Vallunaraju 5686m
I’ve personally never understood the buzz of mountain climbing! What is it that makes you climb rocks for 5h, carrying 25kg of equipment, have soup for diner, set your tent up over rocks, get up at 2am to find your sleeping bag covered in ice, have warm water for breakfast, then hike for six hours in the dark, over ice, snow, skipping bottomless crevasses at turtle pace, dealing with the lack of oxygen, cold and those 3 little toes that have been dead for hours.
What is it that makes you go through cold, exhaustion, pain and hunger, to get up there, right to the top of those 5600m, for a 2 min. sizing up, 5 photos, swallowing a hand full of peanuts, a chocolate bar and if you are quick, take your gloves off, and scratch that itchy ear under your helmet. Then check your rope, hold your ice axe and start getting back down.
Now after my first summit, I still can not explain the buzz of mountain climbing, I just know it is PRETTY DAMN FANTASTIC.