On page 70 \u2013 71, Rene Daumal explains who and what glaciers are, \u201c\u2026you could learn a lot from the observation of glaciers. Perhaps nature has made them in a first attempt to create living beings by exclusively physical processes.\u201d\u00a0 Here, I feel Daumal is comparing himself and mountaineers to a glacier and answering the question of who and what he is, which he struggles to answer throughout the book.\u00a0 He goes on saying, \u201cthe glacier is an organized creature, with a head, its permanent snowpatch, which grazes on snow and swallows rocky debris\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Daumal humanizes glaciers for readers to understand the mystery behind these living creatures that live in the mountains, but also, in a way for readers to understand the mountaineer.\u00a0 He then says, \u201cLiving beings are nourished by chemical processes, while the mass of the glacier is preserved only by physical and mechanical processes \u2013 freezing and fusion, compression and friction.\u201d\u00a0 Is Daumal saying that mountaineers and humans are completely black and white?\u00a0 Is he comparing himself and mountaineers living and functioning the same way as glaciers do?\u00a0 \u201cPreserved only by physical and mechanical processes\u201d makes me think so.\u00a0 It seems like what fuels Daumal is not reaching the top of a mountain, but the journey and preparation to reach the top of the next one.\u00a0 But in this case Mount Analogue is his last.<\/p>\n
The desire of climbing mountains is riskier than physically climbing the mountain.\u00a0 The fact that Daumal and Sogol want to climb Mount Analogue, a summit that is inaccessible, shows that this could truly be their last climb.\u00a0 And as for Rene Daumal it was.\u00a0 Sure enough they both get exactly what they desired in Mount Analogue. \u00a0I think Daumal is stressing there is more in the mountaineer than physically climbing a mountain.\u00a0 The last sentence of the introduction says, \u201cThe final work is the consummation of all his years of honing his craft and his soul, surrendering his ego in order to ascend the holy mountain.\u201d\u00a0 Mountaineers can be looked at as selfish, independent, and egotistical.\u00a0 Or, and I think as in Daumal\u2019s life, as rough, majestic, and mellow as glaciers who loose their ego when climbing \u2013 a necessary task to fully absorb what the mountain has to offer on a spiritual level.\u00a0 On the descent Daumal mentions that you will no longer see all the difficulties in your path, and also mentions twice in the book the team starting to call each other by their first names and becoming know not from their profession.<\/p>\n
Daumal\u2019s story reminds me of Robert M. Pirsig\u2019s definition of the ego\/non-ego climber, which is they may appear to be identical, they both place one foot in front of the other, stop when tired, and move when rested, but the untrained ego-climber is an instrument that is out of adjustment, sloppy, and is unhappy because they are not there. \u00a0They are looking for what they\u00a0<\/i>want which is actually all around them.\u00a0 It all came together for me when Daumal, on page 114, says, \u201cI would not speak of the mountain but through the mountain.\u201d\u00a0 Earlier on in the introduction (page 22) the writer says, \u201cthe fact is that in his own life he was working hard to prepare many minds for the difficult voyage towards Mount Analogue.\u201d\u00a0 Eventually the desire becomes something more than physical and mechanical, and it is not just about climbing the mountain.\u00a0 There is something else that happens on a spiritual that I feel Daumal is trying to get across, but cannot explain because it may be different for each climber.<\/p>\n
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On page 70 \u2013 71, Rene Daumal explains who and what glaciers are, \u201c\u2026you could learn a lot from the observation of glaciers. Perhaps nature has made them in a first attempt to create living beings by exclusively physical processes.\u201d\u00a0 Here, I feel Daumal is comparing himself and mountaineers to a glacier and answering the…<\/p>\n