A friend gave me some old issues of Outside magazine to read, and hidden between the advertisements I found a few entertaining articles. In particular, the September 2006 number contains a fine essay by Mark Jenkins titled "Infinite Sorrow" about Sue Nott and Karen McNeill, mountaineers who vanished during a difficult climb of Mt. Foraker in Alaska. McNeill was an ice-climbing instructor at an all-women school in Colorado called "Chicks with Picks". My eye for lists was caught by:
... According to cofounder Kim Reynolds, a close friend of both women, McNeill had three rules: "First, you could never say you're sorry while climbing," recalls Reynolds. "Second, as Karen lowered you off a climb, she would stop and hold you one foot off the ground until you said, 'I am a goddess.' Third, after you got off the climb, you always had to state one thing you did well."
Roger on the first rule; I try to enforce a similar "I'm sorry" prohibition during long tough runs with friends, though usually without success. (I'm a frequent offender myself.) The third rule is an excellent one: it's always wise to look back and learn from challenging experiences.
But the "goddess" schtick? Alas, it reminds me too much of a scene in the excellent movie Almost Famous where Billy Crudup's severely-stoned character proclaims "I am a golden god!" before jumping off the roof of a house into a swimming pool ...
(cf. CheckYourMirrors (17 Sep 1999), ConflictAversion (22 Feb 2000), BigLessons (17 Feb 2001), ...)
TopicHumor - TopicRecreation - 2007-12-06
(correlates: LookingBack, MacDurk, Running to Stand Still, ...)