It was love at first sight. Ama Dablam mountain is in my opinion the most beautiful mountain in the world. In the Sherpa dialect, its name means, “Mother’s pearl necklace,” in allusion to the huge serac that hangs near its summit. It looks like a huge iceberg stuck on the slope, at risk of collapsing at any moment. I first spotted Ama Dablam in October 2017, during my maiden trip to the Solokhumbu Valley in the heart of the Himalayas. At the time, my goal was to reach Everest Base Camp. I was far from imagining that one day I would try to climb the highest mountains on the planet.

The beauty of this peak goes hand in hand with tragedy and the risk of death. It is a mountain whose climb represents a challenge with markedly technical characteristics. There are stretches that are excessively exposed to avalanche danger and cliffs that are thousands of meters high. To reach the summit of Ama Dablam, it is necessary to walk through sections as narrow as a razor's edge.

Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the summit of Everest in the company of Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, even declared Ama Dablam as “unclimbable”. It was first conquered in 1961 by an expedition that included climbers from the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States. The most fearsome sections are the Yellow Tower and the Mushroom Ridge.

If my intention was to reach the summit of Everest, first it was mandatory to climb other peaks, in order to test all the equipment and acquire new knowledge. That's why, in 2021, I chose Ama Dablam. If I could overcome this obstacle, I would be better prepared to accomplish my dream. I saw it as the final test before Everest.

I used this challenge to once again raise donations, and fulfill an old promise: building a house for the family of young Samir Bista in Bistagaon, located in the southern region of Kathmandu. I met Samir shortly after the 2015 earthquake, when I went to his village to distribute food. He was only nine years old, but a strong friendship was born there.

Samir and his parents were left homeless on the day of the earthquake. He told me they were in the room and the walls collapsed within seconds. They barely managed to save themselves. Since that fateful day, they have been living in a temporary shelter in inhumane conditions. A tent made of zinc sheets, often shared with dogs and chickens. The time had come to put an end to this scourge and build a new home for Samir's family.

The expedition to Ama Dablam resulted in a resounding victory. I struggled during three weeks in hard conditions, but in the end I reached the summit of this mountain that is considered by many to be more difficult than Everest itself. And the amount raised to finance Samir's house was exceeded. The total donations reached €9,274 and, after two years, in 2023, the house was finally built.