Climb only if you must
We’re waiting on some (potentially) nasty weather here. The usual mix that makes life difficult. Snow, freezing rain, rain, some wind to stir the mix. Altogether, an invitation for some tricky footing tomorrow. And on TV, someone making my life look like “a walk in the park”.
It would appear that there are hardy souls who climb where others fear to tread. Up the hill, if you will. A climb to the top, because there’s no place higher. Everest. We watched a documentary on the peculiar job description of the Sherpa. Brave people, available for hire if you have a death wish.
Photographs can’t do justice to the terrors one faces on the way up (and down). Climbing ladders; multiple, hardware store quality aluminum ladders, lashed together with hardware store rope. Crossing those same, shaky ladders; pay no attention to the crevasse below you. Thin air, where taking a breath is never quite enough. In fact, even good video footage doesn’t put you “there”.
Climbing Everest as a hobby is recent; according to Wiki, the first European to do so managed the feat just over fifty years ago. Since then, as the song goes, “Many men tried, and many men died”. Left behind a few tons of expensive garbage, as well. All to say that this particular task isn’t on my “bucket list”.
Instead, I’m going to try keeping my treks over ice and snow in a safer zone. To tbe bus stop and back, without falling. Given that the vertical elevation of my climb is measured in centimeters instead of kilometers, the chances of success are reasonable.
