When the Clouds Break on the Summit

In 2019, mountaineer Sarah Maguire spent three days climbing through dense fog on the trail to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal. The clouds hung so thick she could barely see ten feet ahead. She questioned why she had come at all. Then, on the morning of the fourth day, she unzipped her tent and gasped. The clouds had vanished. The Himalayan peaks stood around her in every direction — Annapurna, Machapuchare, Hiunchuli — blazing white against an impossibly blue sky.…