“Ever since a small boy, I have loved just to look at the mountains, to see them in different lights and from different angles, to feel their rough rock under my fingers and the breath of their winds against my feet. . . . I am in love with the mountains.”
– Wilfrid Noyce

This photo of me was taken a few years back on the summit of Giant Mountain in the Adirondacks of New York State. I have a long history with a boys camp in the ‘Daks called Northern Frontier. On this particular trip, I and my junior counselor, Todd Essery, led a group of six 14 & 15 year old young men up to the summit. It is a three hour ascent that doesn’t afford you any views until about 2.5 hours into it. This trip was the third of my four ascents of Giant. I have the ultimate love/hate relationship with this particular mound of rock, trees and dirt.

“I believe that the ascent of mountains forms an essential chapter in the complete duty of man, and that it is wrong to leave any district without setting foot on its highest peak.”
– Sir Leslie Stephen

When I was 14 I had my first ascent of the mountain as a camper at NF. It was on this first ascent that one of my friends had heart failure, very close to the summit, and died. Pretty traumatic for a 14 year old and something that I’m not really ready to blog about in much detail. My second ascent was the following summer. My Dad took me back to climb it again on a dark, rainy Saturday. There was no view at the top that day – just the satisfaction of the climb, the memorial to my friend and a closer bond between a father and son. The third ascent was when I took the group from the camp up. It was very symbolic and important for me to lead a trip to the summit of that mountain successfully. The fourth ascent was only two years ago. My wife wanted to see my demon mountain for herself and conquered it as well. Hopefully, I’ll keep myself in good enough shape to climb it with my child(ren) someday.

“A man does not climb a mountain without bringing some of it away with him and leaving something of himself upon it.”
– Sir Martin Conway

The above quotes were taken from The Quotable Climber, Edited by Jonathan Waterman.