Ama Dablam, mother's jewel box

Adios from Basecamp
5 November 2005    
Always at the end of these trips I find myself at a loss for words to summarize all we have been through together. So I will 1st say, thanks for following along, on our journey up here, 2nd, tomorrow we are on our way out and should be in Kathmandu on the 9th. In closing I will share with you a story that I think sums up our time together.

While walking in on our approach trek this trip, I met a Swedish boy and his father also heading up valley. Stephan, was the boys name, and one night around the wood burning stove, we started to talk. "HI", he said, "WHO ARE YOU?". "Stephan!" The boys father scolded, "be polite". So I went on explaining who I was and what our group was doing. "REALLY? WOW!" was the reply I got. As the night wore on, I found Stephan edging closer to where I was sitting, then, to my surprise, reaching out and touching me. I asked what he wanted, "NOTHING, I JUST WANTED TO SEE IF YOU WERE REAL". Wow. Leave it to a kid....so I shared with him that no matter what mountains you climb, you still have times when you are scared, tired, or homesick. That climbers ARE real people too. He scrunched up his face in thought, then toddled off to bed.

The next morning, he approached me with a very serious look on his face "LEWEES"? "Luis", his father corrected, "UM,YEAH, LUIS? HERE, I WANT YOU TO HAVE THIS FOR YOUR TRIP". I looked down to his little hand and there, was a peppermint candy of the kind you can find in just about any store around the world. "IT'S MAGIC, SO IF YOU GET TIRED OR SCARED, YOU HAVE SOME MAGIC CANDY TO HELP"!
I thanked him and then watched he and his father depart..then I thought about how unreal everything we do up here must seem to people back home. In reality what we are all searching for up here, with all the good times and bad, is a little magic candy of our own...

Till next time, Luis Benitez