Olya Rumyantseva. September 25th. Manaslu summit

As usual, we had a photo shoot at the summit. We didn't manage to do it right away, though. Two more people had climbed up before us. I thought they'd have their photo taken and then descended by the time we got there. No way. They had a crazy number of flags and banners. I had to wait while they took photos with them from different angles.

 And then our time came. Another advantage of walking almost without oxygen. Usually, when people reach the summit, they briefly remove their oxygen masks to take photos. Their faces are heavily dented by the masks, and literally a few minutes later, their bodies begin to feel like they've been deprived of oxygen—weakness and dizziness set in. And an urgent need for oxygen.

 Having almost reached the summit, I took off my backpack and clipped it to the rope. And from then on, everything on the summit (oh, you could say I reached the summit without oxygen) was done without a mask or oxygen. I wouldn't say my face was perfect—after all, walking at 8,000 meters in the sun and wind isn't exactly flattering—but my mask certainly wasn't wrinkled.

And we could wait our turn for photos and do all the other things at the summit without any worries, not to mention the lack of oxygen. It still wasn't needed (although the experience of suddenly warming up and accelerating was quite interesting).

 We probably sat for about half an hour, taking photos and looking at the world from above.

And then we headed back down.