team list. Unless she was anonymously dressed as a male and went up the mountain, but why would she do that?

"Was that her voice?"

Mita nodded his head, "Sayako wants the baby. But I think she and I are still too young. There was still too much to do. I told her to get rid of it. In addition, Taji is only the two of us when she will call my nickname. Because she said that the male should stand on top of the earth, so take the harmonic name of my Taji."

(As the editor of the case I would like to explain here. Uncle Ishikawa said that Mita's full name is Mita Takeshi. That's why Sayako calls Mita "Taji" by his nickname. The Japanese word "tachi" means "to stand up".)

But Sayako should have died ....Mita and I fell into a wordless silence because he and I both knew very well that this was not an illusion.

"Can you get off my body now?"

I don't know how long it took me to realize that I was still sitting on Mita's body, so I had to smile awkwardly and get ready to go back to sleep. As soon as I left Mita's body, Mita and I were suddenly frozen by the sight in front of us. I don't know when the wind stopped, and the moon hung brightly in the night sky outside the tent. And just outside the tent door there is a figure standing there... Through the moonlight you can see very clearly a human silhouette projected on top of our tent. I would like to ask whether it is Chen or Wang, but Chen's height is a little more than 180cm and Wang is a fat man. The shadow outside the tent is a small figure of only 160cm. Outside the silent tent, only Mita's and my two hearts were beating at high speed, "thump, thump, thump".

Is it alive?
The figure that appears in such a place at such a time.
Is it a living person? Not a living person? What is standing outside the tent?

Along the way has been to see strange visions but this time is two people see together. Mita and I probably held this position for I don't know how long, or maybe it was actually a very short period. But for both of us it was as long as a lifetime of torment and we didn't have the courage to open the tent to see what was standing outside, we just kept praying that we would never open the tent from the outside and come in. At that moment, a sharp roar sounded outside the tent, and a strong wind blew from all directions to surround the C1 camp. The sound of the wind seems to be mixed with countless wails, cries, anger, despair, reluctance, and complaints roaring at us again and again. The wind squeezed our tent, blowing out all sorts of strange and weird shapes, like countless hands reaching out their claws and dragging us to another dimension that does not belong to this world, and like a human face pressed against the tent roof, revealing all sorts of extremely distorted and painful shapes. In all the time I've been climbing, I've never been so scared. Although I am not religious, I have been praying to God in my heart, please don't let them take me away. And Mita, who was holding me, was praying the Rosary and crying and pleading that he wasn't ready to be taken away at this time. Mita and I kept hugging each other, trying to keep our sanity from crumbling. Until almost dawn, the wind outside stopped, and the figure disappeared without a trace. Mita and I didn't have the courage to open the tent door until about seven o'clock, when the sun lit up the entire camp, and only then did Mita and I unzip the tent with trembling hands, praying we wouldn't see something outside that wasn't of this world.

Good thing there's nothing outside the tent ...And about five meters away, Chen and Wang's tent was in the original location where it should have been. When we approached and pulled open the tent door, Chen, Wang and the two of them shouted, like the discovery of a ghost, we both exhaled heavily again, at ease down.

## (4)

We sat opposite each other at breakfast, sipping coffee in silence, neither of us saying anything about what happened last night. Everyone is pondering the same question, should we retreat from this problematic magic mountain?

The first to speak was Chen Ming, who was the leader of the group." I knew everyone wanted to go down, but we were only half a day from C2 and if we left now, we could be back in the afternoon. I suggested that we pack lightly and once we reached the altitude of C2, we could observe the camp at C3 and then decide whether to continue up based on our observations. After all, we are past the most suitable time to descend the glacier, and the weather forecast points to good clear weather for the next two or three days, so there is no point in risking the glacier. Instead of staying put, why don’t you check out the C2 location and see what you think."

