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 Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Joined: Sep 2009
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Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk" (link to full version article)BY DAVID WHITING COLUMNIST THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER dwhiting@ocregister.com updated Jan 07, 2011 On Christmas Day, John Watcher dug his steel crampons into the ice on the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere and considered his next move.
Should the climbing team press on?
Last edited by Bee; 01/07/11 10:21 PM. Reason: corrected link to complete article
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Re: Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 1,037 Likes: 6
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Joined: Nov 2009
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Let's start with the best of the best, Joe Tasker in Savage Arena,
"In some ways, going to the mountains is incomprehensible to many people and inexplicable by those who go. The reasons are difficult to unearth and only with those who are similarly drawn is there no need to try to explain."
His sentiment is plainly obvious to those in the business. It's just the way it is. In EF Norton's The Fight for Everest 1924, Bentley Beetham even seems annoyed at comparing mountaineering and city life, saying,
"That stillborn question, 'Is it worth it?' is surely a product of town life: it could never arise like a canker to infect our thoughts out there on the plateau, in front of the great mountain."
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Re: Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Joined: Nov 2009
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Joined: Nov 2009
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In 1974, I climbed with Joe in the Swiss and French Alps. For myself, Joe, and many others, climbing a mountain was much more than "challenging ones self," but a way of being in touch with something inexpressible. It can be a spiritual, contemplative experience that cannot be explained to those who haven't been there. Perhaps this is why some climbers keep repeating a climb of a particular mountain - not to rack up achievement points - but because a particular high place calls to them at a deep, personal level. It's something about spiritual aspiration, reaching into the mystery that is God and ourselves.
Those who have surrendered to the noise of our culture will always be suspicious of the call of silence and solitude offered by the high places...until they experience it for themselves.
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Re: Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Joined: Nov 2009
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Joined: Nov 2009
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That is the most beautiful reply that has ever been written here, and moved me to tears. Thanks.
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Re: Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Joined: Sep 2009
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Joined: Sep 2009
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Bob,
Wonderful! You put eloquently into words what most of us only hope to try to convey to those who have "surrendered to the noise of our culture".
CaT
If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracle of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it. - Lyndon Johnson, on signing the Wilderness Act into law (1964)
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Re: Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Joined: Nov 2009
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Joined: Nov 2009
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You guys are preaching to the choir. I've yet to meet anyone who loved hiking and climbing who said "Will someone please explain why I do this?" 
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Re: Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Joined: Sep 2010
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Joined: Sep 2010
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Those who have surrendered to the noise of our culture will always be suspicious of the call of silence and solitude offered by the high places...until they experience it for themselves. Oh my, that is amazing. Thank you for putting words to the feelings!
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Re: Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 98
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Joined: Sep 2010
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You guys are preaching to the choir. I've yet to meet anyone who loved hiking and climbing who said "Will someone please explain why I do this?" Kevin, I must say that I still cannot not answer the "why" to Everest.
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Re: Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Joined: Nov 2009
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Cindy, I imagine you spend more time on this:
Once a mountaineer has climbed so high, for the rest of his life he dreams of returning.
Peter Boardman, Sacred Summits page 173
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Re: Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Joined: Nov 2009
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Kevin, I must say that I still cannot not answer the "why" to Everest. That's interesting, Cindy. When you were back in comfort of your home, did you look back on it with a sense that the time/$$/risks were worth the effort?
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Re: Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Joined: Sep 2010
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Kevin, I must say that I still cannot not answer the "why" to Everest. That's interesting, Cindy. When you were back in comfort of your home, did you look back on it with a sense that the time/$$/risks were worth the effort? Hi Kevin, The answer is "yes!" But, that still cannot explain the "why" I did such an extreme thing. I'm glad to my core that I did and I do not believe I need a "why." While people ask me that question all the time, I just reply "because." Summiting Everest was a truly surreal experience. I cannot begin to describe all the emotions and physical struggles involved with such a long, extreme experience but I have emerged with a new sense of self like a butterfly leaving its cocoon. At age 51 I can fly into the mountains and be free. The worst aspect of the climb was being apart from my husband. While he trained with me on all the other mountains, he had no drive to climb Everest. But he set me free to fly!
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Re: Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Bob that was such an articulate and moving statement. Harvey I always love your quotes.Cindy you are my hero and I am amazed by anyone who has climbed Mt. Everest although I have never had that personal drive to even think about attempting it.
Nothing wrong with preaching to the choir.My dad was a preacher and he always said the choir needed to hear his sermons too.This was a great thread.Glad I checked in on the board.
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Re: Climber's Death Challenges "Acceptable Risk"
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 98
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 98 |
Cindy, I imagine you spend more time on this:
Once a mountaineer has climbed so high, for the rest of his life he dreams of returning.
Peter Boardman, Sacred Summits page 173
Harvey, This is a great quote I don't know that I dream of returning but rarely does a day pass that I do not reflect back on my time on Everest.
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