The allure of risk

"I'd always known that climbing mountains was a high-risk pursuit. I accepted that danger was an essential component of the game - without it, climbing would be little different from a hundred other trifling diversions. It was titillating to brush up against the enigma of mortality, to steal a glimpse across its forbidden frontier. Climbing was a magnificent activity, I firmly believed, not in spite of its inherent perils, but precisely because of them."

...

"In the midst of post-modern ratiocination, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that climbing mountains will never be a safe, predictable rule-bound enterprise. This is an activity that idealizes risk taking; the sport's most celebrated figures have always been those who stick their necks out the farthest and manage to get away with it. Climbers, as a species, are simply not distinguished by an excess of prudence."

(Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air) 

Everest. It gets the attention it deserves, I think. You can't be the top of the world and not expect to draw eyes. Like a siren, it beckons climbers of all skill levels. The stories are scary, stupid, and completely captivating. 

I just read Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air - an account of the 1996 Everest disaster. That catastrophe, coupled with the frustrating story (Outside magazine - The Disposable Man) of commercialism and use of cheap labor don't exactly have me clamoring to climb the word's tallest mountain. Instead I'm pondering a good, godly fear of those high places. Not enough to hold you back, but enough to make you value skill.

I hope you're never fooled into thinking that just because hundreds of people have stood on top of the world means it's safe. It isn't safe. Anyone who engages in an activity with this kind of risk must look beyond the competition to "bag peaks." Climbing is an art: the minute you try to control it, you cheapen it; the risks are what make it alluring; and the best often lose their mind (or their life) in the process. Should anyone really get into this lightly? 

I'm fond of the heights to which we've climbed, and I look forward to going higher. While I may never add Everest to my bucket list, I wouldn't trade these moments for anything, even with the altitude sickness, the 3 a.m. starts, or the 220 miles we hiked to get to some. 

1. Entering the boulder field on the way up Longs Peak || 2. The view down right before the steep scramble on Longs || 3. Donahue Pass & alpine lake on the JMT || 4. Storm clouds while atop Forester Pass (13,000 ft) || 5. Fiery sunset as seen from Mt. Whitney's trail crest - you can see the neck of Guitar Lake