Making an assault on the mountain.

I once sat on the moraine of blue glacier. From there it looked like a short walk to the summit of Mount Olympus. Not the one in Greece, the one in Washington state. The highest peak in Olympic National Park was named because a European who spotted it thought it was a good place for the gods of the "new world" to live.

The "new world" was turtle island and "Mount Olympus" was home to the thunderbird, not Zeus.

Anyway, I'd like to climb Mount Olympus but I don't know how to climb mountains. Should I take a mountaineering class and learn how to rope up and travel on glaciers so I can "make an assault" on the mountain?

Should I do it the zen way and sit on the moraine for a few days while sipping cups of tea and then suddenly get up and just walk up the beautiful mountain without a care?



I can't afford mountaineering classes and I would much rather be one with the mountain then "make an assault" on the mountain. But I'm too chicken to just walk right up the thing.

Maybe folks who classify mountain climbing as "making an assault' on the mountain are actually more scared then I am. Why else would they see the mountain as an enemy target?

http://www.squarewheels.com/bikestuff/mitchassault.html
http://www.mountaineers.net/mountain/articles/m06-0001.htm

Does the mountain notice when one makes and assault on it? Is the mountain kinder to those who are at one with it? Can one be at one with the mountain while climbing with a group? Is the mountain so mighty that it is foolish to even imagine being at one with it?


The ancient Quillayute take on it is thus:

"Thunderbird's home is a cave in the Olympic Mountains, and he wants no one to come near it. If hunters get close enough so he can smell them, he makes thunder noise, and he rolls ice out of his cave. The ice rolls down the mountainside, and when it reaches a rocky place, it breaks into many pieces. The pieces rattle as they roll farther down into the valley.

All the hunters are so afraid of Thunderbird and his noise and rolling ice that they never stay long near his home. No one ever sleeps near his cave."

In recent years the gods certainly have not favored the Quillayute people. Even though it is quite out of place I can not resist mentioning here that Quillayute men are uncommonly handsome.

I try to find information on being at one with a mountain on Google and all I get is a bunch of new age crystal waving money grubbing websites where people pay money to be one with the mountain. Hmmmmm

For now I guess I'll just have to be one with the mountain while I look up at the summit from the moraine. I respect it too much to climb it alone.

But who knows, maybe someday I can make it up alone if I buy a "Thunderbird Ice Axe"