Anyone who has been rock climbing for very long in Minnesota or Wisconsin is probably familiar with the name Michael Farris. he is the author of the Falcon Guide to Rock Climbing Minnesota and Wisconsin, the quintessential guide to climbing any cliffs of note in the region. In this guide he goes into meticulous detail about every available route describing degree of difficulty, how to get to your site, how to setup your ropes, where to watch for tourists throwing rocks on your head, and so forth. He's something of a legend in the rock climbing community.

Apparently Michael found the challenge and risk involved in climbing in the midwest a little too tame and has graduated to alpine climbing some of the highest and most dangerous routes in the world. I have been casually following his exploits for some time by reading his posts on his web site. http://www.mfarris.net/.

A few days ago I ran into this surprising post "On August 11 I had surgery to remove portions of seven fingers, both big toes, and portions of six smaller toes." Uh-oh, something didn't go right. As I read up on the story I learned that Michael had a near fatal experience descending Mount Everest in 2009.

Apparently Michael chose to challenge himself by climbing Mount Everest without guides, without teammates, and without Sherpa support. In other words, he was completely on his own in one of the most dangerous places in the world. His expedition went without incident until the day of the final ascent to the peak when one of his oxygen tanks wasn't functioning as well as it should have. He recognized the problem but didn't feel it warranted aborting the ascent. He was able to make the peak and begin to descend and that's when things started to go very wrong.

Blowing snow had covered up all footprints and the lines he was using for the descent and he somehow ended up taking a different route down than he had ascended. Due to lack of oxygen his thinking had begun to get unclear and his decision making began to be faulty. Shortly later ice had formed on his oxygen mask and he felt a suffocating feeling and assumed he was out of oxygen and removed his mask entirely. From this point on he remembers almost nothing.

Michael certainly would have soon perished were it not for 2 climbers that saw him as they were making an ascent. To their shock they saw him clipped into a rope, sitting in the snow and had undressed! There is a known psychological phenomenon called "paradoxical undressing" that occurs in about 50% of individuals who undergo severe hypothermia. So as surprising as this is, it isn't uncommon at all for a person who is freezing to death to disrobe. The "good Samaritan" climbers helped Mike get his clothes back on and gave him fluids and oxygen and pointed him back to camp. He made it out alive, but the frostbite is a brutal reminder of his close brush with death.

I found Michael's description of his experience fascinating. "The apparent ease with which I went from an alert state of consciousness to a state of unconsciousness is truly frightening. However, there was an intermediate stage–a stage in which I lost the urgency necessary to push on quickly on the descent. A feeling of complacency. This quote from Peter Habeler's account of the first ascent without oxygen sums it up: The feeling of this being a deadly and threatening adventure had disappeared. I was now feeling the complete opposite. I had been seized by a real sense of euphoria. I felt somehow light and relaxed, and believed that nothing could happen to me. Undoubtedly many of the men who have disappeared forever in the summit region of Everest had also fallen victim to this treacherous euphoria... At this altitude the boundaries between life and death are fluid. I wandered along this narrow ridge, and perhaps for a few seconds I had indeed gone beyond the frontier that divides life from death. By a piece of good fortune I was allowed to return. (Lonely Victory, pp.183-4)"

I see in this story a metaphor for the life of the Christian. Do you find it easy to move from a state of spiritual awareness to spiritual unconsciousness? How often are you aware that this is happening? I find nothing more easy to do than to forget that my life is a "deadly and threatening" adventure and to move through my days with blissful ignorance of the weight of my life, the threat of the enemy, and the opportunity I have daily to lead those I interact with either closer to or further from the kingdom. In fact, if I were to be brutally honest with myself, I probably spend the bulk of my days wandering around buck naked in the blizzard of life, blissfully unaware of the dangers for me and for those I love.

I'm not advocating paranoia here, I believe the Christian life is one of peace and confidence, but it's confidence built on the knowledge that (to continue the climbing metaphor) you walk the right path and are hanging on to the true life line. God's promise of guidance and protection aren't universal to those who disregard God's calling and chose to go their own way.

The other thought that occured to me as I read this is that things would have gone much better for Michael if he had a friend at his side to say, "Ya think this is a good time to start undressing?" A timely word form a trusted friend can go a long way to stearing us back to the right path.

To read the details of Michael's climb yourself see: http://www.thealtitudeexperience.com/everestreport.pdf