The Elusive Summit

My nephew heads for the summit of Mount Rainier today in Washington State. He’s been trying out a new blogging system that worked pretty well, but as he approached the higher elevations it conked out on him.

Electronics and mountains seldom work well together. I've yet to see the remote system that works any better than a satellite phone and simply calling in the post for someone to type. Right now he should be on his way to the summit with the sun coming up. It's a beautiful sight to behold as the early morning sun rises, pokes through the early morning cloud cover and then streaks across the clouds with bright orange and yellow rays. You’ve above the clouds and so the streaking is unusual in that you’re not looking at the lower cloud cover. Like on an airplane clouds are below your feet and there is nothing but clear sky and a bright orange ball spewing off solar energy. It is almost an indescribable sight as you look to your side watching the solar light show as you step, once, step twice, and step for the thousandth time. Step, take a breath, step and breathe are what you do as you get to know the back of the climber’s boots in front of you. A smile will come across his face and he’ll probably wonder, for me it’s aloud, “Wow, this was all worth it.” At that moment you have to consider whether your life is better than you ever dreamed it would be. All you can think at is that life is good.

At a certain altitude, it’s never predictable, the iPod will stop working and you’ll be left with your thoughts and the sound of climbers moving upward in cadence. Snow crunches under plastic boots as they kick step into the side of the ice and snow. This cadence is your friend, the altitude your challenge. Breathing labors as you climb higher. You think of everything and everybody in your life until exhaustion whittles you down to no more than a climbing automaton. I personally think about all I could have done to get in better shape, not what I did do. I’m not sure what Scott thinks about. He’s always way ahead of me. Alone with your thoughts your numbing brain wanders through the last six months of your life as if it matters; and at that moment it really doesn’t because you come right back to kick step into the mountain, crunch and kick step again. He’s now up to 2,000 steps.

Climb, climb, and climb. The summit looks so close but you never seem to arrive. He’ll look for small black dots and estimate whether they are getting larger. If they get larger it’s a good sign because that means he’s getting closer to climbers up ahead. The lady of the mountain makes the summit tough for one and all. She cares not what you’ve done or haven’t done; she will not easily open her arms to those wanting to stand on the very top. And as beautiful as she is she is quite frankly elusive. And rightly so... onward he marches. Today I miss not being there with him.

Go get em Scotty!

Scott’s Blog: http://aconcagua2011attempt.blogspot.com/