Sublime

I then took on one of the hardest treks in Nepal on foot with my Sherpa team, at speed, running all the way to Kathmandu, only stopping to drink beer and whisky, until we’d completed a six-day journey in eighteen hours.

We were to move fast, pushing immediately to the top in one hit, rather than resting for a day at Camps 1, 2, 3 and 4, like normal expeditions usually did.

As Ang Dorje’s reputation for being a strong and resourceful climber spread among Western climbers, he was promoted to the role of sirdar, and in 1992 he went to work for Rob Hall on Everest; by the launch of Hall’s 1996 expedition, Ang Dorje had climbed the peak three times.

William (Willi) F. Unsoeld, Ph.D.: 36, Corvallis, Oregon; Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Oregon State University, on leave as deputy Peace Corps representative in Nepal; Climbing leader.

Sherpas “prepare the route for foreign climbers to follow, fix ropes in place, and carry the necessary climbing kit up the mountain.”2 Sherpas also know the local people, the local culture and have “phenomenal energy and power on the mountain.”

Also, I was comfortable with the idea of going out in my thirties. Hanging on until the age of eighty-something, a time when I’d become unable to look after myself, held very little appeal.