Dear Tom (On Being There)

Dear Tom,

My dear friend and climbing instructor!  You were there when I showed up to the CMC to learn basic mountaineering skills, there when I could not get up Arapahoe Peak wearing my tennis shoes, there when I got my pony tail stuck in the belay device and needed assistance getting down, there when I needed a bowline on a coil to go pee pee on the Matron, there when I backed off the Bastille first pitch out of extreme fear, and most importantly....there when I called from Everest Base Camp 2006!

Over the last few days as I prepare for Makalu, I am reminded of all the support you provided in getting me ready to go to Everest years ago.  I have spent the last two days playing with the HotTronic boot heaters you researched and prepared for me when I was most worried about losing a toe from frostbite.  We learned about these little devices when Ellen Milller spoke at Outdoor Divas after her summit of Mount Everest.  These little battery operated heated foot pads, borrowed from the ski industry, are a reasonable insurance policy.  With an average weighted cost of approximately $100/per toe, they are worth their weight in gold.

In yesterday's test, I found they would stay warm for close to 8 hours on a low setting of 2.  We both know this is reduced to closer to 5-6 hours in the extreme cold temps of the high Himals.  I reflect on all the effort you endured in getting the company to send us some extension cords so that the batteries could be carried in my chest pockets vs. being attached to the back of my boot where they risk being knocked off and being exposed to the extreme cold temps.

The only challenge with this system is getting a good charge at BaseCamp and being scorned for being a Shi Shi climber in the 21st century.  How did Mallory and Irvine manage with leather boots?

Tom for all your care and concern, I appreciate you so much.  Thank you for being there.

Dear Dad (Why I Do It)

Dear Al,

It seems I am heading off to do another big peak in less than two weeks.  Every time I get close to going I get cold feet and I start asking myself why?  I go through the usual means of rationalization which include; mountains are beautiful and they lure me like a magnet, I want to see what my body is capable of doing, we were born to climb (out of our cribs, up trees), we all strive to go to high points (look at people that climb up in the Statute of Liberty, business people who want the top floor office), and the list goes on.  None of them seem to really answer my question.

I then back into....I have spent the last 16 years training for mountains and the real mountains are in Nepal and India.  Next comes, well I have a lot of expensive gear that I have collected over the years and I need to put it all to good use.  Followed by, I am not getting any younger and I can only do these big peaks for so long....and then it hits me!  I go back to that childhood day when you made me sit still for one minute.  You told me not to say a word while you timed it.  It seemed to last forever.  When it was over, you quietly and calmly told me that minute is gone for good.  I will never get it back.  You reminded me there was no money in the world that could retrieve it.

That was it!  That was the day that sent me spinning and living as though every day was my last.  I have never been able to shake it.  It seems to hold true as I am about to turn 50.  It still seems as though I am 21.  Where did all those years...all those minutes go? They are gone in a flash.  As I found myself between jobs, I decided this is the moment...this is the day....

You may have robbed me of one painful minute many years ago...but that little exercise have filled my life with many glorious moments that add up to life of which I am very proud.  You sent me running to and up Mount Everest in 2006 (as at the time, I felt it was now or never)  where I met my husband Brad.  As they say, there is a reason time is referred to as the present....it is because it is a gift.

Thank you!  I love you.

Photo:  Courtesy of Jamie McGuinness