<photo: view of Mount Elbrus taken from Barrel Huts>
mount elbrus, together with Everest, Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, Denali, Puncak Jaya and Vinson, are the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. reaching the peaks of the Seven Summits, which includes reaching the peak of the highest mountain in the world - Everest, is considered a mountaineering challenge.
George Mallory, an English mountaineer who attempted to make the first ascent of Everest was once asked - "why did you want to climb Mount Everest?"
His reply has been called the most famous three words in mountaineering - "because it's there".
most of us will not have the ability nor the opportunity to climb Everest. but that should not stop us from defining our own Everests - our own challenges in life and wanting to conquer those challenges "because it's there".
“The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, “What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?” and my answer must at once be, “It is no use.” There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It’s no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.” - George Mallory