Climb Every Mountain

Wow, I never thought the day would come when I would write a blog about climbing mountains...

I grew up hearing about mountains all the time, and living in New Mexico there were a lot of them around. My dad had a tradition to take each of my brothers on trip to climb one of the different nearby mountains with just the two of them. That mountain then became 'their mountain.' When we were driving around they could look up with pride and point at the mountain that was claimed as their own. It was a really special experience for each of them and I know it made my dad happy. I never went on one of these mountain claiming trips. I think it was mostly because there was a forest fire that went through our town and a lot of the nearby mountains and hikes were closed for a while. Even with that barrier I am sure we could have found a time to do it if it was something that I really wanted to do. But it wasn't. My parents and brothers were all really excited and motivated about mountains but I just didn't get it...why would I want to go through all the pain and discouragement to reach the top to see a view that I could of just seen in a postcard or picture? It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the outdoors or physical activities, because I definitely did...but climbing mountains just wasn't for me.

Last weekend I went to the BYU Homecoming Spectacular show and the theme this year was "Reach for the Summit." The musical and artistic performances were all based around this theme. The narrator through the show was a mountain man that reminded me so much of my dad. His love of nature, passion for hiking, and obvious excitement about climbing mountains that he wants to share with everyone around him were completely my dad. When the mountain man broke into an inspirational song about climbing mountains the likeness was sealed. As the man tried to convince the group of boys of all the reasons that they should climb the mountain, I couldn't help but see my dad saying the same thing to me. To add to this uncanny resemblance between the mountain man and my dad, I know the person who designed the Homecoming logo and she told me that the hat that the mountain man is wearing in the logo was based off of my brother's hat...which is the same hat that my dad and all of my brothers have and all started with my dad...

So the show focused on Mount Timpanogas since that is the nearby mountain that is an exhausting hike, but apparently worth it. My dad wants so bad to be able to hike that mountain one day. As cliche as this may sound, by the time the show was over I had a huge urge to go hike Timp. It is too cold to do now, but it is now one of my goals for when it is warm enough.

I was thinking about this some more and about all of the mountains that I have climbed in my past. I have climbed Wheeler Peak (the highest mountain in New Mexico at 13, 161 feet) three times. The first time was when I was about 12 years old when I went with a group of 16 year old girls that my parents were going with:

Notice the hat...

The second time was when I was about 13 years old and I was going with my Young Women group as part of Girls Camp:

Me and my friend Britany

And the third time was when I was about 14 and we went with my whole family during the last summer of all of us together for a while:

See how they all have the hat :)

My appreciation and acceptance of mountains has really grown through the years and now I view them as more than just pure torture :). I have always been one who loves symbols and meaningful metaphors and I cannot deny that mountains are a very good metaphor for life. All three times that I hiked Wheeler Peak it was difficult and exhausting. There were those times when it was especially steep and I would take one step forward only to fall two steps back in the loose rocks and wanted so bad to give up and convince myself it wasn't worth it. There were people in my group that did give up and never reached the top. No one would have thought any less of me if I didn't make it all the way to the top. But I made it all three times. And the only person I was battling was myself. There is something truly satisfying about conquering the weak side of yourself, and climbing a mountain is definitely one way to do that.

I got the chance to climb Timp about halfway this summer. We left too late in the day to be able to get to the top, and honestly I was completely okay with that. But even just going halfway we got pretty high up and the view was breathtaking and, contrary to my previous beliefs, you cannot capture it in a picture:

I look forward to being able to one day reach the summit. Now, who would have thought I'd ever say that? :)