Mountains In Other Languages
The Times photo essay on trekking the 150-mile Annapurna circuit—the hike tops out at 17,769 feet elevation—makes me want to drop everything and book a flight to Kathmandu.
The highest elevation I have been to in the open air is the Jungfraujoch (11,388 feet). I was seventeen. My mother was having breathing difficulties from the altitude and stayed in the lounge above the train station but my father and I walked up to the highest point that was accessible without mountaineering gear. A group of Americans—definite bros in the Internets sense—offered to take our picture and offered me a swig from their bottle. It was my first taste of whiskey and I had nothing to wash it out with until we got back to the observatory.
I love the names of mountains, the sound of them standing alone:
Annapurna
Cerro Torre
Cotapaxi
Eiger
Kangchenjunga
Kilimanjaro
Machhapuchare
Tronador
