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josephine
Nov 23, 2002, 3:00 PM
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There are many people who like climbing mountains in the world. Then, have you ever thought why people climb mountains? I've been thinking about the reasons. At first I didn't know the reasons. One day somebody said, "Because mountains are in front of us." I thought so, at that time. But now, I don't think so. When I stood on a mountain top and looked down lowlands, I saw small views far off. Cities, towns, a path that had been walked up by me, a stretched mountain range from left to right, and a sea of clouds were lying below me. That experience made me discover two reasons.
I believe one of the reasons is awakening. If you see the same views as I saw, you must feel that your troubles at work and human relations look like trifles. Then you will be awakened and your troubles will be forgotten. At last, you will be able to objectively what a human is.
Another one is desire for conquest. If you arrive at a mountain top after you have overcome a hardship, you must feel that you're a conqueror of the mountain and a winner against yourself. It makes you get satisfaction and want to get this feeling more.
In conclusion, climbing mountains is a wonderful thing for our life because the mountain can change us to be philosophers and conquerors.
Tell me your thoughts...
[ This Message was edited by: josephine on 2002-11-23 07:02 ]
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indeco
Nov 23, 2002, 3:32 PM
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I don't like your reason of conquest, at all. If that is your reason for going sooner or later the mountain will win. Conquest are an aggression that have no place in the mountains. When one stands on a mountain top nothing has been conquered, achieved but not conquered.
Robin Fedden in his book The Enchanted Mountains summed it up best, and gave the most gentle of explanations
He wrote this after having come down from a summit.
"...we were rewarded with the sense of a participating landscape, of a partnership with the mountains, that is so satisfying and no doubt so baseless."
We always struggle to answer why we climb, his use of the word participating is critical to the answer. I think he understands perfectly why we are motivated to go into the mountains. To climb is to participate in our surroundings, where so many are content to passively observe.
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fitch
Nov 23, 2002, 3:50 PM
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Alex Lowe said, "It is wonderful to be back. Back among the mountains that remind us of our vulnerability, our ultimate lack of control over the world we live in. Mountains that demand humility and yield so much peace in return," September 18, 1999.
I fully agree, I love feeling so small among everything else that is so immense. He said it right about the mountains demanding humility. I would say that it is more for the experience that I go to the mountains.
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stevematthys
Nov 23, 2002, 3:56 PM
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i climb them because they are there.
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hroldan
Nov 23, 2002, 4:05 PM
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..."I love feeling so small among everything else that is so immense"...
very nice fitch...
When i get down of a mountain i feel thankful because the feeling of conquering disapears when i realize that it just can't be conquered. Thankful? yep, i get that feeling thinking that God and His great creation gave me permission to get to the top and see all kinds of wonders... and find my place in them... and survive to the inherent dangers there... me, so small, with all my foolish pride, alone in the inmensity of a summit get the feeling that i'm small...
And there, no matter who's with me, more or less experienced, i still feel small, but not the feeling of being "a little one". "poor one", just feel that i'm close to know my real place. I feel peace!!! and my problems dispear.
There (no matter what mountain) i feel like home, i feel like i belong there and there's a strange feeling of partnership with the ones that get there.
Most of the times i don't feel like doing something big, just feel like i did what i had to. I still think that the human being is not made to be in an office all day, far from nature.
Climb on!
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w6jxm
Nov 23, 2002, 4:18 PM
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Where else can you get a better view than from the top.
CLIMB ON
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rojay
Nov 23, 2002, 5:27 PM
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We all climb for our own reasons. Some to chase demons. Some to find God. Whatever your reasons as long as they are pure and for yourself. ---Climb on.
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coldclimb
Nov 23, 2002, 6:34 PM
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Nothing deep in it for me. I like the view. I like the hike. I like the conditioning. I like the danger element. I like the company. I just like it.
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darkside
Nov 23, 2002, 7:01 PM
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Why do we climb mountains.........
Because going to the moon is too expensive.
I'm not being sarcastic here (well maybe a little ), I'm trying to say that something in mankind causes us to aspire to something higher, not merely in a vertical sense. In some way we seek a higher plane, and some people seek it in the mountains while others seek it in other ways.
We are all searching, and if we are blessed then one day we will find it.
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alwaysforward
Nov 23, 2002, 7:14 PM
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it's not the goal, it's the journey...
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jughead
Nov 23, 2002, 7:30 PM
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its the challenge, defeating the impossible the ability to say, I came I saw I conquered its you and the mountain nothing can make you feel more alive.
seeing your barriers and knocking them down.
finding your limits, and breaking them.
seeing how far you can go, then going further.
WE ARE STRONG, WE ARE POWERFUL, NOTHING WILL EVER GET IN OUR WAY BE IT FINANCE, INJURY, WEATHER, OR STRENGTH, WE WILL PREVAIL THROUGH ALL.
