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May 3,
2002
Everest
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Photo: Fred Leblanc
Terre
Parker '02 with a young dancer during MHC's May Pageant,
which was held April 26.
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Like many of us, Wendy
Watson, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum curator, has been keenly
following the story of Marjorie M. Cross '65, known as Midge,
and her four climbing companions as they prepare to make their
bid for the summit of Mount Everest (see CSJ, April 5, 2002).
As she has done daily, Watson logged on to www.discovery.com/everest
on April 26, for the latest dispatch from Everest base camp, where
she learned that Cross and her cohorts were socked in at Camp
II, waiting out a spring snowstorm. Soon they were to head to
Camp III, elevation 24,000 feet, where they planned to try to
sleep "at altitude." If they can do that, and if the
weather clears, the team may be ready for its summit bid.
Though she is "just
a hiker" herself, Watson has more than a passing interest
in mountaineering. A few years ago climber Paul Kallmes approached
her to produce a major United States exhibition of the works of
the mountaineer-photographer Vittorio Sella (1859–1943).
The result was a major touring show that originated at the Mount
Holyoke College Art Museum, as well as the book Summit: Vittorio
Sella, Mountaineer and Photographer, the Years 1879–1909
(Aperture, 1999).
Watson's intense curiosity
about "the mentality of people who climb" has lead her
to read widely in the literature of mountaineering, from Petrarch
to Krakauer. She notes that the reasons for climbing have changed
drastically since the nineteenth century. "In Sella's day,"
says Watson, "these were not only journeys of adventure,
but of discovery, to study geology, glaciers, weather patterns,
and botany. Today, there is more emphasis on personal challenge,
rather than scientific exploration."
Personal challenge
appears to be the prime motivator for Cross and the other women
of the Everest team, who hope to be the first American all-female
team of climbers to reach the summit of the world's highest peak.
"It's a great undertaking," says Watson, who observes
"a certain humbleness in the statements of these climbers.
There's decidedly less testosterone in the air. These women have
a healthy respect for the mountain."
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