The MountainWorld™ Blog

Inspiring thoughts for a Monday...

I always like to begin my week with some inspirational thoughts, quotes, passages. Mondays are notoriously difficult as we return from the weekend bliss to piles of paperwork and the grind of daily business. I find some inspirational words can help me see the bright side of a difficult situation and make the most of it.

Several weeks ago, I keynoted for the Million Dollar Round Table agent meeting for Max New York Life. Before my talk to 200 top producers for one of India's largest life insurance companies, Eric Campbell, Executive Vice President for New York Life International, gave a great presentation on the power of our thoughts and words. At the end, he urged everyone in the room to embrace success and prosperity by beginning each day with the following declarations:

I declare that I am blessed:

• with wisdom and have a clear direction for my life.
• with creativity, with courage, with ability, and with abundance.
• with a strong will and with self-control and discipline.
• with a great family, good friends, good health, and with favor and fulfillment.
• with success and promotion.
• with a positive outlook on life.
• in the city, in the country, when I come in and when I go out.
• I declare that everything I put my hands to do will prosper and succeed.
• I declare that I am blessed.

Great words to start our day!

I recently spoke to a group from Optimist International, a non-profit service group which, by their mission statement, brings out the best in kids by providing hope and a positive vision. The Optimists have a daily creed not unlike Eric Campbell's above:

Promise Yourself:

• To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
• To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
• To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
• To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
• To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
• To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
• To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
• To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
• To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
• To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

Again, great, inspiring, empowering words to begin our day, our week.

How do you start your day?

Do you have positive, inspiring words that echo through your head and keep you buoyed when times get tough and the path ahead is steep?

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Fundraiser for Michael Reardon's familt

Last week I wrote about the sad passing of famed climber Michael Reardon. The Adventurist has written quite a bit about the life and times and tragic death of Michael, and many readers have submitted comments as well. Stop by to learn more about the man and his career.

Tomorrow night (Thursday, July 26th), a special fundraiser will be held at The Spot climbing gym in Boulder, Colorado, for Michael's family. If you are in the area, drop by and show your support.

Thanks to the Adventurist for making this known.

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Everest Rocks!

A few weeks ago, I posted about the trek I will help lead and photograph this October - Everest Rocks!

The brainchild of leukemia survivors James Chippendale and Mike Peters of the Welsh rock band The Alarm, the Love Hope Strength Foundation was founded to develop an international network of cancer patients, support, information, and treatment. As their mission statement online states:

Everyone will be touched by cancer in their lifetime. Its a global problem in need of a global solution.

The Love Hope Strength Foundation (LHSF) is an international charity with chapters in the US, UK and Australia. Founded by leukemia survivors Mike Peters of the Welsh rock band the Alarm and President of CSI Entertainment James Chippendale with the goal that ALL people should have the same opportunities they did to overcome cancer; access to information, quality cancer treatment and the best medications available.

Cancer Center Support Network

The Love Hope Strength Foundation will be providing critical funding for cancer centers worldwide so that ALL people have access to quality treatment and given the best chance at survival.

Our first project is with The Nepal Cancer Relief Society. We will be helping the Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital build the infrastructure of its clinic by providing them with much needed equipment and funding. In a country where the Avg. annual income is $300 a year our support is going a long way to save lives NOW.

This will be our test market for future projects. With clinics all over the world desperate for equipment and funding the goal is to have LHS sponsored clinics all over the world providing treatment and saving thousands of lives.

Online Patient Support Network

Launching the first quarter of 2008 the online support network will provide filtered listing of informative websites so you can learn as much as possible about the challenge you are facing. This will include providing the, “Ten tools for triumph”, links to the leading doctors, treatments, hospitals, treatment centers, medications, holistic options, diet, exercise, meditation/prayer, clinical trials, books and support groups.

Quite a mission, but with the passion and drive of James Chippendale and Mike Peters - coupled with the collective voice of the music industry - they will be successful.

Below is a video of Mike and James talking about the Love Hope Strength Foundation, their commitment to helping people worldwide in their fight against cancer, and the Everest Rocks! project:

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

In Memoriam: Michael Reardon

Tragic news hit the climbing community yesterday when reports trickled in that famed solo climber Michael Reardon had been killed. Famous for his at-times audacious free-solos of hard climbs around the world (free soloists climb without ropes or safety equipment of any sort, preferring the pure style of climbing free), Michael had a law degree from Pepperdine and a family: his wife, Marci, and daughter, Nikki.

As a free-soloist, logic would say that Michael would most likely be killed climbing. But, strangely, that was not the case. He had just down-climbed the Fogher Cliffs in Ireland and, while he was celebrating his climb, a rogue wave crashed over him, pulling him out to sea.

It was a nonsensical tragedy, the quintessential "wrong place at the wrong time". Michael could not have anticipated nor done anything to prevent it.

I am often asked why I climb when I know there are dangers involved, constant risk of death and injury.
My answer? Life is dangerous. Risk is inherent in all we do in life.

We can no more avoid risk - the threat of injury, of death, of tragedy - than we can stop the sun from rising or the tide from coming in and going out again.

Certainly, I could minimize risk in my life by living a sheltered one, stopping those activities like climbing that have increased risk. But, to do that would be to stunt my passions in life, to silence the wellspring of my inspiration.

Would that protect me from risk, from tragedy, from death? Absolutely not. I could easily be hit and killed on the highway tomorrow. I would die not from climbing, but from circumstance.

Michael, I think, knew this. Climbing was his passion. He lived it, he breathed it and lived a full life because of it.

The Adventurist posted a quote from Michael today taken from an interview in CrimperMag.com:

JM. To conclude, if the unthinkable ever happened, what would you most like to be remembered for? (This needn’t be climbing related - I personally believe that the reason I was put on this planet is for my son Sam).

