September  16 THU  Naqu, Tibet (the day we reached the high point with the 4WD, I came back at night)

….The base of the ridge just got steeper and I concluded there was no way but the ridge.   Then I hiked straight up toward the summit to verify from the top down the route we should follow. Repeated calls to Geo on the radio brought no response. I followed the gently sloping ridge to the summit, the higher of two cairns. Nice view.  I thought I could hear the distant sounds of Geo’s engine revving and I got stressed by this. I tried to follow a path down that the car could take on the way up, sometimes in patches of snow.   When I saw the car, it was already following the ridge; I waved and radioed but I was ignored.  When I got very close I intensified my waving and radioing but still was ignored. This made me angry, and when I got to Geo,  I angrily attacked him as to why he was not answering. His manner intensified my anger considerably, as he ignored me at close range.

He said they could not wait all day and that he was working. What I did not know was that he and Sergei had just gotten in a disagreement, Geo was terribly tired, that he was not happy about having to drive and remove stones, and that his stomach was having problems. I grabbed Geo by the arms and made him look at me, but still he was sort of rude and I became livid. I was very tired from my hike and the fact that it seemed completely unappreciated made me very upset.  I kept working then alongside everyone else. They placed stakes and rope along a 5 meter section of steep ground and we worked hard to remove stones from underneath the car in order to allow it passage.  Once on top of that, Geo drove to the base of a more difficult section.  I tried to organize the route, placing Jimmy, Sergei and Sasha at turning points. When Geo got to me he exclaimed that he could not go the way I wanted and said he wanted to go the way he wanted.  I warned him not to go right but he did anyway.  The aspect of the slope grew worse as I suspected it would and Geo got stuck.

Sasha went by me and said something in Russian that felt like “you fucking idiot for telling Geo to go this way.”   Of course, he completely misunderstood and thought I had told Geo (rather than warned not) to go this way. Geo said let’s forget it, we’ve gone high enough.  I asked Geo about using the rope again, and his response was, “It’s not nice to always use the rope,” which seemed to me to be a sort of off-handed remark.  Geo got back in the car and, refusing help from Sasha,  drove it down and around back to the base of the difficult part.  Watching this,  I thought maybe Geo would drive the car off the cliff!  He walked back to us and said, “Anyone who thinks they can go higher, there it is.”   In a sort of catharsis, Geo and I hugged.  I cried, feeling the good feelings flow back between us.

I said, “I know I can do it.”  I got in the car and tried. I got up about 20 meters up the slope. I went back and forward and tried different techniques, but eventually I got the car in a sort of dicey aspect. For e.g., if it slide back and to the left it might slide on snow down the mountain. I noticed throughout this that no one came to help me push it as before. It seemed that they only filmed me.
Now they came up and Geo took over. We gave him a push and he got the car back to the base. At least I knew that I couldn’t do better.  We got out flags and took our pictures: 5726m.  A world record (as far as we knew).  We all walked down while Geo drove.  I filmed what I could. I was really tired. Geo drove to Sergei’s car and got a spare tire, then drove back to Sasha’s car. I met them there.  After I got in the car and we drove to Sergei’s car.  Sergei’s car wouldn’t start, so we actually had to pushup it uphill a little so they could roll it down the hill.   This took the full effort of all of us.  I was totally exhausted.  Finally we got it started. I drove down from there. It was an interesting feeling to drive down this uncharted slope.  Back in camp, I had some alcohol and coffee. I determined that I wanted to spend the night with Novita. I told the guys I was leaving and the driver took me back to the hotel in Naqu. I did not arrive until about midnight. Phuntsok had to get out of bed. I greeted Novi.   When we were alone, I just fell asleep. I was just too exhausted for sex!

(to be continued)