The Benefits of Picking Big Challenges

Packing for the challenge ahead

Planet Earth has fourteen peaks higher than 8,000 meters (about 26,000 feet). Being the tallest at 8,848m (29,035 ft), Everest is the most well known of the bunch.

In twelve hours, I, my six teammates, our leader, Greg, and our team of five strong Sherpas will set off from Kathmandu to climb the sixth highest peak in the world, Cho Oyu at 8,201 m (26,906 ft). I have been dreaming of climbing the world’s highest peaks since about age 14 when I began reading mountaineering expedition books back in 1976 (I’ll spare you the math, I am 46 years old right now).

After so many years of living, dreaming, and training, I am about to attempt an 8,000 meter peak. So what does it take to get ready for something like this? It is different for everyone I think, but here are some quick glimpses of what it took me to get here:

• 27 years of climbing experience;
• thousands of field days, hundreds of mountains, about eighteen other high altitude peaks;
• a decade of dreaming, a year of planning, six months of training, weeks of packing;
• and one scary day to say out loud “I am going on this trip.”

Training included rock climbing in summer, ice climbing in winter, and snow climbing to 14,000 feet in every kind of nasty weather. I lifted weights, ran hills, and carried heavy packs up more trails than I can count. My climbing buddies and I practiced first aid, rescue techniques and avalanche skills.

I am fortunate to have received precious gifts in the forms of support from my wife, patience from my kids, and shared knowledge from my dedicated partners. Though I sometimes struggled, I worked on my strength, my skills, and my self. The last one is key.

I strongly believe that the biggest benefit of taking on a challenging task, is not necessarily completing that task, but rather it is that the challenge will make you into a better version of yourself. To reach your goal you must sacrifice, study and train. You must fight lethargy, sloth and stagnation.

As I stand in here in Kathmandu, re-packing an explosion of climbing gear, and holding an oxygen bottle like the ones that will help us hang on when we reach the very limits of our capabilities, I ponder what I can say to encourage you upward on your chosen track.

Sorry, but I cannot wish you an easy journey. An easy trip might be pleasant, but I suspect it would not teach you much.

Instead I hope that you pick a mountain of a goal that is so steep, it forces you to become more. I hope the goal is high enough to make you nervous. And I hope that you work long enough to make the top.

Climb on.