The ice man video that Janelle posted in pretty unbelievable. Considering I am the guy who can barely step outside Bundy when it's below 10 degrees, I can't imagine swimming in sub-freezing water and sitting on blocks of ice in sub-zero temperatures. I truly do believe that this ice man is borderline crazy, yet brave. He bucks the norm of being cold and simply shows it is all mental. Beyond the mental side of things, wouldn't your body just shut down if it is significantly cooled? It makes me think about the books and short stories we have read and wonder how much of a climbers physical struggle is mental, and when is it physically impossible to continue. In Annapurna when Herzog and other members of his team are snow blinded and losing toes and fingers due to hypothermia, how does this ice man then go to the arctic and accomplish something like this almost effortlessly?
"Shifting what reality is, all of history would be different". Of the notes I took down while Arlene Blum was speaking in class this past Thursday, this is the one quote I have. To me, this was very relevant to what our class discusses almost every class. This parallels the question of what is reality? It was interesting to me that it only takes one person to not remember a fact or a conversation and it changes history. Thank god for diaries/recorders! But then I began to think, maybe some part of an expedition or an adventure are left to remain untold. Not intentionally, but as part of the story, as part of the beauty of adventure.
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