In the March 31, 2010 New York Times, correspondent Timothy Egan skillfully reported a recent conversation he had with his long-time friend John Rudolf. Normally a conversation with a friend is not an ordinary story line in the Times. But ordinary isn’t a word that would sufficiently describe Rudolf. While he describes himself in his blog as “a very regular guy,” his deeds hardly fit that description. Ok, he’s a 62 year old financially secure divorced father of two grown children from Seattle. Pretty ordinary so far. He’s got prostate cancer. Not good, but not life threatening at this point, and unfortunately that is ordinary too. But when one thinks about where he is today, the ordinary begins to melt. He’s headed to Mount Everest. Ok, not ordinary, but perhaps foolhardy. A grand wave at something on a bucket list? Perhaps. But not likely. For you see, of the seven continents forming the hard ground of the planet earth, John Rudolf has stood atop the highest peaks on six of those continents; including the 16,000 ft. Vinson Massif in Antarctica, where the temperature is normally a death enticing 40 degrees below zero. Rudolf is no rookie on the mountain, or in meeting challenges. He once shattered his shoulder cycling in the Pyrenees Mountains in an attempt to retrace Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France victory route. But why?
That was the question Timothy Egan brought to his final interview with Rudolf before his departure to Everest. While it doesn’t appear that Egan was completely satisfied with any answer Rudolph gave him, it does appear he got some insight into a quiet man of remarkable achievement. Egan wrote “At the end of our chat, I walked outside with him in the bracing Seattle spring, thinking of the days ahead when he would not see anything green or blossoming, nor draw a bath or get into a fluffy bed. I gave him a hug. ‘I want to see you alive,’ I said. ‘I don’t care if you make the summit.’ ‘Neither do I.’ ‘Seriously?’ ‘To summit is optional,’ he said, paraphrasing the mountaineer Ed Viesturs, ‘to get back down is mandatory.’ While Rudolph may have had his sights on the summit, it wasn’t the ultimate goal. Perhaps it was he who first reached Everest’s summit, Sir Edmund Hillary, who put it best: “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”
To follow John Rudolph’s journey on Everest, you can read his blog at: http://www.johnrudolf7summits.com/
