ORIGINAL POST.  Filed in JOURNALING category.

Tourism ministry official Khadananda Dhakal said it was too early for the government to compile the total number (of persons climbing Mount Everest this year, but they say) a record 514 people have so far conquered Mount Everest in this year's main climbing season…and “This figure will only go up because still there are climbers on the mountain who have not finished their expedition yet," Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of Nepal Mountaineering Association, told Reuters on Thursday (May 31, 2007).

High at the top of my list of the things I won’t accomplish in this lifetime is joining the minority part of humanity, an estimated 2,000 persons, who successfully climb Mount Everest. Climbers include a 71-year-old Japanese man, a climber with an artificial leg, and a teenaged boy, have reached the summit since 1953.

Living in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains I do climb Laurel Mountain on a regular basis (click on http://www.travellady.com/Issues/June05/1522LaurelHighlands.htm). That is, I drive or ride up the twisty paved road to the top of the mountain, which is close to 3,000 foot high and has a well-worn, rounded-off peak. Usually my trek is to take visitors to the Flight 93 Crash Site, the Flight 93 Memorial Chapel, the Quecreek Mine site and the Coal Miner’s Café. (click on www.ProBlogs.com/CarolynCHolland and scroll down the category Laurel Highlands to read Flight 93 Memorial Chapel 5^th Anniversary)

I even did a story on a hiker walking the Lincoln Highway (Rt. 30) from New York City to San Francisco. I met him as he finished his descent down Laurel Mountain (click on www.ProBlogs.com/beanerywriters and scroll down the category Carolyn’s Writings to Hiking the Lincoln Highway (Rt. 30) parts I and II).

On a beautiful October day in 2006 I managed to climb Schoodic Mountain in Hancock County, Maine. At numerous points I thought we’d reached the top, then looked around the bend to see the next level. The trails were narrow and gravelly, so footing was a problem. But I made it and have my reward---memories and pictures. (click on www.ProBlogs.com/CarolynCHolland and scroll down the category New England to Oh, to Climb Schoodic Mtn., to read about my adventures on that climb).

It was another beautiful day when I found myself in the German (Bavarian) Alps. We were visiting my son, a postgraduate student in Munich, for two weeks. I’d done my homework, so I knew what I wanted to do while I was there. Two adventures I wanted were to visit a farm overnight and to visit the top of a mountain. Time constraints caused us to choose, so I chose the farm.

We arrived at the farm after dark. While walking from the bus to the farm, lo and behold, we saw lights marking a mountain! We had picked a farm at the base of Wahlberg Mountain.

The next morning we walked to the lift cars that would take us to the top. When we arrived I understood the magic of the mountains in The Sound of Music.

In the midst of the top of the alps there were actually peaks! Rolling oceans of peaks. We drank in the view---including that of Tegernsee Lake below us.

Monte proceeded to climb the final level to the top. I hiked part way up, but wasn’t courageous to do the final lap.

I made good use of my camera. At one point, I wanted to take a picture of the lake between the grasses, which meant I had to lower myself to their level. I looked up to see a man kind staring at my prone body and mischievously said, “What can you expect? I’m an American!” Monte just rolled his eyes!

Other mountain climbings fill my journals. Monte and I drove to the top of Mt. Washington on our honeymoon and forty years later drove up Cadillac Mountain on Mount Desert Island in Maine.

Yet, I have no desire to climb Mt. Everest. I will vicariously enjoy the view from the top through magnificent photographs taken by others brave enough to make the assent. Meanwhile, I can enjoy my memories, different for each experience, and my own photographs.