Climbing as Collective Care: Mental Health and the Black Mountaineer
The first time I stood at Island Peak Base Camp at 5,100 meters, oxygen thin and lungs burning, something unexpected happened. The mental chatter that had followed me from Kathmandu—the anxieties, the daily pressures, the weight of navigating spaces where I’m often the only Black face—all of it began to quiet. Up here, beneath Lhotse…
