Tamara and Dawa climb Kang Yatse (6,200m), Ladakh, India

zero degrees of separation

by Tamara Cannon
Founder, Lille Fro

2 years ago I stood on the summit of a 6200m peak in the Himalayas in the North of India. It was my second mountain climb in 2 weeks.

Overwhelmed by fatigue, I watched the dawn light break over the jagged peaks and deep-cut glaciers below. Any sense of personal achievement I should have been feeling was strangely masked by a preoccupation which seemed larger than the mountain I had just climbed.

I would have put it down to a lack of oxygen but it was a feeling of uneasiness. The same feeling I’d carried with me climbing to base camp and which had kept me awake the night before our ascent. Something was not sitting well with me. Now, standing on the summit looking down through the clouds to the breathtaking view below, I knew there had been an irreversible shift.

Roped together on the ridge, my guide Dawa looked over towards me. "It’s zero degrees, Tomero," he said, tapping his bright yellow altitude watch.

Catching my breath, I unravelled the strap of my ice-axe from my hand, letting it drop into the snow. "This is crazy." I muttered, my lips half frozen. I could see Dawa scanning our Himalayan backdrop, trying to find some clue in my line of gaze that would help give context to this one-way conversation.

"Seriously Dawa, if it's that easy to make a such a huge difference to one child's life, how could I not at least try to help others in need? It’s just not that hard. Because ... I don't think it's meant to be hard."

Dawa nodded, no doubt wishing I would just take the obligatory photos so he could start the ordeal of getting me down before the rays of the rising sun started to loosen the snow.

Zero degrees up here and zero degrees of separation. I realised there were zero degrees of separation between a child living in complete poverty in the Himalayas and friends in Australia who, for a comparatively small gesture, could make a lasting difference that would change the course of a child's life forever.

Those needing help and those wanting to help were both standing in front of me. To walk over a few more snowy hills in zero degrees to make it happen was hardly a big ask.