Just Holly: Mt. Everest

Just Holly: Mt. Everest: Every year from April to May climbers ascend Mt. Everest in the hopes of standing on the highest pinnacle on earth.   Every year, ...

Mt. Everest

Every year from April to May climbers ascend Mt. Everest in the hopes of standing on the highest pinnacle on earth.  Every year, people die on Mt. Everest, an average of 5 per year.  The journey to the summit is fraught with danger.  One needs to acclimatize to the mountain, which requires several trips up and down to various base camps.  There is an ice fall the climbers traverse over fixed ladders, and while the ladders are fixed, the ice fall is not; it is constantly in a state of flux, moving and shifting.  If they have success in the process, the climbers need to hope that there is clear weather on the day they push for the summit.  They need to hope that there is no traffic jam of climbers in front of them, blocking their way.  They need to hope that there are no issues with their oxygen tanks while they climb into the “death zone.”  Oh, and they need to hope that the ice fall does not take them out, or an avalanche, the tragedies of those years having shut down the climbing season in 2014 and 2015.

And then they need to hope they can get down. 

I first became fascinated with Mt. Everest in 1996, one of the deadliest years on record, when 15 climbers died on the mountain, including Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, two very experienced guides.  The mountain pushed back hard that year.   In the end, many could not get down….  Hope had run out. 

If you have an interest, you can read all about this in the book “Into Thin Air” by John Krakauer.  There are also documentaries and movies about the 1996 climb and other climbs that met with tragedy, because, and I am sure you saw this coming, I am not really writing about Mt. Everest.  I am writing about HOPE. 

When one looks at Mt. Everest, I think one must realize that there is really an awful lot of hope involved in the journey.  While the climbers surely train and prepare as best they can, in the end getting to the top of the mountain safely and back down again requires a tremendous amount of hope. 

And that is the point of this blog, to share my hope.  Human nature, I believe, always has at least of glimmer of hope.  Even when faced with life’s most difficult circumstances, we as a people hope that we will get over that mountain, and come back down safely.  Maybe it is a mountain of grief, as the loss of my husband was for me.  Maybe you have a mountain of despair, a mountain of pain, a mountain of addiction, a mountain of abuse.   What is your mountain?  

For me, my grief was like Mt. Everest –  I felt like I was in the “death zone,” stuck on the top of that mountain of grief, and I was not able to move to get down!

But then hope.  Hope that things would somehow get better, no matter how small and insignificant that hope felt in light of my grief.  Hope that my life could be, if not what I wanted, at least okay.  Hope that I would be able to share good times with my children and grandchildren again.  Hope.  I climbed down from the death zone of despair. 

Today, I am not on that mountain anymore.  It is not a place one can stay for long, for if you tarry too long, stay in the “death zone” -- you will not survive it.  I had hope.  We all have hope. 

“And now, Lord, what wait I for?  My hope is in thee.” 

May you have hope….