Mountains

Along the central coast of Norway, mountains rise straight up out of the fjords below.  Every mountain peak has its own name and reputation, and they all have trails to the top.  Every person I met in Norway, living within view of any peak, knows the exact number of hours and minutes it took them to get there.  It’s as if they were born to conquer the mountains.

At every peak there is a notebook and pen encased in a weather proof box, used as a subtle bragging tool.  Columns in the book include date, name, hometown, number of times to that spot, and hours and minutes it took them that day.  Everyone knows who holds the record.

Norwegians all look at their watch the minute they head up a trail.  They are forever wanting to beat their best time.  It’s insane.  The hike up the mountain isn’t about enjoying the journey, smelling the fresh air or stopping to pick wild blueberries, it’s simply to make it to the top as fast as humanly possible.  

 I was embarrassed once when I was 41 and we climbed a mountain with Kory’s 75 year old aunt.  She left me in the dust.  As I was sucking in air as if my life depended on it, she was singing hymns as she passed me.

Once when we were hiking up a nearby mountain, we ran into a 78 year old guy known as the “Incurable Mountain Man.”  He’s been written up in the newspaper many times as he hikes up that mountain nearly everyday – no matter what the weather.  He said the snow will be three feet deep and he’ll be the first one to the top – clearing the trail for others.  When he was 77 he climbed it 340 times, sometimes four times a day.  That same year he’d also hiked to the top of every peak we could see around us, which was way too many to count. 

A friend of ours once pointed to a peak that is 6,000 feet straight up and it took him six hours to ascend it.  His wife’s cousin was able to run it in just one hour and 28 minutes and was disappointed he did not break the record, which stands at one hour and nine minutes.  The man that set that record died a few years ago while he was out running up yet another mountain when it was just too cold to be out doing such a thing.  He himself had a cold and he collapsed and died on the mountain.  He’s considered a local folk hero to this day.   Strange priorities.