Rescue

EXT.  CAMP III TO THE NORTH COL, 20 MAY - DAY
GEORGE, NORTON, ODELL and LHAKPA make their way up to the NORTH COL.  They come to the place of the avalanche in 1922 and veer to the left.  To the right is a crevasse, a half a mile long.  Before them is a 200 foot ice wall and narrow chimney.  GEORGE climbs up it, with wooden spikes and spare rope in tow, protecting the route, cutting steps as he goes.  Soon all four men arrive on the North Col.  They dump their loads, eat and drink, and head down.
EXT.  NORTH COL - CONTINUOUS
SEQUENCE OF SHOTS
1) NORTON and GEORGE lead down, unroped, with ODELL and LHAKPA behind.  GEORGE is ahead of all, coughing almost continuously, cutting steps occasionally.  Behind him, NORTON, who is wearing crampons, slips.
2) Shortly afterward LHAKPA slips as well.  His rope comes unknotted.  He shoots down toward the edge of the ice cliff and a drop of 200 feet, stopped just in time by a soft snow patch.
3) Ahead, GEORGE scouts a shorter way over the route, and prods the snow clogging a crevasse with his axe.  He takes a step and disappears.
4) He hurtles into the narrow gap.  He yells.  Snow falls in on top of him.  Finally, he comes to a stop.  His ice-axe, in his right hand, is caught across the blue-white ice of the crevasse.  Above him is the searing blue sky; below, a very unpleasant black hole.  He is supported only by the ice-axe and the precarious grip of it in his right hand. 
His grip is sliding, snow is falling all round him and he cannot get a foothold on the wall of the crevasse.  Swearing furiously and coughing, he grips the axe with both hands, struggling against the still-falling snow for a foothold.  With a great cry, he throws his left leg upward and manages at last to wedge himself across the empty space.
5) Panting and coughing, he waits endless moments before he yells for help.  He is unwilling to bring any more snow down in trying to get himself out, for one false move will send him to the bottom.  After growing hoarse with shouting, breathless and coughing, he inches his other leg up the wall and braces himself crosswise.  With great care he wiggles the axe out of the wall.  Using the hole it has made as a handhold, he balances himself crosswise in the crevasse and climbs up some distance to chip a hole through the ice.  But he is on the downslope of the crevasse and there is nothing beneath him but empty space.  Above is a sleep slope of very hard ice.  He sinks his axe into this, and with a great gymnastic effort he swings himself up onto the slope.  He manages to climb up it by inches, kicking and cutting hand and footholds laboriously, until he comes to a patch of ice and snow.
6) Struggling over it, staggering and coughing and exhausted, he sees the rest of the party some twenty yards ahead.  The sun is setting, and he makes it to the end of LHAKPA's rope just before it sets.
INT.  TENT, CAMP III - NIGHT
NORTON and GEORGE are sharing a tent.  The two Meade tents are door to door once more.  ODELL and SOMERVELL are in the opposite tent.  NORTON and GEORGE are both in their sleeping bags.
NORTON
(calling out)
How's all at Sandringham?
SOMERVELL
All well! How's Balmoral?
NORTON
All well!
INT.  TENT - LATER
Through the night GEORGE coughs and tosses and sits and coughs.  NORTON tosses and sits and rubs his feet.  He pulls on several extra pairs of socks and piles on all his spare clothes and blankets.  Neither sleeps.
EXT.  CAMP III TO IV, 21 MAY - DAY
SANDY, SOMERVELL, HAZARD, and 12 PORTERS leave in a snowfall for CAMP IV, following the route of the party the day before. 
At the headwall of the North Col, SOMERVELL leads up, carrying SANDY's ROPE ladder.  All make it quickly and safely to the shelf of the North Col and continue climbing to the camp.  The men and porters dump their loads then SANDY and SOMERVELL return to CAMP III, reaching it after dark.
EXT.  CAMP III - EARLY MORNING
SANDY examines the thermometer outside the tent.
SANDY
Ye Gods!
INSERT: THE MERCURY READS -24 DEGREES F.
