It is finally happening and I am on my way to Nepal. Jill dropped me at Logan airport last night and I flew 12 hours to Doha, where I am currently ensconced in an elegant transfer lounge awaiting my flight to Kathmandu. A neat feeling of transition: three years of hard training and preparation behind me, the entire Everest expedition ahead of me, and a chance to reflect on what brought me here.
The final weeks passed in a blur. Despite carefully allowing for all that needed to get done before heading off for two months, the amount of details still surprised me. And I kept training hard right up to the end.
A week ago today, I did a final hike in the White Mountains with Will. It was something we have both long wanted to do: a traverse of the Presidential Range in winter conditions. Among dedicated hikers and mountaineers, the traverse is well known and respected. It covers 19 miles, 14 of them above treeline, crosses 7 of the highest summits in the Northeast, and climbs almost 9,000 vertical feet. Many people do it over two or three days. Some try to do it one day. And some try to do it in one day in winter, which is what we did.
We started hiking at 4:00am. By sunrise, we were on the summit of Mount Madison. The sky was totally clear and the winds were minimal. It just doesn’t get any better up there. We spent the day high on ridge lines and summits, with jaw dropping views in all directions, and finished around 6:00pm. It was wonderful to descend the final ridge, emerge from the woods, and find Jill waiting for us at the trailhead with the car. She had been tracking our progress on our satellite beacon.
In many ways, this day was all that I cherish in the mountains: exhilarating beauty, physical challenge, spiritual connection with nature, and the reward of shared experience.
Here is a photo of Will about a quarter of the way into it.
All the Everest prep I have been doing would have been worth it if the only thing it did was get me in shape for last Monday.
So, why Everest?
George Mallory provided the definitive answer in 1923, in three words. I started dreaming of it over 50 years ago. My father owned an outdoor sports store, staffed with avid climbers and full of mountaineering books. I spent long hours sitting on the store floor, reading accounts of the great climbing expeditions of the 1960’s and 1970’s.
On the wall in my bedroom growing up was a poster. I wrote about it last spring when my original Everest climb was cancelled. Those of you who read about it then should feel free to skip ahead several paragraphs. For those of you who didn’t, here is a photo of the poster again. Its title was “Everest: The West Ridge”.
The small figures at the bottom of the photo are Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, two American climbers who made history in 1963 with their epic first ascent of the west ridge. That is the ridge towering above them: 9,000 vertical feet of technically challenging terrain, at extreme altitude, that no one had ever set foot on. Hornbein and Unsoeld ascended the ridge, traversed the summit, miraculously survived a night bivouacked high on the mountain, and descended the southeast ridge safely the following morning, (ultimately with a few less toes).
As striking to me as the photo was the quote at the bottom of the poster, a paraphrase of Goethe attributed to Scottish mountaineer W.H. Murray :
“WHATEVER YOU CAN DO, OR DREAM YOU CAN, BEGIN IT. BOLDNESS HAS GENIUS, POWER, AND MAGIC IN IT”
The combination of that photo and quote stuck with me; one of those childhood impressions that shape how you approach the adult world. It still does.
Willi Unsoeld, one of the climbers in the photo, found in climbing an intense blend of physical and spiritual satisfaction. A couple of great biographies have been written about him. He was also a friend of my father’s. The first time I went climbing, in the early 1970’s at Den Rock in Andover MA, Willi was at the top of the rope.
And here is another poster that lodged in my consciousness. It was on the dorm room wall of several friends back in college. I loved both the photograph and also what the title connoted: “top of the world”!
In our first year of marriage in 1990, Jill and I spent several weeks trekking in the Everest region. I climbed alone up to the location where the poster photo was taken, as I’ll bet a number of people reading this blog have also done. My walk back down the valley to rejoin Jill was one of the most intensely memorable hikes of my life: walking alone through clear January air, surrounded by all that beauty.
When we got back to Kathmandu, Jill bought me a copy of the very same “top of the world” poster as a present, and it has been on the wall of our master bathroom ever since. On a daily basis for the last thirty years, I have looked at it and wondered “am I ever going to climb to to the top of the world, or am I going to spend my whole life just wondering what it would have been like?” By the way, Everest base camp is located on the far left side of the photo. I will be walking back up that valley in a couple of weeks.
