There are many paths to the top of the mountain,

but the view from the summit is always the same.

Chinese proverb

There are roughly 18 established routes up Mount Everest. More than 95% of every recorded summit has come by just two of them: almost every human who has ever stood on the top chose one of two. The South Col route (~64%) and the North Ridge route (~34%). Everything else is a rounding error. These are the “tourist” lines: fixed ropes, ladders through the Khumbu Icefall, camps stocked by Sherpas, oxygen, weather forecasts, rescue infrastructure. They are not easy and they still kill people. But they are the known, supported, repeatable paths. The mountain has been domesticated just enough that ordinary (if wealthy and fit) people can buy a ticket. It’s the path of the most.

And you can stop at any level too: Base Camp is already a destination for thousands who never go higher; Camp 2 or 3 is enough for some; the South Col itself is a high point many reach and then turn around. You choose how far you go.

Then there are the known extremes: West Ridge and the Hornbein Couloir, the Southwest Face, the Kangshung Face, the Norton Couloir, the South Pillar - no commercial operators, minimal or no fixed protection (~1.4% of all summits). You go there only if you have the body, the experience, the money, and the willingness to accept a higher chance that the mountain kills you. They are very difficult, but they are still mapped, still attempted by those who know exactly what they are choosing. Someone before you has already written the guidebook in blood and frostbites.

And then, in theory, there is the third way, a line no one has ever taken where you are effectively alone with the mountain: no ropes left by previous parties, no camps, full freedom. Nothing dictates your path: you invent it, or die trying.

The left panel of the illustration is from social networks. The right panel comes from Everest: The Other Side documentary.

...but it is the same summit in every case. The difference is the way and the process and what experience you want.

Life is everyone’s personal Everest (and like Everest it is never easy).

Most people take the South Col of existence: a stable job, a predictable career ladder, the fixed ropes of credentials, pensions, social expectations. It is not easy: the Icefall can still shift under your feet... but the infrastructure is there. You can see the camps ahead and you always reach a kind of socially acceptable summit… or you can stay in base camp too. And you can stop at any level and rest and retire. Your view is shared with the crowd.

Some choose the harder known routes: starting a business (bootstrapping or raising capital). Riskier, lonelier, more challenging, less stable. Still, the path exists, others have done it and there are stories and occasional guides/maps.

A very few attempt the unclimbed face: no ropes/guardrails. High chance of being destroyed in the process. Absolute freedom to invent the path as you go... and full responsibility for every step.

There is no right and wrong choice: the goal, the summit, is the same. The only difference is the process of life, not the result. The result is always the same... and it is not even the summit :)

So you are not choosing the result. You are choosing how you live the process. That process is the only life any of us actually get...

This post is devoted to the memory of Hilaree Nelson, who died four years ago doing what she loved most, living a dream few would even attempt. She chose the hard, free line.

living for decades with ostomy bag is sad original ↗

dying while doing what you love is not original ↗