KATHMANDU — Pemba Sherpa was at the resting spot known as The Balcony, which, at 8,430 meters, is the last level area before the summit of Mount Everest, when he decided not to keep going up.
It would have been his ninth time in a decade to reach the top of the world’s highest peak. But as he was guiding two European climbers that day in 2018, his feet were in pain as his new climbing boots had turned out to be too tight and his toes were turning numb in the brutal cold. His knees had become stiff, too. He knew well that ignoring warning signs like these from his body could be fatal.
