George Mallory is famously quoted as answering the question of why he wanted to climb Mount Everest with three words:
“Because it’s there.”
I know Bartle Frere is nothing compared with Everest, but whenever people ask why I keep climbing Queensland’s highest mountain, my answer is much the same.
Because it’s there.
But there is another reason.
Reaching the summit of a mountain has a strange way of putting life into perspective.
Some people talk about reaching a summit as conquering the mountain. In my experience, it is usually the other way around.
The mountain conquers me.
After all the climbing, sweating, struggling and effort, I finally reach the top, look around at the vastness surrounding me and realise
I am but a dot.
That beautiful house you are so proud to own? From up there, you can’t even see it.
Your degrees, achievements, possessions and accomplishments? The mountain doesn’t know about any of them.
It doesn’t care.
Standing there, surrounded by something so much bigger than myself, I am reminded that I am not the centre of the universe.
And strangely, I find that comforting.
I don’t always have to be right.
I don’t need to have the last word.
I don’t have to take myself quite so seriously.
I can laugh at my mistakes—not because I want to make them, but because I know I have made them before and I will undoubtedly make more.
Realising that I am only a dot doesn’t make my life insignificant.
I am still part of the picture.
I still have my little place in that vastness, and I can occupy it conscientiously and enjoy it while I’m here.
Maybe that is why I keep returning to this beast.
It exhausts me, humbles me and regularly reminds me of my proper size.
And, of course…
because it’s there. 
Stories Along the Way 