MR. Don’t shed a tear, raise a pint and laugh because I’m living hard and loving harder than anyone has a right to. Besides, the devil won’t have me and we know the old man upstairs isn’t opening the gates so I’ll still be around and giggling right along with you until we meet again.

I think we all can learn lessons from Michael's untimely death:

Life is an adventure.

Embrace it.

Live it with passion, zest, and vigor.

If your passions involve risk, don't shun them. Minimize the risk, learn to deal with it, and keep on living every day as if it were your last.

And, remember the words of Helen Keller:

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

My thoughts go out to Michael's family.

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Quote of the day...Sir John Hunt

As I rode my bike up to the summit of Mount Evans the other day in preparation for next weekend's Bob Cook Memorial Hillclimb race, I found myself thinking about why I climb, why to me each step is "not a means to an end, but a unique end in itself," as Robert Pirsig so eloquently put it.

Pushing myself harder - against the screaming of my quads, the burning of my lungs, the sweat dripping into and stinging my eyes - I would set micro-goals for myself:

• See if you can hold that pace to the next switchback.
• Don't give in to the pain for another 5 minutes!
• Focus inward; revel in the challenge, celebrate the small victories.

On a bike, on foot, and in life, we can all use the summit, the finish line, the end goal, as a driving force which sets the stage for the entire process of climbing, racing, achieving. But, while on the journey, we find the greatest joy derives from overcoming our hurdles - self-imposed, physical, and otherwise.

These are the lessons, the souvenirs of the trail we keep with us, treasure in our hearts, and which provide inspiration for the mountains and challenges to come.

Sir John Hunt, leader of the 1953 Everest Expedition and author of The Ascent of Everest, put it quite well:

The true result of endeavour, whether on a mountain or in any context, may be found in its lasting effects rather than in the few moments during which a summit is trampled by mountain boots. The real measure is the success or fall of the climber to triumph, not over a lifeless mountain, but over himself: the true value of the enterprises lies in the example to others of human motivation and human contact.

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Interactive Panorama of Everest's Northeast Ridge!

Ever wonder what the famed Northeast Ridge of Mount Everest looks like close-up? Well, here's your chance to see it up close and personal!

Back in 2004 while I was climbing with my friends Dave Hahn, Tashi Sherpa, and Danuru Sherpa, I took a sunset panorama of the Northeast Ridge from Camp VI (27,300 feet) using my Nikon D100 camera. Later, in Photoshop, I stitched the images together creating a very high resolution panorama running from the First Step to the summit of Everest.

While I have shown this image to many people, the web is a difficult arena in which to show high-resolution images...and do so safely, without fear that they will be stolen or borrowed for other websites.

Well, with the latest Photoshop release, the Zoomify plugin comes to the rescue. With it, I was able to create an interactive version of my panorama where you can zoom in and out, up and down the Northeast Ridge and see in full detail the terrain of this amazing climb.

Click on the screenshot below to go to the Zoomify interactive panorama!

Enjoy!

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

More video from the Search for Andrew Irvine 2004

Each year I present the story of Mallory & Irvine to many audiences around the country. It is one of my favorite presentations to share, for I feel the story of Mallory, Irvine, and the pioneer climbers of the early Everest attempts (1921-1938) is an enthralling one which touches everyone's heart and imagination.

Often people ask me what the terrain is like on the upper mountain. My presentation, of course, features my photography from my four expeditions to the North Side of Everest. While still images have great power and convey a sense of place and drama, sometimes video images tell a different side of the story.

It was with this in mind - sharing more of the high Everest experience - that I posted a video on the search for Irvine in 2004 and my subsequent "discovery" of a mystery camp at the base of the First Step on the Northeast Ridge.

To give people more of a feel for the terrain we searched in 2004 and the overall look and feel of life above 27,000 feet on Everest's North Side, I put together another video. This footage was shot by my friend and climbing/searching companion on the 2004 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition, Dave Hahn. (If you don't know Dave, he is an amazing guy - 9 summits of Everest [yup, NINE!] and countless other peaks around the world. Read his astounding resume here.)

Anyway, the video takes you through one of our search days in 2004, from the start up in the climbers' gullies at the base of the Yellow Band to the traverse from the 1933 Camp VI and off the beaten track, onto the Norton Traverse from 1924, and finally back down via the Longland Traverse. Fun stuff!

Enjoy!

(If the video does not play, you can view it directly either on YouTube or on Google Video.)

Mountain musings and a thought for the 4th of July

On the Summit Stones & Adventure Musings blog - which is a great read and should be visited! - DSD wrote a great piece "Another Spirit within the Experience." In it, he relays a great quote by author Pat Ament on the spirit of adventure experiences.

Ament's thoughts and DSD's comments made me think of the upcoming holiday, which many - at least many here in Colorado - will spend in the mountains, enjoying the beauty of the Rockies, escaping the heatwave we've been enduring on the Front Range, and perhaps taking in a little adventure to go with the fireworks.

To that end, I thought I would share with you a passage from Eric Shipton, one of the greatest adventurers of all time in my opinion. This particular passage comes from Shipton's book, Upon That Mountain, and is one which begs us all to discover the passion in our lives, the spirit of adventure that calls us to our own, individual Everests:

He is lucky who, in the full tide of life, has experienced a measure of the active environment that he most desires. In these days of upheaval and violent change, when the basic values of today are the vain and shattered dreams of tomorrow, there is much to be said for a philosophy which aims at living a full life while the opportunity offers. There are few treasures of more lasting worth than the experience of a way of life that in itself is wholly satisfying. Such, after all, are the only possessions of which no fate, no cosmic catastrophe can deprive us; nothing can alter the fact if for one moment in eternity we have really lived.

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.