Climbing to Six Feet under

Near the hotel where we are staying in Zermatt (which has a fantastic view of the Matterhorn from the room), there is a small cemetery for all the ambitious souls that wanted to scale the imposing heights of the Swiss Alps. And didn’t make it. The cemetery is aptly placed at the foot of the mountain, as if to set at least the restless souls ascend where the gross bodies failed to reach.
As I was standing there paying my respects to people I didn’t know, I noticed that most of the climbers had died on the descent, most of the expeditions seemed to have happened in August, and most of the climbers were in their early to mid twenties. There were a few over 50, and there were a couple of women climbers as well.
But one particular grave caught my attention. It was for a 17 year old kid from New York City (Donald Stephen Williams), and his epitaph read “I chose to climb”.
This set me thinking.
Beyond the obvious ‘too young to die in such a tragic way’ sentiment, I was wondering at the boy’s courage that made him decide the message on his epitaph. It is one thing to face the odds of making it to the top of the Matterhorn with its treacherous trails and icy heights. And quite another to be prepared to know and accept that you may not be able to make it back down. At 17. I guess your climb begins and ends even before you have set foot on the mountain.
Could you put it down to the foolhardiness of youth? The cavalier attitiude of a soul that hasn’t seen the dangers of life yet? Or was it a careful and mature assessment of practical outcomes one may have to face given the nature of the expedition?
Much like life. Only, in life, we have many excuses, many places to point our fingers at, many loopholes for our failures. It isn’t often we have a life- equivalent of “ I chose to climb”.
But the mountain is different as it is unforgiving.
And another thing that it led me to was this: What do you call home? I think it’s either where you are born or where you die, for in between we are merely making a living. While you have no choice in the place of your birth, the same goes for the place where you die as well it would seem, as evidenced by the nationalities of the people who died climbing the Matterhorn, not many were from Switzerland. Like this kid from NYC, there were people from everywhere, there was a climber who was born in Simla informs his epitaph.
Wherever they maybe from, may their souls rest in peace.