On Wednesday night in Jackson Hole Broughton Coburn, one of the last true great educated and ambitious menches in an increasingly sterile world, gave a presentation on that expedition based on his book, THE VAST UNKNOWN . Brot spoke, along with David Dornan who was part of a group of climbers who helped Sir Edmund Hillary first start building schools and infrastructure for the sherpas as a thanks for all the guidance and muscle the sherpas gave them. Brot and Dave themselves had never been to the summit of Everest but just being in Nepal, climbing the lower peaks, staring up the monstrous mountain led them to live lives filled with awe and adventure.
That first American expedition occurred 10 years after Sir Edmund Hillary had made the first successful summit of the world's tallest point. It also achieved its own mountaineering first, however, when the American team, led by Jackson Hole climbers Tom Hornbein, Willie Unsoeld, and Barry Corbet (namesake for the legendary Corbet's Couloir, posterboy for outdoor adventure and, after a horrendous helicopter crash left him paralyzed, champion for the disabled and founder of the magazine NEW MOBILITY), actually made the summit via the never-before-done West Ridge. These are all great, ambitious men and it's amazing what an impact on the lives of so many and, hell, the world they made simply by climbing. Not to mention the fact that this event, occurring when it did during the Cold War, on a route taken through communist China, had much bigger geopolitical ramifications than simply a mountaintop stroll. And there's the revelation made in Coburn's book that the CIA recruited a few of the climbers to ascend one of the nearby peaks and plant a device through which they could spy on the evil Red China.
All these great political human interest angles aside, climbs at their very core inspire us. The metaphor for a great challenge is climbing a mountain so what better way to show one's physical strength and mental fortitude in the face of adversity than to climb an actual physical mountain?
Everest has always been a benchmark, too. There are so many records for first ascents on it - Erik Weihenmayer making the first blind summit of the peak, Jordan Romero being the youngest to summit at a freshly-pubescent 13, Mark Inglis who summitted without either of his legs. But this year we had another first, one which I think is not only a true testament to the human spirit but also, like many of the great achievements in the history of man, will hopefully spread understanding and hope to a society growing increasingly cynical.
Elisha Reimer is only 15 years old. Eli Reimer is from Bend, Oregon and in March made it to the Everest Base Camp at 17, 600 feet, higher than most people on this planet will ever be outside the pressurized comfort of an airplane, after a 10-day trudge over 70 rocky snowy miles. And Eli Reimer is the first teenager with Down syndrome to accomplish such a feat. This grueling climb was part of a fundraiser for the Elisha Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping challenged families confronting disabilities.This feat has just so many great aspects I don't know where to begin. Eli proved that a man with ambition can conquer anything in spite of whatever challenges may be thrown his way by the gods or man.
Eli proved that a seemingly selfish activity like climbing a mountain can actually be a part of an undertaking for the betterment of society.
Eli proved that we're all way too damn lazy and make too many excuses for not doing what we love and want to do. Eli at 15 is already one hell of an ambitious man and to hell with any other adjectives or describers, any groupings or denominations society might want to put on him.
Happy Friday.
- Ryan
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