I got up (relatively) early today and went to the mall. One of the bookstores there was having a half-off sale, and I scored a good one: High Adventure, by Sir Edmund Hillary. This completes my trilogy of Everest accounts: Hillary’s (who was the first to reach the summit), Reinhold Messner’s Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate (who was the first to summit without bottled oxygen), and Jon Krakaur’s Into Thin Air (the account of the Everest disaster in 1996).
Although I’m really into outdoor stuff – hiking and camping and all that – I’ve never been mountain climbing. I’d like to go, sometime, but I really don’t think I’d want to make a serious pursuit of it, even if time and money were no obstacles. In the first chapter of his book, Hillary talks about the books of earlier mountain climbers that inspired him to go on. I am amazed at how unlike him I am. While I love reading these books, the feeling I get is rather one of, “Boy, I’m glad I’m not him!” Especially Krakaur’s book – it’s one of the most horrifically scary stories I’ve read. As the cold and oxygen depravity begins to affect their minds, the climbers realize they are losing their grip on reality. As I once wrote to my sister, “I've added ‘climbing Everest’ to my list of ‘Things That Sound Cool To Do But Not Enough To Warrant The Effort Involved,’ right after ‘racing the Iditarod’ and ‘fighting in a full-contact mixed martial arts tournament.’
What do I want to do that would warrant the effort involved? Well, I’ve wanted to through-hike the Appalachian Trail for a long time now. I’ve hiked on a couple of sections of the trail in Georgia, and it’s beautiful and breathtaking and fun and miserably painful in all the right ways. More than accomplishing things, though, I guess I want to learn things: knowing how to tackle a glacier is more interesting to me than repeatedly climbing different glaciers in different parts of the world. There’s just so much to learn. If I ever get $8000 and a summer off, I want to do National Outdoor Leadership School’s “Semester in Alaska.” Go to Alaska and learn backpacking, glacier mountaineering, and sea kayaking in Price William Sound – that’s my dream vacation.
The problem is, outdoor leadership is a field dominated by the young. It’s not generally something that you keep doing regularly after 40 – unless you’re some kind of supertough hombre, your body just won’t be able to handle it. And it’s looking less and less like I’ll be able to do anything more than Boy Scout campouts anytime in the near future.
Well, I’ll do what I can, and thas overeode (“pass over that”) the things that I can’t. C. S. Lewis wrote about how, even before middle age, he found himself constantly eyeing new things he wanted to learn, but reluctantly had to admit to himself that there was no time – “have to wait for heaven for that.” Really, if a man accomplishes everything he wanted to accomplish in life, he probably didn’t try for very much.
Although I’m really into outdoor stuff – hiking and camping and all that – I’ve never been mountain climbing. I’d like to go, sometime, but I really don’t think I’d want to make a serious pursuit of it, even if time and money were no obstacles. In the first chapter of his book, Hillary talks about the books of earlier mountain climbers that inspired him to go on. I am amazed at how unlike him I am. While I love reading these books, the feeling I get is rather one of, “Boy, I’m glad I’m not him!” Especially Krakaur’s book – it’s one of the most horrifically scary stories I’ve read. As the cold and oxygen depravity begins to affect their minds, the climbers realize they are losing their grip on reality. As I once wrote to my sister, “I've added ‘climbing Everest’ to my list of ‘Things That Sound Cool To Do But Not Enough To Warrant The Effort Involved,’ right after ‘racing the Iditarod’ and ‘fighting in a full-contact mixed martial arts tournament.’
What do I want to do that would warrant the effort involved? Well, I’ve wanted to through-hike the Appalachian Trail for a long time now. I’ve hiked on a couple of sections of the trail in Georgia, and it’s beautiful and breathtaking and fun and miserably painful in all the right ways. More than accomplishing things, though, I guess I want to learn things: knowing how to tackle a glacier is more interesting to me than repeatedly climbing different glaciers in different parts of the world. There’s just so much to learn. If I ever get $8000 and a summer off, I want to do National Outdoor Leadership School’s “Semester in Alaska.” Go to Alaska and learn backpacking, glacier mountaineering, and sea kayaking in Price William Sound – that’s my dream vacation.
The problem is, outdoor leadership is a field dominated by the young. It’s not generally something that you keep doing regularly after 40 – unless you’re some kind of supertough hombre, your body just won’t be able to handle it. And it’s looking less and less like I’ll be able to do anything more than Boy Scout campouts anytime in the near future.
Well, I’ll do what I can, and thas overeode (“pass over that”) the things that I can’t. C. S. Lewis wrote about how, even before middle age, he found himself constantly eyeing new things he wanted to learn, but reluctantly had to admit to himself that there was no time – “have to wait for heaven for that.” Really, if a man accomplishes everything he wanted to accomplish in life, he probably didn’t try for very much.
posted by Mark at 1/07/2004 10:55:00 PM
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