54 Candles Expedition

Friends in High Places

By Allen Sherpa

Ten men – most from the White Mountains of Arizona – will launch an assault on the summit of Mount Hood, Oregon’s highest mountain, in the early morning hours of Friday the 13^th of April, 2001. Allen Sherpa was invited to participate, but declined. With this letter, he’s staying in close contact with the climbing party.

Perhaps you’re right. Maybe I have been a little tough on you guys. Who am I to say that when given the choice between spending time in a warm, luxurious lodge with fine dining, entertainment and all the comforts versus struggling to the limits of human endurance to climb up some mountain for the opportunity to have your frostbitten body fall from a 2,000 foot, ice-laden, rock cliff – you should chose comfort? Oh, silly me.

Just to prove to you I’ve got an open mind, I’m doing a little research on people that have this compulsion to constantly climb to higher and higher places. I’m not sure I’m able to put all the pieces together yet, but here’s a little bit of what I’ve found so far.

Throughout history, the mountains have been home to the gods. Zeus had a summer place on Mount Olympus. The Navajos are surrounded by the Four Sacred Mountains. The Tibetan name for Mount Everest is “Chomolungma” which means “Goddess Mother of the Earth”. Even Mount Hood was believed by the Cayuse to be the source of fire and volatile spirits. It’s obvious that man has always associated mountain peaks with sacred places. Possibly, this quest to summit Mount Hood has a deep spiritual basis and the dismal suffering you’ll undergo has great redeeming value.

Mountains have also been a rich source of metaphors for life and living. They’ve symbolized life’s great challenges. Those that were up to the task of settling the frontier were “Men to match the mountains”. If we make something more difficult, we make a “mountain from a mole hill”. William Blake, the famous poet, wrote:

Great things are done when men and mountains meet;

This is not done by jostling in the street.

Could it be the reality of standing on the summit of Oregon’s highest mountain is to become your affirmation that you can overcome life’s challenges, no matter how great?

The mountains give some people intimate contact with royalty. After all, who but kings could possibly be so appointed with beauty and grandeur. “Her purple mountains’ majesty”. Lord Byron penned this verse:

Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains;

They crowned him long ago

On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds,

With a diadem of snow.

After becoming the first man to climb Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary was knighted by the Queen of England. Perhaps, your quest for the summit is your way of climbing above the rest of humanity and living in a castle of the mind reserved solely for kings and queens of glory.

Mountains have been a source of inspiration. They’ve been the goal, the quest, the ultimate destination. San Juan de la Cruz in his Dichos de Luz y Amor said,

The conditions of a solitary bird are five:

The first, that it flies to the highest point;

The second, that it does not suffer for company, not even of its own kind;

The third, that it aims its beak to the skies;

The fourth, that it does not have a definite color;

The fifth, that it sings very softly.

The metaphors always seem to point to the sky, up, the highest point, to the heavens. Somehow, the highest points are noble, worthwhile, honorable, majestic, the embodiment of achievement. The ultimate peace.

We can’t leave the research without at least hinting at the other, darker side. It’s apparent the expression “getting high” frequently implies a state of euphoria which is accompanied by a certain mindlessness, lack of control, unthinking and irresponsible behavior. Frankenstein came down from the castle that was high on the hill. When the air gets thinner at elevation, we can’t think as clearly as we can in the oxygen rich lower areas.

Maybe I have been a bit overly critical of this expedition. My research does cast a more noble aire about the climb. So I’m going to try and take the high road, not sink into the depths of an abyss of criticism. Things are looking up. Let’s get high on life before we’re down on our luck. While you’re up there, give my best to Zeus. The suffering, frostbite, sub-zero temperatures and dismal food are possibly worth the trouble. But just between the two of us, I still think it’s highly probable that you’re nuts. Well, I guess that’s another story.