In fact, Chen Ming’s suggestion made sense, after all, it was not very safe for us to go down the glacier at this time. On the contrary, although some unexplained phenomena occurred at this point of C1, it was a relatively safe position in terms of the laws of mountaineering. As for the problem to C2 location, although we all have the same doubts in our minds, afraid that the deeper we go into this mountain, the more we will encounter some unexplained phenomena, no longer a simple alpine illusion can be explained. However, Mita and I had to agree with Chen’s plan. “After all, if we turn back for no reason and do not even reach the C2 altitude, it will be difficult to explain to the people at the base camp, and the families of the victims will not understand us, right?” As a search and rescue team did not bring the living down the mountain has been a pity, if we do not do our best to go up to a height that can no longer push, or bring back the remains of the deceased or relics, these are contrary to the obligations of the rescue team, we are afraid to go down this mountain will be blamed by the world.

So, we put the big tent and cooking utensils in position C1, brought only simple equipment and dry food, and started climbing to position C2 after contacting the base camp at 10:00 am. Although nothing more strange happened along the way, the four did not even say a word except the necessary not to make any sound, as if they were afraid that if they made a sound, they would be discovered by something that exists on this mountain and invite something that does not belong to this world. But I knew that it was just a way to cover our ears. Whatever was on this mountain, it knew we were here, even if we didn’t make any noise and hid ourselves behind the rocks. However, even though we are all well aware of this, we can only silently keep our heads down and rush to pray that nothing strange happens again, otherwise our nerves will have broken to the core and it is hard to say when sanity will break down first. Luckily, nothing strange happened along the way and we arrived at the C2 location without any problems. Or should I say the original C2 should be in the position…when we arrived at the C2 site, there was nothing here but a snow … Looking up at the slope where C3 should be, there is no trace of human beings left behind. Seeing this, we have probably guessed what kind of fate the climbing team has met. Originally located in C3 of the Chinese and Japanese joint climbing team in the dead of night when a massive avalanche occurred, 17 people in their sleep did not even have the opportunity to resist, suffering from natural disasters, they were all buried under the snow, do not know if there is still time to see the light. The four of us were at a loss when we saw such a scene. The joint climbing team had nearly a dozen good climbers who had climbed mountains above 8000 meters. Why did they build C3 and C2 on such dangerous slopes with high avalanche rates? Whether a climber is hit by a sudden avalanche in his sleep, there is no chance of survival to speak of. Not being able to demonstrate any of their survival skills before being inundated by rolling snow and then slowly waiting for death to come in an immobilized state. Let the sense of despair that emerges in your heart slowly consume you, listen to the sound of your heartbeat gradually slowing down, your blood slowly turning cold, and then suffocate to death in the snow. Dying in an avalanche is the last thing every climber who challenges the top of the world wants to encounter, and this nightmare that won’t go away will tease climbers along the way, ready to laugh at their insignificance in their spirit-crushing rage. The four of us searched around the area where the C2 camp was originally located, hoping to find some items that originally belonged to the tent, but on the other hand, we prayed that we wouldn’t pull the corners of the dead man’s clothes because we feared it would not withstand the impact. Four people in this tense atmosphere who did not speak, looking for suspicious traces, when Wang Yi raised his hand and said he had found something. The remaining three approached a look, a corner of the blue tarp buried in the snow, immediately reminiscent of climbing the mountain warm feather clothing. “Nobody at C2 Right?” I said in a voice that was almost self-explanatory, and the other three didn’t say anything. Even during the briefing it was determined that the 17 missing people had spent the night in C3, but there were so many strange things on this mountain that even though the four of us had participated in more than one disaster rescue, we had also had the experience of carrying the victims down the mountain on our backs, and after so many unusual events, we suddenly became extremely timid. Four people look at me, I look at you, and finally look at Chen Ming, who is the team leader. Chen Ming also had to take a breath； scalp tingling pulled a corner of the blue cloth. It turned out to be a false alarm. Seeing the split tent, the four people were relieved on the spot. Some more cups and bowls were later dug up at the same location, and something more valuable may have been a camera belonging to someone unknown, but unfortunately no photographic film was put inside. (Honestly even if there are photographic film, I do not dare to wash, deeply afraid of what will be washed out, we are afraid of this mountain.)

