The real truth is Mount Everest wasn't meant to be climbed by all of us

First appeared on May 27th, 2010
in the Lebanon Reporter

It was under an ocean blue June sky that George Mallory and Andrew Irvine set off for the summit of Mount Everest. After sharing a breakfast of tinned sardines at some 23,000 feet above sea level, they left their camp on the North Col to chase history in an attempt at becoming the first to climb the world’s highest mountain. Unfortunately that was the last day anybody would ever see them alive.


A former collegiate oarsman, at 38 Mallory was an explorer with great experience. So much so he was considered one of England’s top climbers. Irvine was a renowned oxygen expert who was brought along to increase Mallory’s odds at making history. Tragically somewhere between their camp and the roof of the world a snow squall whipped up and the two men were blown off the mountain. Their bodies would lie frozen in the snow and undiscovered for 75 years.

The crown jewel of the Himalaya range, at over 29,000 feet Everest is the world’s highest point. Straddling the border between China and Nepal, the Himalaya is home to 9 of the world’s 10 highest peaks. Explorers in the early 1900’s referred to Everest as the “third pole” because all the other remote points of the world had already been conquered.

Every bit mysterious as dangerous, Everest has tempted the fate of many an explorer for over 200 years. It’s generally accepted the climbing mantra “because it’s there” was quipped by Mallory when a reporter asked him why he was so determined to climb the world’s highest peak.

Though over 3000 have accomplished it, modern records estimate somewhere around 1 in 10 climbers who attempt to summit Everest die trying. The altitude alone can be maddening. Couple this with the fact that it was possible for Mallory and Irvine’s bodies to remain undiscovered for over 70 years and you gain an understanding for how inaccessible and difficult the terrain surrounding Everest is.

With this in mind, it becomes all the more fascinatingly inspiring (or defeating for those of us who suddenly find our lives a duller shade of vanilla) to find out that last week a 13 year old Californian boy became the youngest person to climb Mount Everest.

Avalanches, crevasses, 125 MPH winds and oxygen deprivation are not the normal pitfalls we typically find 13 year olds navigating. Evidently for Jordan Romero hormones, acne and homework are simply not challenging enough.

Romero joins the ranks of other recent adolescent American heroes like Zac Sunderland of solo-circumnavigation fame and the E*TRADE baby. It all has me wondering if it’s completely normal for someone to view a story like Romero’s and feel as if your own life is falling short. I’m hoping the answer is yes. What-it-costs.com estimates the cost of climbing Everest to be somewhere around $100,000. With this in mind, and speaking as someone who cut their mountaineering teeth climbing the monkey bars and apple trees, the next best move might be a road trip to the Indiana Dunes.

While Romero pursues his own dream of climbing the Seven Summits (7 highest points on each continent), it may be more prudent for the rest of us to reach for something more economical. Perhaps finding our way to the highest point in each Indiana County makes more sense.

This isn’t meant to diminish what Romero accomplished. I’m not sure that’s even possible. It is meant however to be a reminder that life is short and the world is large. So put down the potato chips, throw caution to the wind and go do whatever it was you dreamt of doing at age 13.