Prologue: I have been meaning to write this piece for at least a year and a half. Thanks are owed to NonFicWriMo for finally spurring me to write it.

May 10, 1996 was the deadliest day ever on Mount Everest. Deaths are not uncommon in mountaineering, and Everest has claimed many lives in its history, including some of the strongest in the climbing community. But never before had eight people died in a single day: the greatest tragedy on Mount Everest. Even after the climbing season was over, debate raged on about what had happened on that day.
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