Page 27 - 2020 AMA Winter

EVEREST, STANDING ATOP THE WORLD: A SHORT COVID-19
ISOLATION READ
Gethin Davies
As I crested the summit ridge, the first rays of sunlight hit my face. A mere twenty metres ahead was the highest point on earth; the emotion was overpowering, this was it, the roof of the world. The panorama that greets summiteers is indescribable, below, gigantic mountains stretch as far as you can see and above the sky darkens to an almost spacelike black.
Everest had played on my mind for almost a decade before our expedition. As a child I was fascinated by it in books, reading stories of trials and tribulations in the so-called death zone. My first trip to Nepal in 2011 confirmed my intrigue, the mountains are ginormous, vertical faces accelerate upwards for thousands of metres. But it was more than just the geography, it was the history, the British
connection and the Nepali people that kept the fire burning in my heart. I hope this short memoir will serve as a real insight into what it is like to climb, without exaggeration or glorification. Everest will forever be a talking-point, it will always be the highest mountain on the Planet, and it will always attract people to visit, climb or comment on her.
Our expedition was a small team of serving and retired soldiers, experienced climbers with other Himalayan giants on the climbing CV. A chance conversation four months prior had spurred it and just like that we were off. Employing a local operator to assist with logistics we bought our way onto the mountain for little more than the permit cost. Inherently this comes with risks, the staff were inexperienced, and it was all a bit of
a circus. What mattered though was that we were on the mountain; our intention was always to do it ourselves anyway, so the chaos of the admin made for some pure comedy.
Plagued with poor weather and a late summit window, we finally settled on the 23rd May as our summit goal, some six weeks after arriving in Nepal. Agitated, bored and haemorrhaging body weight, it was now or never. So, at 1am on the 20th of May, we trudged out of basecamp toward the infamous Khumbu Icefall. Headlamps illuminated sections of the climb as other teams moved ahead of
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