How my thinking on Everest has evolved
Sitting on the floor of my Dad’s shop reading climbing books as a ten year old, the Willi Unsoelds of the world were super heroes, and the only people who set foot on Everest and the other Himalayan giants were the climbing elite. Regular people lacked both the climbing pedigree and political connections to get on expeditions, and climbing permits were rare and coveted items. Physical features on Everest like the Khumbu Icefall, Lhotse Face, Geneva Spur, The Balcony, and Hilary Step were like features on the moon; something you could read about and picture in your mind, but that you would never actually set foot on.
In the late 1980’s, in a trend well covered by Jon Krakauer in “Into Thin Air”, the advent of commercial guiding began opening up the Himalayan peaks to regular people. Shortly after climbing Denali with three close friends in 1992, I remember realizing that “wow, there actually are Everest expeditions out there that I could get on!” I was very close to going on one of those expeditions in 1995, (the year before the “Into Thin Air” events), until another close friend explained how stupid it was for someone at my life stage, with two young children at the time, to take that kind of risk. He was right, and I backed out.
I got busy with a business career and being a father, and climbing faded into the background. I climbed a few things, but Everest wasn’t on my radar screen, especially with the mountain attracting more and more people as the commercial climbing industry continued to grow. My mindset evolved to: “Everest was a dream in its time, but it has gotten to a place that the experience wouldn’t be what I have long been picturing. And, while I am at peace with a lot of the risks one takes on the mountain, I REALLY don’t want to die stuck in a bottleneck of climbers at the Hilary Step. If I want to climb a big Himalayan peak, there are plenty of other candidates.”
This was my mindset right up to a few years ago, when I started to do more climbing again. I talked with lots of guides who know Everest intimately, and they uniformly said the same thing: Everest remains magical, and the image created in the press of overcrowding and overuse – while having a basis in reality – is a long ways from the full picture. For many of the climbers and guides I spoke with, Everest remains their favorite overall climbing experience.
So my thinking about Everest evolved yet again, to something like: “It isn’t the experience that Willi Unsoeld had, but it still is Everest. Screw all the negative press, and the fact that elements of it have changed with time. There is still something magical about following in the footsteps of all those expeditions I read about in my youth , and something magical in pursuing long held dreams.”
That is some of what has gotten to me to this point. I am mindful of the realities of the modern Everest, both negative and positive, and am simultaneously thrilled and grateful to be doing this. The whole thing strikes deep emotional chords.
My flight to Kathmandu boards shortly. Here I come!
WOW.
Holding back a tear for you brother. Go Go Go.
Thanks for sharing. Truly look forward to the blog, always fun to read your thoughts.
Beautiful description of a life-long dream. . . Among the many books you’ve read, did you ever come across Mount Analogue by Rene Daumal. In the introduction to that novel, he gives an interesting answer to the question of What’s the point? He says: Only this: what is above knows what is below, what is below does not know what is above. While climbing, take note of all the difficulties along your path. During the descent, you will no longer see them, but you will know that they are there if you have observed carefully. There is an art to finding your way in the lower regions by the memory of what you have seen when you were higher up. When you can no longer see, you can at least still know.
So not only does your Boldness have Genius, Power, and Magic in it, there may be Wisdom that comes when you return.
Just told my mom about your trip. She joins me in sending good wishes and love for your long awaited journey!
Safe journey. Wishing you success.
This is one miracle of nature that I will never experience in my lifetime. Amazing to be able to experience it vicariously through your steps.
Tom I am sort of jumping up and down inside saying “I know someone climbing Everest”. Having seen Everest at dawn on the bus to Kathmandu in 1972, it’s part of my landscape spirit. The Museum of Science had an exhibit years ago and it had Hillary’s climbing costume. It was sort of a tweed golfing outfit:). I was impressed that you are traveling with only 3 bags? Seems improbable.
And that you get to meet Tenzing Norgay’s likely relatives is incredible. I am so impressed with your preparation. Vicarious joy. Thank you.
Your traverse bon voyage is something you will both never forget. The clan here in Concord is cheering you on for the slightly bigger traverse you’re about to do.
Good luck, Tom!!!
Safe travels onward to the summit and return. Cannot wait for the blog posts to come
Thanks for the engaging post and re-counting the dream that formed at an early age from that iconic photo and quote. Cool that you never lost sight of it and have done your homework to make this a reality! The white mountain traverse with Will is epic in its own right. Good luck and keep the posts coming! P.S. I know that Doha airport station – kinda like the Star Wars lounge.
All the very best, Tom. It has been wonderful to follow your journey with these blogs becoming required reading. Looking forward to hearing your next update. We’re all behind you!
