Not heeding the warnings of Sonam Gelek; I should have known better at this stage of our journey than to plunge onwards without his counsel…but onwards I plunged. Consistently accurate and intuitive, Sonam had warned against our team traversing a long series of ridges blanketed by snow. I was convinced otherwise, certain that with a pending storm mottling the sky, the time of day, and the weight of our packs, that we needed to try the more direct route. Sonam politely refused and told me to scout out the intended path on my own. A lonely slog up to stop and realize that there are no straight lines through the mountains. I took a couple of heaves of snow-tainted air, forgot about everything – forgot the destination, my own impetuousness, the expedition, everything! Sonam came up saw this, took it in silently, and smiled. We turned and descended but not before being gifted a few moments of that snowscape.
