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tains of India recharges the batteries, leaving you better prepared for any challenge the urban jungles of New York, London, Paris or Berlin might throw at you. This course of therapy is not entirely free of risk. I have lost more
CLIMB UNTIL I DROP Oswald Oelz l Around the world
I still live a pretty in-
than 25 friends over the years. These are people with whom I have
tense life and have no
climbed on the same rope as, in whose company I’ve been privi-
intention of dying any
leged to appreciate that life is a beautiful gift. They have been buried
time soon. I plan to climb for at least another 20 years; in fact, I in-
by avalanches, have disappeared, fallen or died from high altitude
tend to climb until I drop. I have enough potential destinations to
cerebral edema. They have journeyed on ahead to another place.
last me the next two hundred years. It’s going to happen some day
Whether all these things were a price worth paying remains a mys-
though; I’ve noticed that the obituaries in the papers are often about
tery to me.
my generation. I have never been slow to grasp an opportunity, but
The Grim Reaper has had me in his sights and only narrowly
at the end of the day, I’m going to have to leave a long list of unfin-
missed me on more than one occasion. Close shaves involving
ished projects behind.
falling rocks, avalanches, and pulmonary edema or breaking bolts
Climbing the pocketed cliffs of Oman, snow bivouacs in Lunana
have made me appreciate my life in a more conscious manner. We
in northwestern Bhutan and sheep-shearing and trekking in the
climb to experience intensity, not because we have a death wish.
Dolpa region of Nepal have all helped provide a real contrast to my
“The secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness
career in medicine as the director of a hospital. For me, climbing
and the greatest enjoyment is: to live dangerously! Build your cities
has always been a complementary archaic lifestyle that has served
on the slopes of Vesuvius!” said Friedrich Nietzsche, the German
to counterbalance the over-regulated plastic world that we live
philosopher. In my opinion, mountaineering is a wonderful alterna-
in. Life affords us comfort, a high standard of living, a more than
tive.
doubled life expectancy, as well as allergies, cancer-inducing che-
The reason why we do these things is perhaps rather different
micals and obesity. We have destroyed the natural rhythms of the
than we would think. Take, for example, Diego Wellig’s answer when
world, our nights are constantly illuminated, and we are not sup-
asked why he wanted to climb 8,000 meter mountains. “Because
posed to experience rain, cold or storms. There are no bears and no woolly mammoths left to threaten us. Food is now abundant and no longer has to be hunted or cultivated. Diesel and aviation gasoline save us from walking, layers of concrete, metal and other materials seal us off from the world outside. Electrical cables and radio networks transport billions of banalities across the globe on a daily basis. Everybody sends text messages, but only a few people seem to be actually able to talk. All this is forced into an ever tighter corset of regulation; safety regulations have become the new terrorist networks. I am no longer supposed to consume the brains of my own lambs and in the near future, it will be illegal to leave offal to the foxes. Virtual worlds, safety standards, regulations and heteronomy make life more comfort-
there are no 9,000 meter mountains.” The same applies to George
able and also serve to fill the practices and pockets of the psy-
Leigh Mallory, who told a journalist in 1924 that he wanted to climb
choindustry. The primeval world in which we developed was a very
Everest “because it’s there.” Both of these answers express how
different sort of place. Like our ancestors, we were mainly occupied
futile and unanswerable the question is.
with finding food, keeping warm and fighting over women. If a bear spotted you, you had to either flee or turn and fight.
I continue to enjoy each day I get to climb; feeling for a hold, the sun beating down on the back of my neck, the rising thirst and the
Climbing involves returning to the conditions experienced during
soaking snow. I feel that my own experiences on the Jabal Misht in
the millions of years of human evolution. It is essential to find a safe
Oman, the Cholatse in Khumbu, the Heiligkreuzkofel in South Tyrol
place to bivouac, to build a fire to melt snow, to be able to cook
and the Triemli Hospital in Zurich are best summed up by the Swiss
potatoes with parmesan and to have sharp weapons (crampons).
playwright and novelist Max Frisch in his own inimitable manner in
This is where the regenerative potential of wilderness experiences
“An Answer from the Silence” (1937), where he writes: “Why don’t
lies. Climbing in unknown regions makes flashmobs, the taxman or
we live when we know we’re here just this one time, just one single,
the size of your automobile irrelevant. Trekking in the high moun-
unrepeatable time in this unutterably magnificent world!”
“You don’t climb a difficult and poorly protected route because you want to die; on the contrary, you do it because you want to live life more intensely.” 88
Oswald Oelz