In addition, we found a notebook with the name Sato, which contains the diary up to a few days before the accident. To clarify the final whereabouts of the summit team, Chen Ming urged me to quickly translate the diary into English and explain to him.

The diary is roughly as follows：

Mid-November
We arrived at the village at the bottom of the mountain for supplies. The local villagers, who seldom encounter outsiders, welcomed us warmly. The young people were unfamiliar with the country of Japan and seemed to be very surprised by the portable earphones I was carrying.

Late November
The village elders were shocked by our climbing plan and said that we must not do it. The M mountain range is the mountain of their gods, especially the K peak which is the king of the gods.

Early December
Even with the strong opposition of the village people, we had official permission from the Chinese State Council, and the only thing they could do was to lie down on the driveway and block the passage of our caravan, but they were quickly dislodged by the armed police officers accompanying us. They then turned to the local temple and cursed us with a bad climb, casting a shadow over the team before they even left. Song Jun, the leader of the Chinese side, told us that there were some uncivilized people here, and that China had moved away from feudal superstition and into a new modern order, as evidenced by this trip to the mountain.

Early December
Although Song Jun preached his materialism, we set up an altar to pray for peace according to tradition, just as we did in Nepal, building an altar with stones and offering wine to pray.

Mid-December
We set up our base camp at an altitude of 3500m, which is surrounded by snowy mountains on three sides and dense forest on one side. However, during the preparation period, avalanches kept occurring around us, and we felt that the snow conditions on this mountain were very unstable, but so far everything went very well.

Mid-December
A Chinese team member of Tibetan descent, Ma Chuan Ying, discovered that our team member, Sayako Kitai, had come to the mountain as the male identity of Mang Yamada and protested. However, Ma says that the wife of the god of K-peaks is a jealous goddess and that women have been strictly forbidden to enter the area around the mountain since ancient times. However, Mr. Ma was reprimanded by Song Jun with the theme of breaking down superstition and not letting down the party. After being reprimanded, Mr. Ma left the team on his own.

Mid-December
The Japanese side accused the Chinese team members of walking around in groups outside the camp after the lights were out, while the Chinese side denied it and accused the Japanese side of ignoring the curfew and chatting at night during rest time. But no one on our side admitted that they were still chatting with their companions in the middle of the night. However, after the agreement, we could still see people moving around the Chinese camp at night, and we had to ignore it.

Late December
The Chinese side said that in order to avoid possible avalanches, they suggested to set the camp far from the ridge, but on the other hand, we thought that it was too close to C2 and it did not make sense to set C3, and suggested to move C3 up to the middle of C2 and C4 near the ridge.
Professor Kitaia sent our team member Yoneda up the mountain to see it, but after Yoneda went up the mountain, there was fog and when he returned to camp, he said he could not make a judgment, so Professor Kitai compromised and used the middle of the location proposed by both sides as the base for C3.
Afterwards, Yoneda expressed his dissatisfaction to me privately that the Chinese side did not trust us and insisted on sending someone to follow him along the way, only to keep a certain distance from him in the fog, and there was no way to judge who it was just by the silhouette.

Late December
Yesterday, a medium-sized avalanche occurred above Camp 3, and the snow stopped about 1000 meters above us. The next day was a good day, and the attacking team would move to Camp C4 tomorrow to prepare for the assault, so Professor Kitai did not want to move C3 at this time.

Late December
As part of the assault team I followed the team up to 5900m where we set up C4’s camp with our backs to a large ice wall and surveyed the route up to about 6200m, finding no impenetrable terrain along the way. After reporting to C3 in the afternoon that we were ready to attack the summit tomorrow, C3’s teammates banged their pots and pans in joy and wished us a successful attack tomorrow.

