Why Climb

Why Climb Everest?

There is some truth to the statement

"If you have to ask the question, You may not understand the answer",

but let's start with a quote or two.

"If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the

challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle

of life itself onward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go. What we

get from this adventure is just pure joy"

-George Leigh Mallory

Great line, but he's dead, So here's another

"It's not the number of breaths in your life that count,

It's the number of moments that take your breath away"

- anonymous

For me, a fascination with Mt. Everest began as an elementary student leafing through dog-eared copies of National Geographic and coming across the story of the conquest of Everest in 1953 by Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary.

I was inspired but never thought of climbing anything. However, throughout my childhood we were always camping and hiking, first throughout Maine and New Hampshire and later as a 15 yr. old, across the country.

Later my wanderlust was evident as an 18 yr. old, one week out of high school and the summer before college, I along with a buddy hiked to California.

Years later my oldest buddy dragged me to a rock climbing area in Pennsylvania with a guide.

Let me say this was a very inauspicious beginning as I was, as they say, "gripped"....(climber-speak

for frozen in place and nearly soiling oneself !). I swore I would never do it again !......

Well, as you can see from the photos in this website. I did climb again...and again...and again.

At this stage Mt. Everest represents the ultimate test of ones physical and mental endurance, demanding extreme fitness and capability, courage and strength of character.

Everest is the supreme symbol of human kind vs. natures greatest power.

It is, in short, incredibly inspiring! (why do you think so many song lyrics mention mountains?)

Climbing Everest represents doubts and fears overcome. The accumulation of an enormous amount of hard work and a larger than life indication that literally anything is possible.

In a sense, It's a metaphor for life's challenges.

Therefore, I believe that all people are climbing their own personal Everest.

"Success is not measured by the heights one attains,

but by the obstacles one overcomes in it's attainment"

- Booker T. Washington