Day 16

In Jon Krakauer’s book Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains, Chapter 4 is titled: On Being Tentbound. It’s funny, fitting and worth sharing.  Here’s a section taken from pages 45-46.

“During a storm-wracked trip to Mt. Deborah with his closest friend, David Roberts, one of the premier Alaskan climbers of the 1960s and 1970s, recalls:

Our conversation either died insipidly or led to arguments. 

I felt so frustrated by the weather that I had to get angry at something; 

Don was the nearest object and the only one capable of response…

I had got into the habit of reacting to Don’s mannerisms—to the way he cleaned his knife, or held his book, or even breathed…

I was becoming, in the stagnation of our situation, both aggressive and paranoid. So I would try to keep from thinking about it; instead I would daydream about the pleasure of warmer, easier living. 

But all the while I would be working myself into a silent rage over the 

sound of Don’s chewing as he ate a candy bar.”

“There is a good deal written about the pleasures of solitude in the great outdoors, but when you’re caged in a tent, the world beyond the dank ripstop isn’t doing much for you anyway.”