Doug Buchanan on the other side

Feb 26, 2009 - 10:47am PT
There I was, mind you, and it was desperate indeed, albeit as usual.

It was in the dead of winter in the dark of night, lost amid crevasses on a glacier in the heart of the Alaska Range. The mountains towered above and the storm raged.

A lurking suspicion blew by, against the wind.

Exposed flesh freezes in seconds, you know.

To this very day I am not sure if we survived.

What? You already heard the account of that first assent?

That's the problem with the old stories. Just as well walk away from the computer and go live a new story. A walk through the alley is better than reading the truly unique story of the first assent of Mt. Deception in the Alaska Range, among the others.

No, not that Mt. Deception. There are more than one, of course.

Or something like that.

Doug

The standard introduction.......

Yooooo, for good grief sakes...

There we were, mind you, and it was desperate indeed, albeit as usual. It was in the dark of night, in the dead of winter, in the heart of the Alaska Range, lost somewhere on the glacier amid gaping crevasses, the mountains towered above, and the storm raged. Exposed flesh freezes in seconds, you know.

And if you are reading this, you aint no mountain climber. The only real mountain climber is climbing right now, by definition. Anyone else may have been a climber, and may want to be a climber, but is not a climber right now because he is not climbing right now. Well, do you accurately use words, and thus mean what you say? Meaning what you say is a valuable skill in the mountains, and all other places.

Now that we do not have to deal with the inflated ego of those sorts who think they are mountain climbers, we can chit-chat about the Alaskan Alpine Club, Alaska mountain climbing, and laugh ourselves to tears over the antics of these humans.

You can learn that lesson from the mountains. The mountains always deal with what is, rather than what people say. Do the same and you will do well, if you know what questions to ask to distinguish between what is said and what is.

Interested in climbing in Alaska?

Buy or download a topographical map of where you want to climb, go there, climb, and have entirely too much fun.

Need any of the standard mountaineering information that people think they need?

Check out all the standard web sites, books, clubs, stores and such places for standard climbing stuff.

Want some non-standard stuff about mountain climbing?

Imagine that. You have stumbled onto the right site. That is what this club and Alaska are about.

But there are only words and visual illusions at this web site, so the wiser person will hit the off-switch, grab the topo map, and head out the door.

The hardest part of every climb, is getting out of town.

Nothing on this web site or any other web site can assist you in actual climbing, the act of putting one foot in front of and above the other, and hanging on, until you get to the summit. But this web site might give your mind what no climbing organization leaders and government drones want you to have, some knowledge also offered by the mountains, that is, how to be free.

Herein is just knowledge, if you sufficiently question what you read, with real questions, and answer your questions.

The extent of the fun you will have in the mountains, where you may otherwise be miserable, working hard and in danger, is predicated on the extent of the questions you prior ask of your actions, and your answers. Otherwise stated: The knowledge your mind seeks and finds.

And from a mountain climbing club, did you want the rhetorical garbage that ego-craving, control-mentality club officers tell you, usually telling you that you have to do what the government dolts tell you to do, and ask no serious questions, or did you want the knowledge of concepts you learned from your own mind's questions and answers which need no organization leaders or their petty corrupting power? Notice the questions that organization and government leaders flee instead of answer. Ask those questions until you recognize the answers that prevail against all questions, to discover that organization and government leaders serve only themselves, at your cost. You do not need them.

If you are a mountain climber, you need only the mountains and your freedom.

You may do as you consider logical, as wisely done in the mountains, and you will define yourself.

Climb on...

Doug Buchanan
The club web page slave.