Echo Chamber
Danuru Sherpa is our guide. He is very experienced and knows all there is to know about keeping us safe. He is very thoughtful and patient and has a deep knowledge and love of these mountains.
He is happy to share that knowledge and he has walked many people over the mountains for many years- he is a man to be trusted.
At night we eat and we talk- last night he told us this story.
Many years ago, he was travelling alone back to his home after visiting a village down the valley and was taking a hazardous short-cut up the side of a cliff when he came upon a young couple walking slowly in the other direction. There was something about them that made him hesitate, she was heavily pregnant and they said they were making their way up to the small local hospital in the next village. They had left at 5am that morning - and after four hours were nowhere near it but it doesn’t always help to interfere in others’ lives - even here.
And so they passed by.
But as he walked on, he knew something was not right and on impulse, hung his bag on a bush and headed back after them.
They were a very young couple and the man was strong and now he needed to be because when Danuru caught up with them again, he was trying to carry her on his chest and she was now in labour. The baby was coming and they were on a narrow rocky path high on a cliff face with only room for one to pass. Below was a roaring icy river and above sheer cliffs.
They tried to walk on with the two men half dragging, half lifting her but the baby could not wait and with one behind and one in front, they managed to bring the baby girl into this world and catch her as she arrived, her screams echoing around the cliff sides. Her father extracted some scissors from his bag and cut the cord. Danuru scooped the baby up into his jacket and held her there squealing and very much alive as they all took stock of their precarious situation and such a close brush with disaster.
He told us one of the most extraordinary things about the whole surreal experience was the amplified sound of the newborn cries as they echoed around the cliffs. This baby was meant to be here and the echo chamber was calling it out to the heavens. Even in a life where life is hard and people live up close and personal with risk, this was next level.
We don’t know now if that child had an extraordinary life or even if she kept on making so much noise. She sure had a wild start to life and we would all like to think her life was destined to be different.
PS. The photo doesn’t come near to capturing the brutality of the cliff face but if you look carefully, you can see the small path snaking around the hills leading to the cleft of the cliffs.
