Extreme??

Every Thursday for at least the last 2 months has been cold. The sun peeks out on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then, inevitably, hides behind the clouds on Thursday. Today was no exception. The farm sits up on a plateau so when it's windy at our house, it's REALLY windy on the farm. I was cold. And windblown. And kind of miserable. . .

. . . And then I had a chance to listen to someone who knows what it truly means to be cold and windblown and very miserable. . .


We got a last minute call yesterday from someone looking for a projector rental for a presentation at a store downtown:


I've never given much thought to mountain climbing and I've never understood people who choose to put themselves in grave danger and will go to any lengths to conquer a mountain.


Well, I still don't understand it but Don Bowie has conquered more than his share of mountains and lived to tell about it. And he tells it in a very interesting, captivating way.


One of his expeditions was turned into an NBC special in 2007 and it was the topic of his slide show this evening. The stories and the pictures he showed of the extreme weather these climbers face on mountains like K2 made my afternoon in the horse arena today seem like a breezy walk on a tropical island!!

It was an unexpected but interesting way to spend the evening. He didn't motivate me in any way to want to climb a mountain but he did have a good message about the human spirit and how difficult it can be to choose to help others when you can barely help yourself but how he hopes he will always choose to help anyway. . .

Here are a couple of videos explaining all of this a little bit better:

An interview with Don Bowie from Daniel Baas / SixGun Pictures on Vimeo.