In the aftermath of Seema’s solo rescue, I’d learned a serious lesson: by using oxygen during my expedition, it had been possible to save her. Without it, the chances of me summoning up enough energy to conduct a rescue would have been slim to none. For that reason, from now on, I was climbing above the higher camps on an 8,000-er with bottled air, even though it wasn’t considered the purest form of high-altitude climbing by some sections of the mountaineering scene. But who cared? Nobody was in a position to dictate to me why or how I climbed the mountains, in much the same way that I didn’t
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