Women and an Obsession

I attended a talk yesterday by Jennifer Jordan, who was showing her movie "The Women of K2" and promoting her new book. Well, I gotta tell you that it all left me inspired, motivated, awed and yes, a little bit scared.

Jennifer's movie and book are about the first five women who summited K2 - Savage Summit. the world's most unforgiving mountain. It's frightening that three of the five women who made it to the top died on descent, while the other two lost their lives on other 8k meter peaks in the Himalyas. There is, however, one female K2 survivor - a sixth woman who made the summit recently. I found out she actually had to be carried off the mountain and would have died without the help. SCARY!

While their tragic endings do invoke a bit of fear in me, all I can say is that these women's lives are very inspirational at the same time. I aspire to climb some big mountains and seeing that women can make it to the top gives me motivation. Hopefully I'll be able to learn from their lives and stories so that I don't share their fate, but I won't let the fear of dying stop me either. I know that I'll never be as good as some of the guys, but I like to believe that I'll be able to hold my own during future expeditions. I won't dare say that I'll ever try K2 or Everest, but I have my eye set on a few challenging summits out there.

Ever since I started climbing, I feel like my life has just begun - that I've seen so much more in the past couple of years than I had in all the previous years combined. I know I'm wide-eyed, young and inexperienced, but I think I'm level-headed enough to push it hard, yet take it easy enough to ensure that I have a long, adventurous road ahead of me...I hope...

In any case, it was very touching to see the interviews of the family members of those women who died. Listening to their parents, siblings, children, friends and lovers, it was nice to see that although they still grieve, they understand and accept the lifestyle of those women. I think Chantal Mauduit's brother put it best when he described his sister's passion for the mountains - that she was searching for something more out there and enjoying her life...that although she died in her early 30's, she experienced more than most people do in a hundred years. I think the picture of Chantal Mauduit (above) expresses this perfectly.

It's strange what climbing mountains does to a person - it's like an addiction. I relish the experiences, the challenges, the exhileration, the frustration, the joy, and even the pain...

Even if this sport becomes the death of me, at least I'll die happy, doing what I love!