7 Summits

Attended a talk at our office today given by the first American woman to complete, in the shortest amount of time, the 7 highest summit of each continent.  I think – basically – she was an old school friend of someone in our office, so very random.  The invite said to expect the talk to be exhilarating – I was more there for curiosity, to see if she mentioned the overcrowding issues at Mount Everest that have made the news (she didn’t, though she was actually in one of those photos I’ve seen of the line of people waiting to summit), and maybe a slight bit of jealousy – since I am not and never will be a climber.  I tend to avoid hikes that involve more than 1000 (more realistically 500!) feet of elevation change, so I think my chances of climbing any of the Earth’s highest summits are slim (understatement!).  When I think of Mount Everest mountaineers, I think of boorish posh people with nothing better to do and nothing better to spend their money on – so was curious to see if she fitted the stereotype.  She didn’t – perhaps that is just a British thing!  But she clearly had money.  The cynic in me says this kind of achievement is just a whole bunch of time, effort and expense for a whole bunch of nothing.  But I am jealous that I don’t have many/any kind of comparable life experiences like that.  It’s not that I would do something as extreme as this – I found her nonchalance about how fit you have to be and how dangerous it was quite alarming and disconcerting – but nonetheless it definitely made me feel like I’m missing or have missed out on something in my life.  Something I’m sure I’ll dwell on.  In the meantime, I’ll have nightmares about the photos of frostbitten feet!