Climbing Mount Everest

No this isn't symbolism for anything challenging or demanding of me in my life at this point, I just finished my book club selection for tomorrow on the horrifying first hand account of the Mount Everest disaster, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

First off I want to say that you really have got to have a few screws loose if you think that climbing Mt. Everest is a good idea, and if you have the notion that you want to attempt this feat at some point in your life (which I never have, and officially never will) you should really read this book. The whole book I kept telling myself "Why would you even want to do that" followed by a good head shake as Jon weaves a gripping story of one of the deadliest events to ever happen on the mountain. Nothing, and I mean nothing sounds appealing about the whole process of getting to the top, and once you are there you have to figure out how to survive the trip back down. I guess you can walk away (if you are lucky enough to live through the whole experience) with bragging rights that you indeed "knocked that bastard off". Maybe it's why the majority of people that have made the summit are mostly men, it just takes the right combination of ego, determination and sheer stupidity to want to take on such insurmountable odds for a little pat on the back. Maybe the reason that this book was written was to keep people safely at home in their pj's and steer them as faraway from attempting anything this foolish, but if that wasn't the message it sure hit home with me. The horror that occurs to the people on the expeditions is just excruciating to read, and all I could think about was that they did it to themselves.

I guess the most startling part for me was the harsh backlash the surviving members received after they recovered, being as only a few actually survived the disaster you would think that it was probably pretty bad. I for one have no idea what depriving your brain of oxygen, having my body in a constant state of near hypothermia, worry about HACE (high altitude cerebral edema), have totally frostbitten fingers and toes, suffer hours of sleep deprivation, disintegration of your muscles (due to lack of oxygen and food), and not eating for days will do to you, never mind your ability to rationally decide how to not only save yourself but others that are dying around you... Oh and throw in that a raging snow storm is whipping down the mountain and made the already terrible conditions that climbers suffer from during great weather conditions 100 times worse. I figure that if you decided to take that $60 000 (in 1996, so who knows how much now) hike up the mountain you are ultimately going to be responsible for yourself. Even at the lower elevations you would have passed by countless bodies before you were even considered to be in the "death zone" (Death zone... do you really want to be going somewhere that has a death zone! Please check yourself before you wreck yourself...)  you know that it isn't going to be a cake walk to the top even with the most seasoned professionals.

I really enjoyed this one and encourage you to at least check out the article Jon wrote when he got back from the mountain. In the book he regretfully talks about some of the factual errors he made in the article when it was published, but I guess an oxygen deprived brain does some strange things to you when trying to remember intimate details.

All I have to say I guess is, girls and boys do not attempt this at home.

http://outsideonline.com/outside/destinations/199609/199609_into_thin_air_1.html0

L