The Valleys and the Peaks

I watched a documentary this weekend called "14 Peaks". It's about a Nepali climber named Nims Purja who, along with his team, attempts to summit all of the 14 highest peaks (8,000 meters) in the world in seven months. Their dream was called "Project Possible" and it seemed impossible. They actually did 3 of the mountains (including Everest) in 48 hours. Insanity. For the last one, the Chinese government had blocked all access to it and the entire worldwide climbing community (and outside of it) got involved in petitioning the Chinese government to let him climb it. They finally got permission and the footage of the first part of that climb and the insane weather around made me think they were going to get that far only to have to give up. However... the subtitle of the movie is "Nothing is Impossible" and they certainly proved that.

Spoiler alert, they succeeded. And in just over six months time. 

I've always thought it was interesting how mountains are used as metaphors for two completely opposite things. They are used to describe the obstacles in our paths, the seemingly impossible, as they were in several of our praise and worship songs today, and they are also used to describe the peak experiences in life and the "valleys" are used to describe the hard times. 

I've watched a lot of climbing documentaries lately ("Free Solo", "The Alpinist", this one, "The Dawn Wall") and have started to follow some climbers on instagram. What I have realized is that most climbing deaths don't happen on the ascent or from the summit. They happen during the descent. I've read a little bit about why that might be, and I don't have a theory of my own because I'm not a climber (I just might be a little obsessed with it), but I think that the riskiest part of a climb being the descent fits in with those contradictory mountain metaphors mentioned above.

In all of the climbing documentaries I have watched, not a single climber being interviewed has ever one time said, "And that was my last mountain. I am officially finished." In fact, at the end of every interview and article, the journalist will ask, "So what's next?" and they always have an answer, even if they are evasive as to the details at that point in time. 

The descent of the mountains, the valleys between the mountains, they are all part of the process of moving toward the next mountain. 

If you want to see the metaphor of the mountain as the obstacle, that definitely works. When I watched Nims and his team approaching each of those 14 mountains and the camera panned up, I thought HOW ON THIS ENTIRE EARTH can they look up at that and think of reaching the top. 

You know how they did it every single time, usually while the camera was still panning? They started walking. Not even climbing at that point, just walking. And then the walking turned to climbing and the climbing turned to defying gravity and completing the impossible by summiting the peak.

Goal accomplished, right? They'll usually make some statement like that, take a pic of themselves giving a thumbs up, etc.. And I guess as far as the record books are concerned, they did it. But as far as the climber and his or her life is concerned, it's not finished until they are safely back down.

But then once they are down, all they want to think about and do is plan for the next trip up the next peak. The valley is the obstacle to get through in order to have another "peak experience". 

And on.

And on.

And on.

And I guess that's how this life rocks on too, huh? It's a series of valleys and peaks, and somehow the valleys and the peaks are both the obstacle and the high, the rest and the work, the grief and the joy.