meru
For Hindus and Buddhists, “Meru” is the name of a mythic peak that rises at the center of the world, linking earth and heaven. For the international climbing community, Meru Central, in the Garhwal Himalaya of India, is the location of the Shark’s Fin, one of the world’s most attempted and elusive lines. In 2011 Conrad Anker, Renan Ozturk and Jimmy Chin set forth to climb a route that–for
decades–existed merely in alpinists’ imaginations, up a mountain whose true summit might only be attained in a purely transcendent, spiritual realm.