Page 13 - AMA Summer 2023

and other equipment up the mountains and look after and guide their clients. Their strength is incomparable but what makes them truly special is their character. They are known for being incredibly caring and giving, they will do whatever it takes to make you feel looked after and always with a warm smile. When I met Gelje Sherpa during K2 Winter I knew instantly we had a connection. He would light up a room when he entered with his charismatic aura. But not only that, he is probably the world’s best high-altitude climber ever. I had to climb with this guy... and I have ever since!
We descended quickly back to camp 2 where we rested one night before tackling the icefall one more time. However, this time it was 10 times more dangerous because it was daytime. Once the sun strikes the ice it’s a gamble, Russian roulette, to survive the constantly moving ice blocks. We raced through, still feeling breathless and exhausted to get back to base camp. Around halfway through the icefall we had a huge wakeup call. Out of nowhere a grumble erupted from below our feet, the kind of noise you never want to hear in there. I was stranded in the middle of a thin stretch of ice that created a bridge over a huge crevasse hundreds of metres deep. The only option was to sprint out of there, I ran as fast as I could to the other side, to
safety, and managed to escape whatever movement had happened right under my feet. It was terrifying and left the team trembling the rest of the way to base camp. Upon reaching our temporary home, we didn’t waste any time and brought out the alcohol to celebrate our summit success. It was a phenomenal evening filled with laughter, pride, and pure happiness. My Everest expedition was over, but that fire inside of me to climb the 8000m peaks of the world was fiercer than ever.
What was next? The big dream was accom- plished but now an even bigger ambition was cooking inside, to climb all fourteen
Elbrus
8000m peaks. It just made sense to follow this voice inside that told me it was exactly where I was meant to be. After incredibly hard work at home, I found myself sponsors for my next two expeditions, Manaslu and Dhaulagiri. It took endless emails, cold calling, networking and motivational talking to round up the amount needed to fund these climbs, but it was certainly all worth it. As well as the monotonous work to round the sponsors, I was also training to the max to try Manaslu without supple- mental oxygen. It was a dream of mine to push myself even further and now that I had one 8000er under my belt, I felt it was time to do so.
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 13