What matters and the things they carried

That is a question. What does matter? What do we carry with us? 

Given we are not John Muir, setting off along the Pacific Divide with an overcoat, cup, fire, we have more choices to make and justify. Most of what matters is coming home safe, having had a fine time, and feeling like you were more enriched than terrified. The stink of fear, as my partner and fellow dad recently said, is not what you want to bring home.

I think how you climb matters in many ways. If you have a family,  if you are only beholden to your chosen friends, or even if only for the love of self, you do want to come home. We are very privileged to do what we do, and should take that seriously.

I have not read Tim O'Brien's work for many years, and you can read more about the title I mention and the author at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Things_They_Carried. It made a huge impact on me. My father just missed being in Vietnam. O'Brian's book reminded me how much less of a childhood I could have had if my father's unit had been reactivated 6 months earlier. I could easily have never been born.

This is not to imply that climbing is too much like going to war. Climbing rarely if ever is like that in my experience. But there are those who climbed big, talked little and had nothing for gear. They lacked critical advanced satellite meteorological reports/communication, and any kind of media motivation. The Hummingbird Ridge on Mount Logan. The name  conjures a route which claimed two of our finest. And has not really been repeated.

The first ascent of Thalay Sagar. Via an unseen route up a newly opened 7000 meter peak. With a partner exhibiting clear signs of pulmonary and possibly cerebral edema. And the doctor who is the technical leader for the 5.9 shale summit says it's ok for the guy to go down alone, while his three partners continue. And he makes it down, they make it up and down. Now people climb the granite monolith on the other side of this peak, capsule style with perfect forecast information via satellite from some small Swiss village. But back then someone climbed it first time, sight unseen.

Steck and Thackray, Joshua Tree, CA, the Thin Wall, spring 2009.