r. David Stuhldreher said that the trek up Mount Kilimanjaro was the hardest thing he’s ever done. Sometimes I wonder why people subject themselves to such ordeals. George Mallory wrote about Mount Everest: If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.
Mallory died on Everest in 1924 at the age of 38. It wasn’t until 1963 that Sir Edmond Hilary and the Sherpa guide, Tensing Norway, became the first to reach Everest’s summit. People are still dying on this mountain that’s nearly six miles high. Recently an avalanche killed 14 Sherpas.
I find Mallory’s words insightful. Few people are grand adventurers such as he, Columbus and the other explorers, Richard Haliburton, Stanley who found Dr. Livingstone in the depths of Africa, Amelia Earhart, Amundsen and his group who were the first to make it to the South Pole in 1911, and Lady Hester Stanhope who deserted Victorian England and ended up in the high Lebanon after undergoing many adventures along the way, including dressing as a male while crossing the Middle East.
However, we can all ask ourselves if we are seeking enough joy from our all-too-brief existence. Dr. Stuhldreher advises, “Do it while you can.” Many of us put off trying to achieve our dreams until tomorrow, and, alas, tomorrow may come too late.
Dr. Stuhldreher has an adventurous spirit and likes to try new experiences that bring him closer to nature. Following the trek up Kilimanjaro, he and his family went on safari on the Serengeti where they saw spectacular elephants, giraffes, lions, cheetahs and birds. Last year they vacationed in Alaska where they slept on a ship and spent their days kayaking.
Ernest Hemingway believed that good fun must be carefully planned. Before going on safari in Africa he spent a lot of time choosing his hunting guns and making arrangements. A man who has made the trek up Kilimanjaro several times says that it’s crucial that you have a guide who speaks your language. Dr. Stuhldreher says you can’t make it up Kilimanjaro alone. His party of six had fourteen porters, a Tanzanian guide required by Tanzania’s government and an American guide. His group took six days to reach the summit in order to become acclimated to the thin air.
Forty percent of those who make the attempt fail. Just as careful advance planning is necessary, you need to be very fit physically to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Dr. Stuhldreher and his family ran up and down stairs while wearing their backpacks to get in shape. Even so, it wasn’t easy.
An article that I read said, “There is no room for poor judgment and carelessness in this unforgiving mountain environment.” The article sites the extreme wind, fog, wet and cold and lists several different ways to be killed there, including hypothermia, drowning, falling, avalanches and falling ice. Chillingly, it lists the names of people who have died on the mountain and tells the stories of their deaths.
No, this isn’t Everest or Kilimanjaro. It’s New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington that’s only 6,288 feet high. It’s in the path of three major storm tracks and is said to have the worst weather on Earth, including a record wind speed of 231 miles per hour. People refuse to heed warnings and set off with inadequate clothing and supplies on what appears to be an easy hike on a warm summer’s day only to be trapped in a sudden, killer storm. More to come. wclarke@comcast.net