On previous expeditions, I’d worked with strength, trailblazing steadily until the other climbers in the group had been dots in my slipstream. That style of effort had two negative knock-on effects: (1) I often had to wait for an hour or two in the freezing cold while the others caught up with me. (2) My spurts were demoralising to everyone else. Imagine running a marathon with a serious athlete. It’s pretty discouraging to watch them sprinting off into the distance. But if that same athlete stays in touch, pushing their colleagues to run a little quicker than they’d previously been used to,
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