On analogical mountains — & pitons that portend enlightenment

[ by Charles Cameron — carrying French mountaineering coals to a mountaineering Frenchman ]

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As imagination can reach farther than spacecraft, so analogical mountains are at a higher elevation — indeed, a higher octave — than physical ones:

René Daumal‘s brilliant novel Mount Analogue was uncompleted, and fittingly so, at his death — the peak of the book’s arduous ascent being by necessity wordless.

Thete’s nothing non-Eucidean or metaphysical about Chouinard‘s RURP, however — it’s a piton so small that if you dare hang your life on it, you might well expect to achieve enlightenment. I was given mine as a keepsake by a hitchhiker on his way to try the lower slopes of Everest, while I was taking the hippie route through Turkey and Iran to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India in the early seventies. And yes, I confess I use it for exclusively analogical mountaineering.

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This DoubleQuote is for my long-time boss and friend Victor d’Allant, who tweeted today:

Just reached summit of highest mountain in South East Asia despite low visibility, high winds, snow @BlackDiamond pic.twitter.com/UGeObnEck5

— Victor d'Allant (@dallant) April 1, 2016

Salut!