Late December
We reached an altitude of about 6400m, led by Song Jun, and saw that the summit was just around the corner, but suddenly the weather started to change for the worse. Five of us had to be trapped in Camp C4 because we had no choice. The extreme cold caused the team to hallucinate. I saw people outside the tent and heard many auditory hallucinations. The base camp kept sending people to keep us awake. Taking turns talking to us, radio reception was not only bad, but occasionally unexplained sounds came from the middle, such as women laughing and babies crying. At this moment, for the first time, I thought I was going to die here. However, around 10:00 the wind and snow suddenly stopped, the moon shone white on the snow and we almost rolled back to Camp C3, everyone had experienced several small slides and scrapes, we must have looked terrible, but for the first time I thanked God so much, it was great to get down alive.

Early January
We held a small Chinese New Year celebration at Camp C3, but many of our team members, including Sayako Kitai, suffered from high altitude symptoms, including a slight fever and depressed mental state, and the original plan to resume the summit had to be postponed due to the snow and wind. The news from the base camp was not good. It was reported that a large number of villagers had gathered at the temple and complained to the mountain gods that if we succeeded in the attack, our children and grandchildren would abandon their faith in the mountain gods, and some even cursed that we would not make it down the mountain alive.

Early January
The snow kept accumulating and could not be cleared. Some of the team members already expressed privately their wish to go down the mountain earlier. Sayako Kitai was in a high She kept saying that they are coming, they are coming, let me go home while there is still time, and so on, in a dream of unknown meaning. Professor Kitai was already thinking of letting some of the staff return to the base camp when the weather cleared. After about 10:00 p.m., the communication equipment became It was unusually quiet outside, the camp was foggy, and there was no moonlight tonight.

Diary writing ends here…
However, the last few pages were left with a very scrawled note saying I was wrong, we were wrong and it was too late to go down the mountain.
They’re coming.
Help me.
Darkness surrounds us.
There’s no way to escape.
Help me!
I don’t want to die.
Help …

Then it’s gone.
Why is this diary, which should be in Camp C3, in the tent of Camp C2?
In addition, the last few pages of Sato’s diary wrote those creepy messages as if they were written in extreme fear, the words were twisted and unrecognizable and some of the content could not be read, and other pages seemed to be torn out. Mita silently put the diary into the backpack who did not express any opinion on the content of the oxygen at this altitude is very thin even if the experienced veteran mountain friends lost heart is not an accident. If we hadn’t encountered so many unexplained strange things along the way, I think we could have explained in a very scientific and reasonable way how the attack team was killed, but now the four of us no longer want to explore the relevant issues, just want to leave the mountain as soon as possible.

## (5)
No one can swallow lunch, although it is difficult to have an appetite at this height, but in the remains of this C2 is even more people cannot eat anything. So, we started walking back again along the footprints left along the road up the mountain. Halfway to Chen Ming suddenly stopped with a very ugly face. To be honest, I was also very afraid to look back for fear that there would be a non-existent fifth person at the end of our team of four.

Good thing there’s nothing at the back …

Chen Ming pointed to our footprints on the mountain and told me to see that our footprints on the mountain suddenly diverged at a certain place. This means that someone followed our route up the mountain and then forked off in a different direction here. Although we are eager to descend but also feel obliged to rendezvous with other rescue teams, not only to remind them of the situation, on the other hand, more people are also more secure, but the footprints of walking to the edge of the cliff is broken … We were all shocked if the whole team fell that is still the case. However, there is nothing below the cliff, no bodies, no remains, and no signs of falling snow is still white and thick. A chill froze on my brain It is impossible that the owner of the footprints stepped backwards and walked all the way backwards, or that this cliff is where the footprints began This is simply a joke, right?

