The tents are nestled into little ledges carved out of the ice by the Sherpas. He slips and falls down a hundred feet or so and then drops into a crevasse. In the film, he died then and there, but in real life he died a few days later, while trying to make his way back to base camp. The Taiwanese team proceeded without him. Above 20,000 feet, the adventurers travel very slowly, resting every few steps.
Many climbers develop a hacking cough, dizziness, and insomnia.
Blood vessels in the brain, starved for oxygen, swell up, causing disorientation, loss of motor functions, and even coma. Climbers lose weight quickly, making them more vulnerable to the cold. As if that isn't enough to deal with, the sun and snow combine to create unbearable heat and light during the day, giving climbers splitting headaches and dehydration. Once the sun has gone down, the temperature can drop to 20 or 30 below zero or worse. Few of the climbers who have been stranded near the top overnight in a blizzard live to tell the tale or make the talk show circuit.