I pen this blog from the beautiful Northern Drakensberg, KZN. I’m up here doing some Guide training for The Cavern Resort, and All Out Adventures. It is just magnificent being in the mountains. I love being surrounded by peaks and valleys, I always have. I have so enjoyed walking with the guides, and trail running with friends, over the last 3 days.
I have always gazed longingly up at the high places – and have always been drawn to the lofty perches that rise above us. I certainly concur with John Muir, “The mountains are calling, and I must go”. Over the last few years, I have been wondering why? Why do I want to do it? Why do I feel the urge to get up high? What draws me here?
Growing up, I did attempt to summit everything I saw and had a desire to one day stand on top of the world – Mt Everest. But, as I collected and read more Everest books, I began to realise that it was a dangerous, expensive and morally questionable climb. I processed the fact that you have a good chance of dying or getting serious frostbite. I processed too, the fact that it was a very expensive exercise, and I doubted that I would have the ability to spend the large sums of money required.
I also thought long and hard about climbing in one of the world’s most sacred places. For the local Tibetans, Sagamartha is sacred. It is certainly not a place that should be littered with piles of debris, mostly empty oxygen cylinders. It should also not be littered with the frozen bodies of dead climbers. In recent years we have seen photographs of long queues at the summit, of climbers succumbing in the “death zone” (above 8000m). We’ve heard of stories of guides having to make compromised decisions, based on the pressure of financial rewards, and not suitable small weather windows, to get their clients to the top.
I watched an incredible documentary a few years ago, called 180 Degrees South. It is a story of Jeff Johnson, a nomadic traveller. He retraces a 1968 South American trip made by Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins. Little did I know at the time that Yvon and Doug were the respective founders of Patagonia and The North Face. But what I did know is that I loved their message, “The goal of climbing big dangerous mountains, should be to attain some form of spiritual and personal growth, but this won’t happen if you compromise away the entire process”.
I think often about the humble Beekeeper from New Zealand, with his Sherpa friend Tenzing Norgay. In 1953 Ed Hillary and Tenzing made the first ascent of Everest. Hillary was often questioned about why there is no photo of himself on the summit. His reply is simple, and truthful “Tenzing did not know how to use the camera”. It’s a far cry from today’s selfie-obsessed world …
I’ve been very fortunate to stand on top of Africa’s highest peak, and the highest freestanding mountain in the world, Kilimanjaro. It is beautiful, humbling and truly magnificent. But being on top of the highest, or biggest, or most beautiful, or most dangerous mountain is not why I love being up here. I love being up in the Northern Drakensberg because I feel closer to the gods. I feel closer to my mum who passed away a little over 2 years ago. I feel a spiritual energy that you do not feel down below.
I certainly have absolutely no desire anymore to summit Everest. I’m far happier trail running and walking in the Northern Drakensberg.
I’ll end off with this lovely quote from Rene Daumal –
“You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen.”