Tom, If I had known at the time you had been looking at those posters of Everest since childhood, I would have pushed you harder on those dryland workouts on Oak Hill. Thanks for keeping all of us informed of your progress. I hope you have good weather and no traffic jams.
Best wishes, Morty
Good luck Tom! Good thoughts and prayers are with you! Knock this one out of the park as well and look forward to hearing about your adventures when you return.
Peace and enjoy every freaking minute of your adventure!!!
It’s ok – greater than ok in fact. Thanks for last Saturday and Joline’s book about Willi. Been busy since Saturday and will try to keep it that way for a while. Dad
Tom. George and I are in awe. Be well, be safe and most of all have the adventure of a lifetime!
Allison
So incredibly exciting! I share the sentiments of the person who commented that they are living vicariously through you on this expedition!
And, oddly enough, maybe this is the perfect year to climb Everest. The Universe knows what it’s doing!
Sending big hugs to you, Cousin T!
I have to take slow deep breaths just to read this. I love reading this through your eyes. Safe journeys my friend!
Great read!
How cool you are living that WH Murray quote (to be borrowed!) 😉 WHATEVER YOU CAN DO, OR DREAM YOU CAN, BEGIN IT. BOLDNESS HAS GENIUS, POWER, AND MAGIC IN IT”.
Safe journey! All the best French! ✌️🙏
And Jill, I think you are awesome too …. wishing you and your kids ease of worry! 🌸
Thank you! I appreciate that.
Jill
Of course you made a very well informed and thoughtful decision to embark of this journey! Good luck Tom! I hope it surpasses your expectations. See you this summer on the golf course. I can’t wait to hear about it in person.
Thanks for taking the time to continue updating us all in your thoughts and detailed plans. There are many of us who will be thinking of you over the next two months wondering at what point you are in your Everest journey and then look forward to seeing you and hearing all about it in June.
In 2009, I spent three weeks in Nepal and had the pleasure of a small plane ride very close to Everest. Still creates a sense of awe when I think of that sight.
I’m looking forward to hiking with Jill.
Thanks, Tom, for letting us enjoy your mental journey from childhood to Nepal. You took me from “why” to “why not”, and I feel like now I understand what motivates the great mountaineers. All the best, be safe!
Very exciting Tom, love the history to the decision , Good luck
Beautifully written, as always! Can’t wait to hear the details on the back end! Stay safe and enjoy this long desired adventure.
Congrats on the Presidential Traverse and good luck with Everest. I look forward to seeing your photos; reading your updates and hearing your stories on the golf course this summer.
A wonderful prelude to what promises to be an epic quest…go with God, Mon Vieux, and know that you also go with all of us…
-ghc-
What a lead up Frenchy………..I’m sitting back for the next post, and so excited to join you in spirit as you go and achieve this life long goal. God speed, keep us posted on your journey, and get home safely!!!
This was a beautifully expressed piece. We are all rooting for you.
Might I suggest a Mishaum evening this summer where you can describe your outing in detail?
As you are always wont to say, “fair winds.”
Tom, happy adventures and stay safe! And please keep the updates coming. We really appreciate you taking the time to write. Lisa and Buddy (Buddy was a Nepal Peace Corps Volunteer 1982-84 by the way- still fluent in Nepali!)
Atta boy…we’re all vicariously living through your adventure, again! Safe travels, my friend! What a life experience, and one that the past year’s “challenges” will no doubt make even more memorable/meaningful.
Tom, you are the proud son of Alan French. And also the spiritual son of Willi Unsoeld. Godspeed. I will keep you in thoughts and prayers these next months. Godspeed. BM
By now you are in Katmandu climbing with only your mind and imagination.
In weeks you will be climbing with boots and thin air.
A lifetime journey from very young to now.
Climb well young man!
Though I trust this is not the last of your blogs, it feels like a perfect wrap up of your gap year/s of training. and now you are ready, with the “why” so well articulated. Now I understand.
We will await to hear about the view from “what is above…”
Tom – We will cheering for you. Love these blogs!!!
Excellent write-up and a great quote by W.H. Murray! I’ve already stolen it for my own purposes!
As always Tom – I have the utmost respect for your commitment and resiliency. This has been continuously underscored by the story you have portrayed to us throughout the past year, and that you keep on truckin’!
Excited for you to fulfill this amazing life long dream! Look forward to a much shorter walk together with a lighter “pack” on your back in Brookline when you return 🙂
Really appreciated reading this. Please continue to share, and good luck sir!