Climbing Mountains

Mt. Everest, Chomolungma - Goddess Mother of the World, 1988
(Photo by P. L. Morningstar)

The thing about truly remarkable people is that they make no effort to impress you. That was the case in 1988 when I met Mo Anthoine at the British Expedition dining tent on Mount Everest. It is said that Mo Anthoine was probably one of the most well known British climbers to the climbing fraternity, and yet a complete unknown to the general public. I had never heard of him before my trip to Tibet. What I remember about him now is that his head was partially shaven. Three months earlier he had undergone brain surgery to remove a tumor. Now here he was at the 17,000-foot base camp, preparing for an ascent of Everest’s north ridge. When a friend was asked how advisable it was for someone who had just had brain surgery to be attempting to climb at these altitudes, he replied, “Better to die on a mountain doing something he loves than rot in a hospital bed.”

Base Camp at Rongbuk Glacier, Mt. Everest, 1988
(photo by P. L. Morningstar)

Mo Anthoine was the same age as myself. He was full of life and humor as we shared a dinner of soup and momos. He entertained us with stories about other climbers, yet never mentioned his role in saving the lives of Chris Bonington and Doug Scott on the Ogre (Pakistan) in 1977. Teamwork was more important to him than reaching a summit, and he never lost a team member. “No peak is worth a mate,” he would say. The 1988 Everest climb was his last. He died of cancer the following year at the age of fifty, planning yet another assault on the North Face.

Mo’s biography, written by his good friend and fellow climber A. Alvarez, was published that same year. It is called Feeding the Rat, an expression Mo used when trying to describe his obsession with climbing mountains. “Feeding the Rat is the story of an extraordinary man: climbing legend Mo Anthoine, who found his greatest joy in adventures that tested the limits of human endurance. That passion for "feeding the rat" made him the unsung hero of dozens of horrifying epics in the mountains, including the famous Ogre expedition that almost killed Doug Scott and Sir Chris Bonington. The book is also the story of the extraordinary friendship between Mo Anthoine and A. Alvarez — the distinguished poet, journalist, and critic — whose deeply moving portrait of his longtime climbing partner is a classic of adventure literature.” (Amazon.com)

Morningstar in Tibet, 1988

Sometimes climbing to a 10,800 foot mountaintop can take as much courage and willpower as a mountain climber’s assault on Mt. Everest. Our good friends Lee and Melanie have just done that. Though both have years of outdoors and hiking experience, each has experienced serious health issues this year... Lee is in his eighties and was experiencing a painful foot before leaving on their trip to Mexico. Melanie was still recuperating from a knee injury, and dealing with ongoing heart problems. But they made it up the mountain to see the more than 150 million Monarch butterflies from North America that winter in the Michoacan's El Rosario area of Mexico. Here is Melanie’s description of their climb.

We did take the four-day bus trip to Morelia and several other wonderful sites, including one whole day dedicated to the Butterfly Sanctuary at El Rosario. It would have been nice to have had a day at the little town of Anganguero at 8,300 feet to help acclimate ourselves to the altitude before embarking on a hike that begins at 9,600 feet!

It was well worth the monumental effort it took us to reach the mountaintop at 10, 800 feet - a 1,200 foot vertical gain in only a mile! (The butterflies were hanging out at the top this year.) We began the trek with 750 stair steps followed by a steep switch-back with more stairs here and there. We had NO idea that such a short distance would be that difficult! Never mind our out-of-shape muscles and assorted pains - it was the lack of oxygen that made it so exhausting. Our guide (included in the $3.50 admission) stayed with Lee and me the whole time, let us rest as much as we needed and talked us through the times we wanted to give up and go back down. Both of us had spells of light-headedness and tingly arms and feet - whatever that means, but we plodded on like baby ducks waddling through thick, sticky mud. (No, we had no mud – it just felt that way) It took us three hours up and one hour down which we learned was not too unusual, so we DID MAKE IT which surprised everyone -especially US!

It doesn’t surprise me. I knew you could do it.

… P. L. Morningstar