Why Do We Climb Mountains?

On Feb 11, 2011, my husband and I were on the support team for Grandpa Jim's Camelback 12 Hour Endurance Run, a benefit for Sunshine Acre's Children's Home.

From 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. hikers and racers scaled the 1.2-mile mountain trail again and again, climbing over boulders, running down rock faces, testing their grit and determination, continuing when their bodies were telling them to quit.

73 people hiked that day, hiking a combined total of 314 climbs. Five people finishing 12 trips in twelve hours. (More stats at the bottom.)

Which makes me ask:

Why do we climb mountains?

Is it because they are there?

Or is it more than that?

What pushes the human spirit

to be stronger?

Higher?

Faster?

To pit itself against impossible odds?

Is it possible as Image Bearers

Of God's greatness

that sometimes

He cannot be constrained inside our smallness

and

HE MUST BURST OUT

In song. In story. In discovery. In courage. In endurance. In adventure.

In climbing mountains?

In the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, she writes,

Do we writhe to peel out of our smallness and into the big life because that fits our inborn God-image?

Maybe that is the real reason we climb mountains.

Psalm 90:2- "Before the mountains were born....You are God."

_________

Photos: Camelback Mountain, Grandpa Jim Fowler, Shack, the oldest racer Sammi at age 75 who made 5 climbs, Christy with Andrew and Ethan

2011 Stats:

David Metzler, Linda Scharinger, Sean Peters, Grandpa Jim, and Lisa Kravetz finished 12 laps, 28.8 miles and 15,600' of elevation gained.

Matt Walsh and Jennifer Matthews -11 laps, 26.4 miles.

Steve Veneble, Francesca Pasquale, and Joseph Doku - 10 laps, 24 milesBruce Brown, Michael Braun and Julie Dehlin - 9 laps, 21.6 milesFor a blog on a Grandpa Jim's Camelback Mountain 2010 marathon, click here.If you wish to contact Grandpa Jim, email him at jfstl@cox.net.