In this photograph taken on April 25, 2015, a cloud of snow and debris triggered by an earthquake flies towards Everest Base Camp, moments ahead of flattening part of the camp in the Himalayas.ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP / Getty Images
In the five years since she quit her job as a corporate lawyer in Toronto to climb mountains full time, Grace McDonald has fallen into a crevasse, suffered frost bite and gone snow blind for days. This weekend, she defied death again as she found herself on the north side of Everest when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck.
Ms. McDonald and her party were crossing a moraine, on their way from one base camp to another, when rocks began falling all around them, her husband, Ilkim Hincer, told The Globe and Mail Sunday. The climbers hit the ground. Luckily, no one in Ms. McDonald's group was hurt, but it took several hours for them to reach camp.
"When I first heard about it, I had no idea if they were alive or dead," Mr. Hincer recounted. "For six or seven hours, I was calling but I couldn't get through to anyone."
Eventually, Ms. McDonald was able to access a satellite phone and let her husband know she was all right.
Paradoxically, Ms. McDonald's determination to take a tougher route to the summit of the world's highest mountain may have worked out in her favour. The more popular, less technically difficult southern path up Everest was hit far worse than the northern one that Ms. McDonald chose. On the south side, the base camp was partially destroyed by an avalanche.
As of Sunday, Ms. McDonald was still at base camp, texting her husband from her GPS device when she could.
At her last update, he said, she told him that the Chinese authorities had suspended climbing for three days. After that, she will try again for the summit.
Adrian Morrow