WE ARE CLIMBERS!!!
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beyond_gravity
Nov 23, 2002, 9:40 PM
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Its just the spirt of exploration, your just going up there to cheak it out
-Steve House
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thomasribiere
Nov 23, 2002, 10:02 PM
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I climb there because I find nice to be up there, but that's not very rational. I just like it, I think the view from the top of a mountain is often awesome, well I don't know, I LOVE IT!
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camhead
Nov 23, 2002, 10:40 PM
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I doubt that very many of mountaineering's elites would say that they do it for the spirit of conquest. One does not "conquer" the mountain.
In relation to this topic, I will paraphrase the words of Buzz Holstrom, the first man to boat the rapids of the Grand Canyon alone (1939).
"People say that I conquered the Colorado. I did not... nobody conquers a river. It is more as if the river thought to itself, 'He is such an insignificant and foolish person that I will let him go this time, and teach him a lesson.'"
yeah.
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alwaysforward
Nov 23, 2002, 11:43 PM
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on this topic, i was wondering how you get into mountaneering safely?
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beyond_gravity
Nov 23, 2002, 11:59 PM
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Fly out to Calgary or Canmore and vist
www.yamnuska.com
Or hook up with a good mountaineer.
I don't recomend, "reading the book and going out" approch that I took. Even if you start on easy peaks I look back two years later and think about everything I did wrong.
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charley
Nov 24, 2002, 12:18 AM
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There's free Pizza and beer at the top! Well isn't there?
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galt
Nov 24, 2002, 12:57 AM
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Thank you Darkside.
I climb becasue it is there. Because I can. It's the exact same reason man has always looked at the moon in AWE. It's the thrill of the unconquerable. That's why I climb.
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gooch
Nov 24, 2002, 11:19 PM
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I climb up so I can ski down.
I climb because i like being on the top.
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kahuna3602
Nov 24, 2002, 11:54 PM
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Stevematthys said it right.
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froggy
Nov 25, 2002, 12:51 AM
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There is something innate to climbing to the top.
I love climbing mountains, but I also love the trek to get there. There is something peaceful and relaxing about just moving across the land and views aren’t usually that bad either
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petsfed
Nov 25, 2002, 1:48 AM
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"Because going to the moon is too expensive" - Darkside.
Funny that you say that, but realistically, with today's technology, the cost to go to Everest with a good guide (until the permit rate drop) was about the same as to send a person to the moon. Why do you think the spaceshuttle still operates so often? Its not like its that useful to keep sending people into space when we don't need to. Its the same reason mountaineering as a goal in and of itself developed in France so many years ago. We want to do what people before us haven't.
Of course that's just part of the reason I climb. I enjoy being part of a community as more than just an observer or a very minor periphery person.
Its a sport without whistles, coaches, boundaries, or uniforms (unless you're a prana-phile). There is no scoreboard, no time clock, and the season never ends. And we're all supposed to be on the same team. And we aren't so seeped in tradition to avoid innovation at all costs (check out PTPP's rants about the "Traditional Way" for proof) as opposed to other sports. Slung nuts never met the opposition that the Fosbury Flop got.
I'm not sure how John Gill's dynamic climbing went over (as I was non-existant at the time) but I'll be sure to ask him. Simply put, when you try a new way to kick a football, and it works you get ridiculed; but you try a new way to climb that works, and you're hailed as a visionary (or at worst called eccentric).
And since I never had an aptitude for team sports, climbing just seemed perfect for me.
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marcsv
Nov 25, 2002, 2:06 AM
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you could just go with the cliché "because its there". . . but not me. its not conquering a mountain, its conquering yourself. knowing your limits and going an inch further everytime you take a step. everyone has their wery own everest inside.
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jgill
Nov 25, 2002, 3:06 AM
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Brian, when I introduced dynamics in the 1950s, it went very much against the grain, as far as older climbers were concerned. They could not "see" the difference between what I was doing and what they referred to as "lunging" - which was only resorted to in desperation. However, there were a few young climbers who were captivated by gymnastic motion (Rich Goldstone was one), and proceded to incorporate it into their technique.
As for reasons to climb... Well, I will have been at it for 50 years next spring, and for me, the reasons have changed over this period of time. At first it was the excitement of the physical gymnastics and the attempts to push standards, then the thrill of exploration in hazardous environments, then a moving meditation, and now, a stimulating and exciting form of (geriatric)exercise. It's such a complex activity, it's never been possible for me to pin it down to just one thing. As for "Because it's there!", that was a Mallory joke, wasn't it?
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johnny_g
Dec 14, 2002, 9:24 AM
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Well i'm not sure Penny some people say that they are climb mountains because "they exist" others say that they've follow some kind of spiritual trail.
I like to climb them whit my friends because I feel good on the mountains and I love their beauty and I respect them a LOT
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