Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 29
SEARCHING FOR A HEART OF GOLD
Doug Scott believes there are only two reasons people get killed in the mountains:
either ambition gets the better of them, or they are unlucky. He thinks Joe Tasker
and Pete Boardman died when ambition got the better of them, while Alex was just
plain unlucky. Although I see Doug's point of view, I also think you need ex-
traordinary ambition to attempt big peaks in the Himalaya in the first place. This
is not an ordinary occupation; this is not your average sport. Alex was unlucky, but
his ambition pushed him to extremes.
A friend of mine, a design engineer of immense intelligence, a non-climber but
an adventurer by nature in his scientific thinking, put an intriguing question to
me: 'You say that climbing is mainly about having fun and having life-fulfilling ad-
ventures, but it seems to me that you leave on a trip with x members in your team
and you come back with y. Assuming y is less than x, what have you gained?'
I thought about it for a week and could not come up with a convincing answer. I
eventually emailed him to say: 'What we gain is a bit like dark matter. We know it
has to be there because we know the universe has mass and energy we cannot see
or measure, but we cannot say what it is. But the fact is, we keep on trying to de-
scribe it. That's why we write books, give lectures and make films. There is a sum
of experiences without which the universe would be ten per cent of what it is. This
applies to mountaineering in the same way it does to all experiences that express
our unique humanity.'
This topic took a long time to complete, in part because I could never be quite sure
if there was a story to tell. What does a book about an individual and his quest for
adventure add to the sum total? About eight years ago, I had a chance to reflect on
this after a nasty accident left me laid up in bed for half a year. I decided the topic
needed to be completed. I phoned Jean to tell her but she greeted me with sad
news.
'I've been diagnosed with terminal cancer, John. It would all be too upsetting for
me. There will be things about Alex you may want to say but I do not want to hear.
If you have to finish the topic do so when I'm gone.'
