A Highly Organized Structure

Note: This post is from April 21, a technical problem prevented me from posting it earlier – Nick

From Leonora:

Well, they say a mountain doesn’t make character, it reveals it. Never a truer word could be said of Mitch. There he is sitting in a tent with winds tearing past at 80 miles per hour, and how does Mitch pass his time in between his forages into the snowy desolation? He builds himself a patio. Yes, indeed, he has taken some large flat rocks and fashioned an area amid the snowy wasteland where he can go meditate from time to time. This little pied-à-terre not only has a patio, it also has a foyer. In fact, a part of me is feeling like Mitch is in actual fact, nesting. He described his tent to me as being a highly organized structure where everything has a place and everything is always in its place. Saying this to a woman who has four children, where the idea of putting something down in a spot and finding it in the exact same spot ten minutes later continues to be somewhat of an enigma. I marvel at the order of his mind.

Have you ever gone camping? In a two man tent? I’m not talking about car-camping, where you bring everything but the kitchen sink and if its not up to par you book into a nearby hotel and call it quits, no, I mean back-packing in Yosemite, or Lassen. There is no room for anything, it’s the antithesis of comfort, and even though I am as much of an outdoor girl as the next, the best part of camping and climbing isn’t the summit, it’s the first shower and a sleep in a good bed afterward. Normal necessities become a luxury and you swear you’d never take a toilet for granted again – not our Mitch. I can imagine how Snow White must have felt at coming upon the tiny perfection of the cave of the seven dwarfs. There he is, with his sleeping bag carefully placed on the left, a rug that he has secured from some tiny village on the way up placed carefully down the center, shoes and boots lined up along the far wall and finally, the pièce de résistance: a library with his one book, broken kindle, laptop, cameras and the precious Satellite Phone – a true tribute to the Silicon Valley home he has just left. So when I am speaking to Mitch on our calls, instead of envisioning him on his way into the Death Zone, I close my eyes and see him like Ernest Hemingway surrounded by his luxuries in the Green Hills of Africa… it’s easier that way.

And a note from Mitch from April 27th:

“In Camp two, half way up to camp 3, @22,000ft before Lhotse face, bad storm, had to turn around. Rest day today. Tomorrow morning back up to camp 3, 3,000 foot climb in one day. Really tough climb. 2 nights there on 3, back to camp 2 then down to base camp May first, rest then summit… Happy Birthday Jeremy!”