EXT.  CAMP III, 23 MAY - EVENING
HAZARD staggers into camp with 8 of his 12 porters.  Tiffin has just concluded and the men are making their way to the tents for their evening occupations or sleep.  NORTON is ahead of SOMERVELL and GEORGE, both of whom are coughing.  ODELL staggers behind them, obviously not having slept.  NORTON stops still at HAZARD's advent.
NORTON
Hullo! Good God, John!
NORTON hurries over to him.  HAZARD is incapable of saying anything.  They get him into the doubled tent and wrap him in as many sleeping bags as they can lay hands on.  SANDY is wrapped up in one of the bags at one end of the tent, not in his workshop, ill.  KAMI, the cook, brings in tea for HAZARD at intervals and eventually they get the story out of him.
HAZARD
(haltingly)
I went out first, to find the traverse.  And to test the condition of the snow.  I thought they all were coming on.  They were following on one by one.
(beat)
When we came down, I discovered that four of them had turned round.  Two have frostbite rather badly, and all are ill.  I was told that Phu had slid some way in the snow, and turned round.  The others must have followed his lead.
(beat)
I don't know how it happened.  We're all rather muddled.  On the way up one of the loads, one with food, came lose and went over the cliff.  So they won't have anything decent to eat up there.
NORTON
Good God!
HAZARD
(plaintive and bewildered)
I didn't know what to do, but try to get the men down as quickly as I could.
NORTON puts a hand on his shoulder.
NORTON
It's all right, John.  I wasn't blaming you.  But we MUST get those men down! George, Howard, will you go up with me tomorrow?
GEORGE
(coughing)
Yes.
SOMERVELL
(coughing)
Yes.
NORTON
Stout fellows.  Thank you.
EXT.  NORTH COL - NEXT DAY
NORTON, SOMERVELL and GEORGE and slogging up to the COL.  The snow is very deep; in places they sink to the waist.  All look exhausted, but GEORGE harries the other two like a sheepdog, continually before and behind as he did with the porters.  He arrives at the foot of the ice-cliff before the others and stands impatiently shifting from one foot to the other, poking his ice-axe into the ground, trying to control his temper.
NORTON and SOMERVELL are twenty yards away, stopped, just standing.  GEORGE looks from them to up the ice-cliff and into the storm-laden sky.  Finally, he stalks down the snowy stretch and shouts at the pair.
GEORGE
What the bloody hell is wrong here? Why are you standing about?  We MUST get on! The porters are in extremis up there and it's going to snow again! Why are you standing about?
He reaches them, breathing heavily.  NORTON looks at him apologetically.
NORTON
I'm sorry.  I can't feel my feet.  These crampons...
He looks down at his feet.
NORTON
Somervell thinks he might be able to warm them up, but I need to sit down.
(beat)
We were debating whether it were better to do it here, or at the foot of the cliff.  Or how I should get there.
GEORGE
I'm sorry.
(beat)
Can you walk with help?
He looks at SOMERVELL, for his medical opinion.  SOMERVELL nods.
NORTON
I should think.
GEORGE
Right.
GEORGE takes one of NORTON's arms and SOMERVELL the other, and they get him to the foot of the ice-cliff.  NORTON sits down and takes off his boots, one at a time, and SOMERVELL rubs his feet to restore circulation.
EXT.  ICE-CLIFF - LATER
GEORGE, NORTON and SOMERVELL climb the ice-cliff and the chimney.  Above them, standing on the edge of the ice-shelf is PHU.  All four continue on to the final traverse to the stranded porters.  The wind has come up, and PHU is stupid with the altitude anyway.
NORTON
Hi Phu! Are you all fit to walk?
PHU
Sahib.
NORTON
I say, ARE you ALL fit to WALK?
PHU
Sahib?
NORTON
WALK, WALK! CAN YOU WALK?
PHU
(brightening)
Up or down?
NORTON
DOWN, you fool!
PHU charges off as quickly as he can ahead, leaving the others puzzled, to the crux of the traverse up to the porters, where he stands pointing.
EXT.  NORTH COL TRAVERSE - CONTINUOUS
It is now 4 pm.  The sun is angling low and the wind is picking up.
