Welcome, May!

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The past few weeks have been stressful. Training new employees, dealing with difficult customers, not sleeping well, not exercising (I’ve gained 20 pounds in the last two years), getting through family drama (two life-threatening events in the same day, 2000 miles apart: my dad’s heart attack in NM and a 9 year grandchild starting the rest of his life with Type 1 Diabetes) . . .  My CrossFit lifestyle withered into oblivion when I lost my job at the University in 2020, as Covid got going. Deep depression brought me to a standstill as I took a few months to try to reset. Since then, my physical status has been on steady decline. Now my daily schedule looks something like this: Work 3-11 pm (on a good day), Go to bed at 4 am, get up between 10:30 am and noon, get booted up and go back to work. If I get one day off a week I’m fortunate. At least I don’t have to work all night for now. That was the worst.  So I haven’t had time or energy to do much, even read, much less write. And since my

Today I Am Reading . . .

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Ever wonder why men climb mountains?  One may ask but will never understand the answer until one walks out the front door. One is not required to scale a vertical face or endure any measure of harsh condition. But to go a distance, to step up a slope, to drop down into a valley, to chase an elusive peak that, no matter how close one gets, seems to retreat from being touched--an experience will answer the question. This is what Krakauer does. He does not answer the question as to why a "normal person" climbs a mountain, but he does show the reader--from a safe distance.

The Eiger's North Face
Alps
The book takes it's title from The Eiger ("The Ogre"), a 13,000 foot peak in the Swiss Alps. The "Morwand" (The Murderous Wall) is the northern wall (The "Norwand"), a 6,000 foot sheer face of rock and ice that has claimed the lives of more than sixty climbers since the first recorded ascent in the 1930's. Krakauer not only guides the reader up grandeur such as The Eiger, Denali, K2, Devil's Thumb "and leads us back safely" (as one reviewer described) but he also introduces us to the brave climbers who have done the same.

Devil's Thumb
Alaska
Having climbed a few slopes, forged a few streams, made a few passes and topped a few peaks in Colorado, New Mexico and North Carolina, this book feeds my appetite to get outside again, hike, climb, thirst, get hungry, get wet, cold, hot--to stand at the top with the feeling of accomplishment! Guess you have to be there. This book only feeds the fire.

It's been a while, but I'm sure Mt. Mitchell has grown a couple inches since I was last there . . .

Krakauer, Jon. Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains.  Krakauer: Lyons & Burford, 1990. 

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