Making a Molehill Out of a Mountain

Once upon a time there was an unattainable goal. It was generous in its gifts: dreams, stories, rich metaphors and symbols.

The summit ridge of Everest in this May’s weather window

The summit ridge of Everest in this May’s weather window

Gerard Manley Hopkins was a great poet of the wild places. The pictures from Everest this year remind me of his lines:

“And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

and wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil

is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.”

On the uppermost ice field before the last rock climb to the summit of Everest

On the uppermost ice field before the last rock climb to the summit of Everest

Attainment is for the financially wealthy, on the backs of the indigenous, under-rewarded sherpas. Ha! One more universal metaphor bequeathed by the mountain!

Ted x