Hi, everyone-
Once you reached the top, was it the right decision after all?
Climbing mountains was never part of my upbringing. We were surrounded by mountains, yes. But the formalized act of ‘climbing’ itself—packing your bags, shoving camping equipment in, bundling up, and spending thousands on the best outdoor equipment—wasn’t.
The elders were I grew up used to say that climbing any mountain is basically walking atop the ‘head’ of the gods.
Recently, my family and I wanted to climb one the peaks in Sumatra, Indonesia. And when we met the guy who was going to lead the way, without skipping a beat, he turned to me and asked:
Do you have your period right now?
Now that I live in America, this made me laugh. Seems rather inappropriate—was my initial ego-driven thought. I definitely don’t believe that female monthlies equals being dirty and unworthy. But the minute he asked that question, I remembered that non-scientific belief doesn’t necessarily mean it’s proven to be non-scientific. Or that it even means hocus-pocus backwardness.
If anything, it’s more a measure of acknowledgement.
It’s a sign that, they know that one thing is true. They know that if it wants to, nature can take back what they’ve owned all along. In one gust of wind. One flash of flood. And one slide of the land.
Just like that.
So basically: “Show some respect,” was the message I got.
This was also clear in the Rocky Mountain range of North America—which spans 2,252 miles (3,624 km) from northern Canada all the way north of Mexico. No one I knew in America believe that menstruation equals someone’s climb-worthiness. But around the Rockies and mountaineering communities, there’s an unmentioned understanding:
You can always tell the difference between real mountaineers and pretend-mountaineers.
Usually based on the degree of boastfulness.
As you can already tell: the real ones do not boast.
For them, boasting is like daring nature to test their might. To rip open whenever its stomach desires. And to eat them—and their thousand-dollar trophy gears—alive.
So it isn’t surprising when a young recent graduate, Hogan Warlock went up one of the Rocky Mountain peaks and shared:
“Insofar, my life had been a constant rush, an almost corporate lifestyle, never being able to slow down and truly feel the universe. This is a largely lost emotion in the developed world. The feeling of insignificance can truly put you in your place.”
“The uncaring nature for your presence must always remain in your mind and in your decision making.”
Decision making is supposed to get easier with age.
And it probably does given how discernment between what one cares about and what one doesn’t—clarifies. But in whether one should or shouldn’t climb a certain mountain, the answer to whether one made the right decision or not, usually simply lies in one blunt question:
Did you live, or did you die?
And perhaps any decision, regardless of the gravity—and lack thereof—should be approached with the same acknowledgement that the insignificant can turn significant.
Should I eat that cup of ice cream after that cookie? Or should I take just one bite of ice cream since I already had a cookie?
Should I keep going because I’ve spent all this money and time preparing for this climb? Or should I turn back even though we’re so close to the top, because the weather had turned unexpectedly unforgiving?
Should I keep doing what I’ve been doing for years because it’s comfortable? Or should I dedicate my life to an entirely different line of work so late in the game?
Decisions are nothing much when the stakes are low. Whenever consequences aren’t clearly measured. Which usually end up with an equally unclear outcome.
But perhaps clarity comes, when one starts to care about how any Rocky Mountain just might not care. About how it can rip a life. And about how it brings forth a matter of deeper importance:
Is this the life you want? Or not?
-Thalia
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-Thalia
Having just one week ago had to abandon a mountain climb due to physical limitation for the first time in my life, I identify with the points you're making here, Thalia! How do I know if i made the right decision? Because I'm still alive! And I learnt the need to listen to my body not my pride...
I have learned in my decision making to only ask one question. Can it be made to work? The rest will send you into the dark well of paralysis by analysis. There is no right or wrong decision.