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Danger is my middle name By Dr Jaap Bos, Honourscoördinator Interdiscplinary Social Science For years now I have this longing to climb Mount Everest. I’ve watched tons of clips on YouTube of people reaching the summit. I know the route by heart. Base camps, Lhotse face, north face, South Col, the ‘death zone’, I dream of them. I awe at people preparing themselves. I listen to stories of people who survived the impossible conditions up there (at 8.000+ m. and almost no oxygen your body destroys itself). I want to be one of them. Ridiculous! I’m 56 years of age, I like hiking in the mountains but I have no mountaineering experience whatsoever. None. What the hell am I thinking? Well, I’m realistic. Of course I don’t have the money for it (somewhere between $ 60.000 – 100.000), and I never will. Also, I am fully aware that it is extremely dangerous. The Everest is littered with over 200 bodies of people who didn’t make it back. It’s every man for himself up there, you die you die, no one’s going to help you. On the way up, so I know from my literature and clip watching, you pass all those dead people. They serve as landmarks (‘green boots’, ‘sleeping beauty’). I don’t even think it’ll be much fun. I know that the actual climbing must take place when the weather conditions are somewhat tolerable, and in those few short weeks there are hundreds and hundreds of people, all dressed in ugly bright colors, having their go at it. I’ve seen photos of cues on Mt Everest, people literally having to wait at their turn. Seems terrible to me. What I like in the mountains is the solitude. I don’t particularly 8
appreciate crowds. I know doing the Everest would be awful, just plain awful, and should I get the money and the gear together, I would most likely be killed before I even reach camp 1, at 6100 m. But all this doesn’t curb my longing at all. What is it with dangers that attract us? (I assume everyone has his own Mt Everest.) The adrenaline? Something just your body wants, because clearly the mind knows better? Or is it an unconscious death wish? Some morbid phantasy that you want and not want at the same time? Who knows. Or maybe it’s the opposite. You hear that too. People get up there, do stupid things just to feel alive. Like when teenagers do crazy things, not even half realizing how dangerous it is, just for kicks. I don’t know the answer. I just know that I’ll never get to the summit of Mount Everest. I’ll never even get close. So I’ve lowered my bar. I have seen clips of people climbing Crib Gogh in Wales. It’s only 1000 m. high, you don’t need ropes, you don’t need mountaineering experience, you can get there in day, do it in a day, and be back the next. It’s full of people too. There’re cues on Crib Gogh. And what’s more, it’s almost equally dangerous as the Everest. The thing is ridiculously steep, the path on the ridge ludicrously small, it’s slippery, it’s always raining, the wind blows you off of the edge. You get fear of heights just by looking at a clip of people walking it! Every year, some five people fall to their deaths. So, if you read about a UU teacher who has fallen from a mountain in Wales one of these days, know that I have found the answers to our questions.