Several years ago, an enormous awe for mountains revisited me while flying into the Tri-cities Airport in Tennessee. I was reading a novel when the pilot announced that we were nearing our destination. When I looked up, I was stunned by the view of a spectacular blue horizon, except what awed me was not the sky but the Blue Ridge Mountains, rising dome after dome over each other, in a chain in the distance. It was toward the evening, not yet dark, when the sun must have just set behind the mountains, because the mountains looked as if they were made of Steuben glass, airy, precious, and dream-inducing. To the question, why climb a mountain? Sir Edmund Hillary answered Because its there. Because it's there, anytime I lift my head to look at a mountain, I also feel my spirit lifting; even though Im not much of a mountain climber. Even a good photo moves me for lack of a mountain where I live. I find climbing a mountain to be a great metaphor for life; therefore, I have great respect for mountaineering. Whether the climbers follow already set trails or are trailblazers themselves, what they are doing is getting the mountains grace and injecting themselves with goodwill and serenity. A mountain may possess false summits or official peaks. A mountain climbing enthusiast once complained that he and his buddies thought they reached the top; yet, when they looked up, they saw that the peak they were trying to climb was even higher. The best a person can do in this situation is to send good vibes to the mountain and try again. Since mountain climbers leave too many footprints, it is argued that they are as destructive to the environment as any other pollutant; however, it isn't the climber that ruins the mountain but the insatiable mining and lumber companies that don't grasp when and where to stop. Maybe, thats why some mountains blow their tops because they cant take it anymore, as in the case of Mt. St. Helens. While people like me enjoy the vista from an airplane or a helicopter when they dare, a good climber will start from the bottom up. An average persons mountain climbing from sea level usually consists of driving up in a car to a place 800 to a 1000 ft above sea-level, say Jamestown in Upstate NY. Now, that cant be called climbing, can it? One thing about climbing a mountain is not just climbing up, but rather scaling the peaks up and down until one reaches the highest peak. From the top, the view may be awesome but happiness and satisfaction is in the climbing. Even if one hasnt reached the top, he may have gained something truly important in the process. Earth is not a perfect planet and its mountains are not set according to a general rule. Each mountain has its own rule, trail, rocks, crags, and slippery surfaces. Each mountain leads its climber to an individual focus and a different understanding of himself against the universe, just the way each mountaineer carries his own map. A hiker or a climber finds his own heart and solitude in the barrenness above the tree-line. Once he reaches the top of a mountain, the scenery is not only spectacular looking down but also looking up, for its in mans essence to look up and try to see as high as he can. If hes there in the summit and is camping at night, he is nearer to the stars; Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, Orions Belt, The Milky Way, The North Star, Dog Star and others to make him proud of his purpose and to make him feel insignificant inside such a vast universe, despite the clammy mist, blinding fog, the wind and the frigid air. |