At this time, Mita let out a heart-rending cry. Because there is a small stone platform on the snowy slope not far from the cliff, a black mass can be seen floating on the platform.
That’s a woman’s long hair…
The only woman in the team that was killed was Sayako Kitai. On that small rock platform, it is undoubtedly Sayako’s head…
Although it is said that when mountain climbing encounters avalanche or slide down the valley often find victims when the body is in pieces, especially the human neck is very fragile, so the situation of the head is not unusual. It was too hard to just collapse alone on the rocky platform of the snowy slope. “I want to bring her back, even if it’s just the head, I want to bring her back to Japan.” Mita said as she untied her safety harness and headed for the unsafe steep snow slope. However, Chen Ming grabbed him by the collar and threw him onto the snow.
“Let’s go together.” Chen Ming buckled the safety rope of the Mita, the four walked together to the edge of the snow slope, put two ice poles deep into the snow, make safety measures, and then slowly moved over the snow slope from the side.
“Sayako, let’s go home. Let’s go back to Japan together.” Mita slowly held Sayako’s head from behind with his shaking hands and slowly lifted her upward. However, “Ahhhhhhh ~” Mita screamed out on the spot. It was not a head but a whole piece of scalp and hair that was ripped off and hung on a raised part of the rock platform. Chen Ming and I were also stunned on the spot. Such a death is too cruel, even if the death is not the life of this is too paradoxical. It is too unnatural and should not be the way a person should die without any dignity.
“No, no, this isn’t supposed to be like this.” I muttered, taking a step backwards, when suddenly I tripped over something and fell hard to the ground. I frowned to see what was tripping me up and found a sky-blue snowsuit covered in thin snow. At this time a strong wind blew away the surface layer of snow my mouth opened very wide. Surprisingly, Wang Yi has long been dying for a long time lying here a pair of dead eyes staring extremely large corpse has been frozen into an icicle at least also dead for more than three hours. I found Chen Ming and Mita also looked at me with a bewildered face. Only then did I realize that Wang Yi, who was moving together behind me disappeared. But I’m pretty sure that since the four of us on the mountain together, it’s always been impossible for three people to have a collective hallucination of seeing a non-existent fourth person. So, if Wang Yi, who really died here, was the one who followed us all the way up the mountain from the fork in the footprint until this snowy slope? Seeing one of our companions die and another die in pieces was like the last straw, completely shattering what was left of our sanity. Three big men kneeling on the snowy slope whimpering and clucking like puppies, I don’t know how long it took before they continued down the hill like a funeral procession, with a mournful look. Sayako’s scalp and Wang Yi’s body, we were all left on that snowy slope. One by one, simple equipment was lost along the way. All three of us lost the will to survive. We just wanted to lighten the load on our bodies and leave the place.

However, as if reading our minds, the fog thickened up again in the afternoon, making it impossible to discern the road ahead. Due to the weather, we missed our camping spot at C2, and the road was full of unseen scenery and we didn’t know where we were. Seeing the sky slowly becoming darker and darker, the wind and snow getting stronger and stronger, we were plunged into the darkness that surrounded us. The wind in your ears, interspersed with all kinds of sounds that no longer belong to this world, even if you want to pretend that you cannot hear laughter, crying, wailing, sighing, drilling into the brain of the four arms and legs from pain to numbness, are now not felt. I kept regretting that we should have gone down the mountain when it was still possible. No, I don’t think we should even be here. There’s nothing on this mountain but death.

