I probably shouldn’t respond to this one, not being a climber of any sort.. but.. “because it’s there”?<br><br>Once, many years ago on a business trip to Portland, Oregon in the summer, I was sitting with a co-worker sipping drinks at a table in the sun overlooking the river, with a view of Mt. Hood in one direction and what was left of Mt. St. Helens in another. He asked me whether I liked the area enough to consider living there, and I said I did, but I didn’t know if I could look at Mt. Hood every day of my life without having to climb it at some point. He looked at me as though I’d just said I really came from Venus. Some people feel the need more than others; some don’t feel it at all.<br><br>I’ve often said that in centuries to come, the only thing that most people are likely to remember about the 20th Century, if anything, is that we made it to the moon (name 2 important dates in the 1400’s. If you can name one.. that's my point.). Somewhere along the line, though, I’d bet some future historian or student is going to read about our period, and be amazed at how very few years elapsed between the time that a man first stood at the highest point on his own planet, and the time that he made it off of his planet altogether to set foot on it’s moon. After so many thousands or millions of years, it all happened in a couple of decades… in historical terms, almost the same instant... like one step after another.<br><br>And maybe it’s not altogether a coincidence.<br>