Diamonds + Coals - Mount Everest

Somewhere along the way, I became utterly fascinated with Mount Everest.  I think it was after reading Jon Krakauer's book Into Thin Air, about the ill-fated 1996 expeditions to the top of the world.  At the time, Josh and I were hiking a lot, and he loved to climb to the top of every peak along the way.  While I was reading the book, he mentioned that he wanted to climb Everest, and that might have been the scariest thing he's ever said.  Climbing Everest isn't like hiking in the Appalachian Mountains (we were living on the east coast at the time.).  It's got glaciers and crevices and hurricane-force winds and sub-zero temperatures and no hospitals nearby.

It's dangerous, for sure, and I started to wonder what it was that drove all of these people to climb the mountain, particularly in the early days.  I read about George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, who attempted to reach the top in the 1920s with some fairly pitiful gear, by today's standards, and was amazed at how far they made it (it's still unclear whether they reached the summit-- they died on the mountain during their final attempt.).  Then there were Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who were the first people to officially set foot on the summit in 1953, and their climb.  What fascinates me is the determination and calling to the mountain that these early climbers felt.  George Mallory participated in three expeditions in the 1920s, trying to make it to the top, despite his wife begging him not to go on the last one.  It was as if he was enchanted by the mountain and simply had to go back into the unknown, and others certainly felt this way as well.  Fascinating.

So, after all that, this week's diamonds go to...
- Netflix.  They have a plethora of documentaries about Mount Everest for me to listen to while processing photos and to get my Everest and exploration fix.
- Lewis and Clark.  Another amazing expedition that has, in a roundabout way, inspired us to bicycle across the country someday.

And, of course, coals to...
- Our internet connection.  It's really hard to watch the above documentaries when the connection is constantly buffering.  What's up with that?

Have a wonderful weekend!