Two Nepalese lowebirds who had participated in the Rotary Centennial Everest Expedition this week got married atop Everest; yes, it’s a first. Sadly for you, Abhi was not around HQ for comment.

Other climbers were understandably floored by the event…or ceiling-ed, rather, at the simple, ten-minute ceremony.

They briefly took off their oxygen masks and put on plastic garlands, while the groom symbolically applied red powder on the bride’s forehead.

They kept it on the downlow:

Mr Dorjee said other couples had wanted to do the same in the past, but none had managed because they could not get up on top of the peak together.

Fearing the same possibility, they had kept their own plan secret.

Did you catch that? Before this couple, no one else had been able to use the world’s most exclusive location for their nuptials because apparently, they couldn’t get to the top of Everest at the same time as their intended. What did they do, ditch their slow beloveds in the snow? Stay with them and nurse resentment? Rethink the viability of marrying them on the long way down? I ask too many questions?

So, there’s more to this union than a unique location; Moni Mule Pati and Pem Dorjee Sherpa’s bond is extra special because it crosses caste and ethnic boundaries. In a statement regarding this aspect of his marriage, the groom, in an understated, black, backwards-facing baseball cap wisely quoted Depeche Mode:

“If some people are loving each other they have to get married,” Pem Dorjee told the BBC. “That’s why we want to give all Nepali people [the message] that people are people so there’s no problem about caste.”

Indeed. It’s been quite a week for Everest, besides this marriage made and/or “solemnised” in heaven, two Iranian women became the first Muslim females to make it to the top. No word on whether they left slow fiances in their dust. Snow. Whatever.