Howard Ballou works his way up pitch 2 toward the missing section to assess the damage.

This summer, Yosemite Valley gave the climbing world a sharp reminder that the rocks we climb aren’t permanent when the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome fell off. Not the whole route, but a key section of pitches 11 and 12, rendering the classic line impassable. Less than a month later, California natives Joshua Reinig and Howard Ballou reconnected the dots. We spoke to Reinig about the experience.

Kalyan Gurung (right) and Raju Gurung taking a break in 2008.

I met Kalyan Gurung in 2008 during a trek in Nepal with my wife and a friend. He had been assigned to be our guide; his young cousin Raju Gurung was our porter, carrying three overloaded duffels in a wicker basket suspended from his forehead with a tump line. We started our trek in Solu, in the hilly farmlands five days’ walk below Lukla, where most Everest treks begin. Half a day to the east was Meidel, Kalyan’s childhood village.