I�m afraid that there will be several more posts about Everest over the next couple of weeks because I�m just so damned captivated by it. I think that I might have figured out why though. While I was reading last night, I had to ask myself why anybody would put themselves through what the climbers of Everest do. Even successful bids for the Summit are highlighted by horrible illness, crippling financial loss, incompetent guides and always the chance of a less than painless death (I�ve come to learn that many people actually meet their maker on the way down). Some people who don�t make it the first time, in spite of everything I�ve mentioned above, GO BACK!

I mean come on�it is just a mountain. Something like that holds no appeal for me.

There�s absolutely no similarity in the brutal airsickness I�ve suffered through, the thousands of dollars I�d given to a flight school that cared more about getting my money than they did teaching me anything. Nothing even remotely the same about the humiliation of having to switch flight schools and start from scratch with over 100 hours logged and no license yet. No comparisons to the many things that can go wrong with a light aircraft in one of the busiest airspaces in Canada in some of the most volatile weather.

Yeah, obviously it�s those Everest people that have cornered the market on crazy.

Passion makes us stupid whether it�s about things or people. When a person gets something under their skin, it�s hard to let go. Life would be pretty boring without the things that drive us. I think I�m starting to understand why the Everest people do what they do. I can see the splendor in a 63-year-old women with no climbing experience who makes it to the top but dies on the way down, dangling from the end of her line. It may seem like a stupid waste but given the choice between that and a nursing home I�m pretty sure that I�d choose Everest.