I was watching a video about the 1996 Everest disaster and the narrator remarked that, when things go terribly wrong in high altitude climbing, is often the weaker, less experienced climbers who survive, while the stronger ones die.
I've been thinking about that ever since. High-altitude climbing involves spending extended periods in places that are hostile to human life. When you're in a place like that, your body will be constantly signalling that this is not OK, that you're going to die, that you need to get out. In order to successfully climb multiple high altitude peaks, you have to be able to feel those signals and push through anyway. If you do it often enough, you probably stop feeling them in the same way that a rookie would.
When you hear about these disasters, sudden changes in weather, unforeseen circumstances, who lives and who dies often depends on who keeps pushing on to get to the summit, and who gives up, turns around and gets to shelter. And my hunch is that, in a situation like that, the habit of pushing through despite desperate signals to stop becomes a lethal curse.
We are not living in the Death Zone, but we are often living in ways that push our body and mind past tolerable levels of stress, fatigue or other burdens, and if we do it long enough, we may not be able to tell when the burden is no longer just intolerable, but unsustainable.
We need to learn to listen to the signals. We need to learn when to stop, turn back, and find shelter.
