Mountain climbing

Three experienced mountain climbers are lost atop Mt. Hood, apparently in ice caves waiting for a break in blizzard weather. Rescuers can't get high enough to look for them because of the extreme weather. It's a race against time, fate, and the will of the gods.


I'm not a mountain climber, although I have climbed one genuine mountain in my life: Mt. Timpanogos in Utah. It's a cultural tradition to climb this if you are from Utah, as my former wife (the model for "Sally") was. I didn't like it much. I loved the aspen grove we walked through early on. I loved the scenery. I didn't like the glacier, though it was summertime, and I especially didn't like it on the way down when "Sally" suddenly jumped off the trail to slide down the slide of a glacier, saying "let's do the short cut." That was one scary slide for yours truly. Later her family marveled that it had taken us so long to get up and back -- some kind of record for slowness, I guess. They're a family of over-achievers (for example, all of her aunts had law degrees, and none had ever practiced law!: you went to college and became and doctor or lawyer, then you got married and raised a family. Wow.)

The future Sundance

"Sally"'s father headed (as in patriarch) the clan/corporation that sold the "family land" to ... guess who? ... Robert Redford, which he developed into Sundance. There's a waterfall in the area named after her grandfather. Real pioneer stock. Selling to Redford was a mistake, most of the family thinks now, even though he developed it with more care than most would. It still ain't the same. I was fortunate enough to spend time in the family cabins before Redford entered the picture, when it was remote, gorgeous country indeed.

View from Spencer's Butte

At any rate, once was enough for me. I prefer uphill hikes, like "climbing" Spencer's Butte in Eugene. I used to do that a lot when I was in graduate school.