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How to Tie a Knot, Part Four
This is Part Four in a series about climbing and relationships. You can catch up on Part One, Part Two, and Part Three by following the links.
My son is taller than me in the picture. We are standing on Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the contiguous United States. We asked some hikers to take a picture of us. The summit is crowded with smiling hikers in bright puffy jackets. We are the only people wearing helmets, and I overhear somebody saying something about the Mountaineer’s Route.
Most people hike Whitney as a day hike. It’s a 22-mile roundtrip from Whitney Portal. It’s a challenging hike, and I’ve done it a few times. Once as part of the John Muir Trail, at the end of the High Sierra Trail, and once as a day hike with my mom and a few others.
I had the opportunity to descend the Mountaineer’s Route years ago after completing the 72-mile High Sierra Trail, but the fear hit me when one of the guys I was hiking with pulled out a chalk bag. It was before I picked up climbing, and the thought of exposure scared me. We opted to split up. Two of us hiked/jogged down the main Whitney trail while the two climbers descended the Mountaineer’s Route. That decision stuck with me, not as a failure, but as an opportunity, a motivation to overcome that fear and learn the skills I needed to feel comfortable on exposed terrain.
A few months ago, my son watched a YouTube video of a guy climbing the Mountaineer’s Route and free soloing the East Buttress route and…
