the West Ridge one day, previewing part of their route. On April 25, he scurried from Base Camp to Camp 3 and back, covering 6,000 vertical feet each way—a route that would take most climbers four days.

Steck made it clear leading up to the expedition that the Lhotse Traverse was not a speed ascent. He simply hoped to complete the route, which included two never-repeated sections: the West Ridge/Hornbein Couloir combo that Americans Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld took to Everest’s summit in 1963, and a daring traverse from the South Col to the Lhotse Couloir pioneered by Denis Urubko of Kazakhstan in 2010.

That Steck had chosen Tenji to join him on the traverse seemed surprising, at least from the outside. But ever since Steck befriended the youngbest shape of his career.

They summited, and the following year, when Steck returned with Italian climber Simone Moro and British photographer Jonathan Griffith to attempt the Lhotse Traverse for the first time, he again invited Tenji to join them. (Griffith and Tenji were not planning to do the whole route.) On April 27, 2013,Tenji had just returned to Base Camp from Camp 2 when the infamous brawl erupted between the Europeans and a large group of Sherpas. The Sherpas punched Steck in the face and hit him in the head with a rock before he and his partners fled. After much reflection about the incident, Steck concluded he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Though Steck’s technical climbing skills were far superior to Tenji’s, and