SOMERVELL
(coughing)
I'll go up.  Belay me.
GEORGE and NORTON dig in their axes, and slowly pay out the 200-ft.  rope from them.  SOMERVELL slowly and laboriously makes his way diagonally, punching big safe steps, pausing now and then in a coughing fit.  After one of these, he leans his head on his forearm against the snow, for the slope is nearly vertical.
Ten yards from where the men are waiting, the rope runs out.  SOMERVELL turns to look at GEORGE and NORTON.  If he should slip now, the rope will not stop him going over the cliff.  They cannot haul it in fast enough.
SOMERVELL
(shouting)
What shall we do?
He coughs.
NORTON
(shouting, to GEORGE)
What shall he do?
GEORGE
(shouting)
They must come down!
He looks about.
GEORGE
(shouting)
If we anchor to the serac, they'll think it safe.  It's all that matters!
NORTON
(shouting)
If they fall...
GEORGE
(shouting)
It's the only way!
(to SOMERVELL)
Bring them down! TELL THEM TO COME DOWN TO YOU!
He has to shout this several times before SOMERVELL nods.  The wind is howling.
The FIRST PORTER makes it down.  SOMERVELL is holding out his hand and catches the man in a strong grip.  The FIRST PORTER takes told of the taut rope, and starts down to GEORGE and NORTON.
The SECOND and THIRD PORTERS eye each other and the wild weather, and start down the slope together.
NORTON
Oh my God!
The PORTERS are flying down the slope.  A big patch of fresh snow surface gives way, and the men are going down on their backs, feet first, in an almost upright position.  There is nothing to stop them from shooting off over the ice-cliff into oblivion.
SUDDENLY, after a free-fall of ten or so yards, they stop.  The snow under their feet has been bound by the cold to a holding consistency.  They are at the very edge of the shelf.
SOMERVELL
(coolly)
Tell them to sit still!
Untying the rope from his waist, SOMERVELL digs his axe into the soft snow up to the head and passes the rope around it.  He makes his way down to the porters.  Grasping to rope with one hand he grabs each of the porters in turn by the scruff of the neck, swearing at them, and puts them onto the rope.
SOMERVELL
Bloody idiot! Fool! Imbecile! What were you thinking  that you could fly?
SECOND PORTER gives an involuntary bark of laughter.
The pair are completely nerveless and slip and slide down the traverse, ruining the steps, saved only from a repeat of the tragedy by the rope handrail.  Finally, they make it down to GEORGE and NORTON.
SOMERVELL follows, tying the rope round his waist, balanced and erect, crossing the ruined track without a slip or mistake.
EXT.  NORTH COL TO CAMP III - EVENING
SERIES OF SHOTS
1) GEORGE leads down with PHU.  SOMERVELL follows with FIRST and SECOND PORTERS.  NORTON is last with THIRD PORTER (NAMGYA), whose hands are badly frostbitten.
2) Out of the darkness, almost a mile from the camp, NOEL and ODELL appear, carrying thermos flasks of hot soup.  They shepherd the party back to camp.
3) The next morning the whole expedition descends to CAMP I through terrible weather.
4) At CAMP I there is another meeting about how to tackle the mountain.  All the climbers are present.
5) GEORGE spending days in his sleeping bag, reading, writing.
GEORGE
It was a bad time altogether.  I look back on tremendous efforts and exhaustion and dismal looking out of a tent door onto a world of snow and vanishing hopes.  And yet, and yet, and yet the party has played up wonderfully.  Norton was right to bring us down for rest.  It's no good sending men up the mountain unfit.  The only chance now is to get fit and go for a simpler, quicker plan.  The issue will be shortly decided.  The third time we walk up East Rongbuk glacier will be the last, for better or worse.  We have counted our wounded and know how much to strike off the strength of our little army as we plan the next act of battle.  The train is all laid now. 
All sound plans are now abandoned for two consecutive dashes without gas.  It will be a great adventure, if we get started before the monsoon hits us, with just a bare outside chance of success, and a good many chances of a very bad time indeed.