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choosing the right path is never easy


<photo: Scott Fischer's chorten, a traditional Nepalese memorial @ Thokla Pass in the Khumbu Valley, Nepal>

the movie Everest (2015) is based on real events that occurred 20 years ago on 10-11 May 1996.

those events, known as the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, revolved around the attempts by two expedition teams to reach the summit of Mount Everest, one led by Rob Hall and the other by Scott Fischer.

eight people died in that disaster, and one of the survivors, Jon Krakauer, wrote a book "Into Thin Air" detailing his experience.

Jon Krakauer wrote in his book that “Mountaineering tends to draw men and women not easily deflected from their goals.”

“This forms the nub of a dilemma that every Everest climber eventually comes up against: in order to succeed you must be exceedingly driven, but if you’re too driven you’re likely to die. Above 26,000 feet (8,000 metres), moreover, the line between appropriate zeal and reckless summit fever becomes grievously thin. Thus the slopes of Everest are littered with corpses.”

<photos: Thokla Pass (4830 metres) memorial for those who died on Mount Everest>

summit fever is a state of mind in which a person fails to notice dangerous conditions in a single-minded attempt to reach the summit. we won't achieve all our goals all the time. in life, failure happens and accepting failures is important for future successes.

the cure for summit fever is to make sure that we have our base camps in life. this could be your family, friends, religion, a hobby, a social club, a book - anything. your base camp in life is something that helps you to recover when failure occurs, somewhere you can feel safe and comforted, someone who inspires you, a place where you can dream.

we spend too much time trying to climb the corporate ladder and during those times when we fall, we don't have a base camp to catch us. #bcc

"choosing the right path is never easy. it's a decision we make with only our hearts to guide us."

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