Solitude

We began climbing Nangkartshang before breakfast, moving upward through the cold morning air as Ama Dablam emerged beneath a deep blue Himalayan sky.

The beauty of the ascent came with a sobering reminder of the altitude when one of my friends developed symptoms of acute mountain sickness. In the mountains, wonder and vulnerability are never far apart.

We reached the summit tired, hungry, and surrounded by immense silence. Ama Dablam stood across the valley, brilliant and impossibly still.

Solitude is an original Himalayan photograph captured above Dingboche, Nepal.