There is nothing…

The first to fall was Mita. “She’s coming. I saw her. She’s waiting for me.“ Mita fell to his knees and mumbled to himself. I called Chen Ming and asked him to come along to help carry Mita, but Chen Ming kept looking back with a frightened face and ignored my request, so he abandoned us and fled alone. I dropped my backpack, picked up Mita’s left shoulder with my unconscious right hand, and moved forward slowly and with difficulty. “Leave me alone, we can’t go back, they’re all here and she’s watching us.” I clenched my teeth and ignored what Mita said and dragged him forward step by step. I called out to Chen Ming again, hoping he would stop and fulfill his duty as group leader and help me, but Chen Ming also fell. “I can’t … They’re coming for me … Please don’t let them take me away, help me, it’s your fault, I shouldn’t even be here, help me, please help me …” When I passed by Chen Ming, he kept begging me. But my eyesight also reached the limit, the three fields on my shoulders weighing as much as a hundred pounds of iron, I will fall at any time, gradually blurred. In the distance came Chen Ming’s cries, followed by a wail of fear and distortion, and finally a click, and then I heard no more of Chen Ming’s voice. The journey was like a journey to hell on earth, there were no limits, the earth was dead silent except for my heavy breathing and the sound of Mita’s heartbeat. I don’t think this is the way to get on Mita, our body temperature is dropping and unless we can find a sheltered rock face, Mita and I will freeze to death before this night is over. However, things didn’t go as planned and both Mita and I tripped and fell, and my headlamp was thrown somewhere. In the middle of a fog, I finally understood that I had no chance of survival. Mita was still alive, but his breathing was very faint. His mouth kept repeating ” I’m sorry, Sayako. I’m sorry …” Apparently, the consciousness has fallen into confusion. But I also saw countless figures moving around us in the fog…Only Sayako she stood ten meters in front of us, a thin layer of frost frozen on her bloodless skin, eyes only black and empty, not part of the world’s vision, looking at us, two arms twisted at an extremely unnatural angle, hanging helplessly from her thin shoulders, and part of her limbs missing from her waist. However, she had a strange smile on her face, the corners of her mouth pulled up in an arc that was about to burst as she stared at us without moving. I have seen many visions on the mountain in my life, but none of them have been so real or so terrifying. The last thing I remember was the way Sayako did her ectoplasm as she struggled to move her stiff joints and slowly walked towards us. I held Mita as he stared at Sayako with his eyes wide open. A long breath came out of his throat and then he didn’t move a muscle. Then my eyes turned black and I don’t remember the rest. When I woke up, I was already at the base camp at the bottom of the mountain. The search and rescue team found me at the end of the M glacier. The team said they couldn’t reach C2 due to bad weather and had to turn back after a few nights in C1 and were surprised to see me down here as the route was 4 km away from the U glacier route. I asked if there is any Mita or Chen Ming found. The other side said they only found me alone and saw nothing else along the way. So I spent two weeks recuperating at base camp, and whatever people asked me, I kept my mouth shut. Due to the bad weather, the base camp could not send any more teams up the mountain and hesitated to abandon the rescue and carry out the evacuation. For a few days, I had a bad feeling in bed, and every day it felt stronger and stronger, as if I was about to suffer a disaster, so I cried and prayed to get out of here as soon as possible. So the commander-in-chief also felt that the state of the mountain was not quite right, the rescue operation was declared a failure and everyone went down the mountain. On the day we left, there was an unprecedented avalanche near base camp, after which a large forest of 100-year-old fir trees collapsed, but this forest was not even in the path of the avalanche…
Some say that the wind pressure caused by the avalanche blew down the trees, but I believe that there are forces and mysterious phenomena beyond human comprehension that govern everything living and inanimate on this mountain, because I see those phenomena that transcend nature…When I returned, I left the mountain with four fingers and three toes as the price I paid for being alive. And why the mountain gave me a life, I don’t know. Maybe there is no reason, because the mountain gods are beyond our comprehension. Uncle Ishikawa (石川さん) said here, took off the gloves, revealing only six fingers left on both hands. My friend and I couldn’t breathe, and I’m sure we both looked very pale. As for what happened to Mita, Uncle Ishikawa (石川さん) replied after thinking about it, I think most of them are dead… Even if they are still alive, I think that probably is not Mita.

When we were about to part, Uncle Ishikawa (石川さん) seemed to remember something.
“By the way, do you know? To avoid the gods, the residents don’t call this mountain by its name, they call it Sleepless Mountain.”
which means those who have climbed this mountain
will not be free even after death.
To be a servant of the mountain for seven years.
In the eighth year to truly rest in peace.”

After we left, my friend and I felt a bad chill, a little wind could scare us both half to death. So, the two of us picked a karaoke and went in and sang until dawn, feeling dizzy while we sang, and only after dawn did, we stagger back to our place.

The End.