Climbing Mt. Shasta and losing Camille

Since we have such a politically oriented blog this week, I thought I would share a story.

In my 20’s I spent a lot of time climbing mountains. Among my favorite possessions were my ice axe, crampons and climbing gear. I spent many a night sleeping on glaciers, often without a tent.

A colleague of a friend asked if she could join my next attempt to summit Mt. Shasta, my favorite California mountain, where I had previous experience and many adventures. Of course, I welcomed the company and we trained together for months in preparation.

During those months of training, as we worked toward this lofty goal, Camille and I grew closer and became good friends united toward a single goal. I valued her committment and enthusiasm as she worked hard to get into shape for the climb. I taught her the life-saving essentials of glacier climbing and our bond grew stronger. Trust is essential when climbing together.

When the time came, we made our way to the summit, albeit with a bit of patience, and we shared the joy of that beautiful 14,000 ft. peak.
Summiting a peak is both personally rewarding and spiritually intoxicating. Camille and I shared that moment together and what joy it was!
We took the 45 minute glissade to base camp, packed up and returned to treeline before afternoon. We spent a farewell night sleeping among the myriad of Shasta-Trinity creatures in the Cascade wilderness. I can distinctly remember the yapping coyotes surrounding our perch that night. We slept peacefully after a job well done.
The next morning with our mission accomplished and our time in Northern California at a close we packed up and began the long drive home. Along the way back home we talked to pass the time. Our conversation in the car, from topic to topic, began to form on politics.
I can remember exactly where we were on highway 5 when our conversation took a turn for the worse. Politics! Our conversation on the issues became so heated we were yelling at each other and cursing each other’s viewpoint. How could she feel this way? What kind of person believes this is the way to govern people? What kind of person actually supports these views?

We spent the next four hours drive in silence and I have never spoken to her since.
That’s right, we trained for months, we slept next to each other, we held each other’s life on the end of a rope and we shared one of life’s greatest accomplishments… and then we started talking about POLITICS and we never spoke again. Extreme hatred!

Wild but true, this moment changed my life. I made a firm decision not to discuss politics with friends. What does it matter? Are you a leader? Can you pass a law? I don’t want to know what candidate you voted for, I don’t want to know which party you support, which bills you want passed nor which political ideas you agree with!
With the exception of political protests or participation in fundraising events, you get one vote. Likely your vote means nothing but it’s your right. You have one vote and everything else is simply opinion. If you voice your opinion you are not going to make friends so what does it really matter?

If I had known then that Camille is entitled to think whatever she wants and the reality of it is she’s not going to be able to change anything I might have laughed it off, but at the time I was hot-headed and wanted nothing to do with someone who thought like her. Ironically we both supported the same ultimate goal but wanted to accomplish it by diametrically opposed political tactics. Does it matter?

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