The hut keepers won’t sleep in
the Whymper Hut on Chimborazo. For them it’s not a myth or a legend.
It’s a fact.
The Whymper Hut is haunted.
The hut keepers
all have ghost stories about the place. They’ve all seen something in
there. They’ve all felt something. Maybe it was nothing more than a
candle inexplicably blowing out. Maybe it was nothing more than a door
blowing shut. Maybe it was nothing. Or maybe it actually was something.
They’re certainly convinced.
One
of the stories goes something like this. A hut keeper was alone in the
kitchen. There were no climbers there. He was washing dishes.
Suddenly he felt something. It was like someone was watching him. But
when he looked around there was no one there.
He went back to
washing his dishes.
A moment later, somebody slapped him on the
back. Whomever it was slapped him hard…so hard that it left a red
mark in the shape of a hand on his skin. But there was still no one
there. The young man immediately ran from the hut. After he got
outside and into the freezing wind, he fell to his knees.
And
threw up.
Another
story goes like this. A hut keeper was sleeping in a bunk. The bunks
in the hut are nothing more than wooden platforms where people lay out
their sleeping bags and pads. The hut keeper was sound asleep when
somebody grabbed the foot of his sleeping bag and dragged him from his
slumber and onto the ground. It couldn’t have been comfortable… One
moment you’re asleep and the next you’ve been pulled from your bed and
thrown onto the wooden floor.
I suppose that the hut keeper could
have simply rolled over and fallen out of bed. I suppose that happens a
lot. But if he supposed anything, he supposed that the ghost of a dead
climber dragged him from his sleep and onto the floor. He supposed
that the climber wished to bring him with him into the next world.
And
my favorite story of the group, goes like this…
An Ecuadorian
guide and his client were alone in the hut. The guide told the client
that they would wake up at one in the morning to start their climb. At
midnight, somebody wearing an old school yellow one-piece Gore-Tex suit
quietly came over to the guide’s bunk and sat down on it. The climber
never looked at the guide. Instead, he began to put on his boots.
“What
are you doing?” the guide asked. “It’s only midnight. Go back to
sleep.”
Without looking at the guide, the climber got up and
walked away.
An hour later, the guide’s client appeared wearing
black pants and a red jacket. “What happened to the one-piece suit?”
the guide asked.
“What are you talking about? I don’t have a
one-piece suit.”
“But you were wearing a yellow one-piece
Gore-Tex suit when you got up an hour ago.”
“I didn’t get up an
hour ago,” the client responded. “I only just woke up.”
–Jason D. Martin