in the pitch black, when temperatures can plummet to their most lethal, so that they could have the summit to themselves in the midst of one of the busiest climbing seasons in the mountain’s storied history. Gautam and his team had timed their ascent to arrive at around 3 a.m.

There were no dramatic views taken in or heroic photographs snapped when Khimlal Gautam, a 35-year-old Nepali surveyor and mountaineer, climbed to the top of Mount Everest on May 22, 2019.