An Archetype For Vacation

Ever since I was a young boy, I have been fascinated with the mountains. I would dream of climbing the highest of peaks with my trusty ice axe or snowboarding down a powdered slope sending a wave of snow with every carve. Spring, summer, fall or winter my fascination did not sway. The beauty of a mountain covered in snow, as if it were covered from top to bottom with a layer of white cotton, is breathtaking. See a backdrop of a sunset on a mountain top and the way the colors will bounce off it is a site you will never see the same way twice. As a boy, I would take any rope I could find and try to fashion a new knot for climbing. I was ignorant to the dangers of climbing, I did not care and I was fearless. I wanted to climb anything and everything.

I have discovered grassy mountains, rocky mountains, small mountains, large mountains. Mountains so high the oxygen level is too low to maintain normal breathing, just walking 10 feet would give you shortness of breath and make your eyes feel as if they were about to pop out. It takes a special type of person to survive on a mountain, a hardened person. The luxury’s we take for granted everyday are only a dream to the person who has to survive on a mountain. Throughout time and history man has learned to survive in some of the harshest environments there are. They developed survival skills and field craft. I wanted to be one of these men and learn to be a survivor. There are many Native American tribes here in the United States along with the many different tribes from around the world that have all learned to survive where others could

Iraq was my first and I was most definitely afraid for my life. The terrain was desolate and barren, the heat unbearable. I remember walking by a thermometer one day and it read 135 degrees Fahrenheit. I did not know a thermometer could go that high. Maybe my eyesight was effected by being in the blistering heat. I was grateful to leave and never thought of that place again. The comparison to Iraq and Afghanistan would be like a cold, lonely night compared to a sunshine filled day. There are many similarities and differences of the two places but Afghanistan will always stand out from my past. Iraq had no mountains that I could remember but in Afghanistan it seemed I was surrounded by them wherever I