Author and mountain guide Freddie Wilkinson
wrote about the National Geographic and Rolex
Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition for the
July 2020 issue.behind for the others to follow. As they worked
their way up, small rocks clattered down the
couloir, occasionally striking someone’s helmet.
There was little to do but carry on.
As the group neared the summit, neither
Mingma G. nor Nims was in front. That job
had fallen to Mingma Tenzi, a 36-year-old rope-
fixing specialist with a cheerful smile and a gold
tooth. He led the team for the last few hours
and could have reached the top ahead of the
others, but he stopped just below the summit.
One by one, the mountaineers steadily moved
up to join him. Nims labored heavily in the frozen
empty air, taking two or three breaths for every
step. As the sun twinkled on the gentle crest of
snow draped over the second highest point on the
planet, the climbers coalesced into a single group.
Reaching the summit together had been Nims’sidea, and when all 10 had gathered, they linked
arms and began trudging upward. Slowly, theyfound their voices, and as if in a dream, the words
of the Nepali national anthem came to them:
Woven from hundreds of flowers ...A shawl of unending natural wealth ...
A land of knowledge and peace, the plains,
hills, and mountains tall ...Unscathed, this beloved land of ours,
O motherland Nepal. jA CLIMB FOR HISTORY 101