I have often experienced the thrill of height as a commingled rush of fear and exhiliration that for some odd reason seems to center in my genital area. Was that what Mallory meant when, asked why he climbed, he replied "because it's there"? I experienced it powerfully when standing at the top of both the Sears Tower and the Empire State Building. As you near the edge and look down, the impression that results from the long tapering lines and foreshortening is one of the building sinking in and away from you. I often dream of being suspended on a narrow platform at a staggering distance up from the street, and experience a feeling of pure vertigo terror that is devoid of the beauty I feel when encountering similar situations in real life.

The great attraction of the climb is in the reduction of all immediate needs to that of finding secure foot and hand-hold, achieving an immersion in the environment that by necessity excludes all other worries and desires. It is the distillation of all hope and comprehension into one transcendent moment of life or death, when you alone have the power through strength and skill to hold the Reaper at bay.That is what drove Mallory to make his one-way up Everest, and Hillary his round trip. It is what cost Lowe his life in the slide on Kanchenchunga. The solace is that those who were lost died immersed in that epiphany that is essential life/death, not while distracted by traffic or using their cell-phones.