Day 15. April, 24. Base camp (BC). The day off

Session 2: Everest as a way, process, creativity, joy of life

If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to live. That is what life means and what life is for.

George Mallory

Well said 90 years ago. The way of joy of life, which is maximally full of pleasure from everything, what happens to the person - Everest is perfectly fits this conception! I'm lucky: I was able to organize the expedition and found financing for it at this difficult time - how many people stumbled over the lack of money! Sergey Bogomolov agreed to be a leader - this is valuable! Colleagues and family let me go for a long period of time without any excesses and scandals - it's wonderful! We arrived in time, our baggage wasn't lost, we are in the BC, we acclimatize! Things are going great!

I wrote a little about the process approach in the post of March, 21st. For the past month there is almost nothing to add. Erich Fromm wrote at his time: 'The individual aware of himself as an active and creative individual and recognizes that there is only one meaning of life: the act of living itself'. In general, on the mountain you aware of yourself as an active member of the process, filled with meaning, you aware of yourself as subject of the process, not as object (you make the process, not the process makes you), you feel like you are a creator of this process in some measure.  

Expedition to Everest - it is a classic example of a way, which starts far from its actual beginning, which takes about 1,5 month and doesn't end in a day - because the understanding will come later. It is not an easy way (read the previous posts: a headache - a mountain high altitude sickness - a lack of oxygen - ...), but still attractive and alluring. What it attracts with? What is valuable in it?

I won't write in general, I'll write about myself. Since I go there for the first time, so this way is new, unknown, mysterious and difficult for me. In this way I appreciate the possibility to be alone - on my own - for a long time, I appreciate an intercourse with people, who go the same way; there are not many random people here. I appreciate the physical work - a great physical activity and harassing labour. I appreciate an opportunity to understand the value of my family and friends, my work - in everyday life sometimes the very important and truly valuable things become boring and bother you, sometimes you just need to have a rest from them. I appreciate uncertainty and vagueness - I don't know, will I be able to get to the summit and then go back down alive and safe. Mikhail Degtyarev says: 'The understanding of the possibility to do an action often becomes a serious restraining reason for its realisation'. There are no such restraining reasons here. And the main thing, which is hard to express, is that the possibility just TO BE ALIVE PERSON is really valuable. Not just to add Everest to your assets, but to LIVE EVEREST. 

The modern occidental (and Russian) society doesn't allow TO LIVE a normal human life. We are all turned into (semi-) automatic machines, we depend on formal (prescribed - consequently, not live) schedules, regulations, procedures, we are assigned the numbers to register us, we are alienated from ourselves. When should we just LIVE? It's hardly possible to call it life - sitting in traffic jams, a rat race for a new model of mobile phone, a new car, a bigger flat. In such 'life' of a modern human there is almost no more space for such value as LOVE. More precisely, it is converted into money too, in its different forms, and  it ceases to be LOVE, but becomes a product, which has an exchange value. 

Probably, it is because of the age, but I think, that during last years a change in me is happening: the transition from TO HAVE to TO BE. Many years ago, before a consuming society, in which we live, appeared, Schiller wrote: ' We love what we have; we desire what we don't have. Because who is rich in spirit - loves, and who is poor - desires.' I wish I could be rich in spirit, of course... Maybe someday our childish ability TO LOVE will be back to us - the ability we've lost in fights for TO HAVE.

Session 3: Integral 
Who and when said, that the process contradicts the result, that the joy of life contradicts the challenge, that TO HAVE contradicts TO BE? Oh, yeah, I forgot - a lot of people said that - tens of classics and thousands of their followers, who write comments to their works. Must be, they are somewhat right - for neurotics, for which the contradiction between these two positions generates a deep intractable internal conflicts. This contradiction is is peculiar to the occidental culture. If we'll cross the boundaries of restrictions, which are placed on our thoughts by occidental culture plus by Christianity in all its forms (which during last 1,5 thousand years had been proclaiming by 10 commandments one behaviour, but in fact encouraged another behaviour, which is diametrically opposite to the proclaimed one) - so the conflict will disappear. Probably, there will be no problems, which are impossible to solve mentally; except for, may be, the sexual problems (for those who are married).

Modern society and husbands/wives have negative attitude towards adultery and promiscuity of their wives/husbands. That sometimes leads to the sexual tension and conflicts. And the animal primal self is still here, human genes require breeding... Since this topic is beyond the scope of this blog, I will finish on this. 

Yesterday the whole film crew led by Valdis came back from MC to BC. Today in the morning  the baggage of the expedition was sent by yaks from BC to ABC. Sherpas set tents, kitchens and stuff there. The connection between MC and ABC - via radio. Someone said that there is a lot of snow in ABC - up to 30 cm. The weather have suddenly changed today: the sky is heavily clouded, the snow pellets fall from time to time. In daytime the temperature inside of the tent is +12,5 C - which is cold. To compare: a normal temperature inside of the tent in BC in daytime, when the sun is shining, is about +45 C if the tent is closed; if to open the doors for ventilation - the temperature can be regulated to the comfortable +25 C. 

Tomorrow morning - April,25 - the first group will load their stuff on yaks to ABC, and will leave for MC, where will stay for the night; the day after tomorrow - April, 26 - we move from MC to ABC and will have our first acclimatization overnight stay at the altitude of 6400 m. Yaks will go in parallel. The descend from ABC to BC is planned for the following day - April, 27. Since there is no Internet in MC and ABC - the next post will be after we'll come back. Three working days on high altitude are wait for us! Let us hope, that we'll cope with it.