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i’PZW'TPA
MONICA HUGGETT / ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
/
r
Guest director Eric Milnes and an
expanded PBO team up with the
Trinity Choir and four guest soloists to
present a Messiah for the millennium.
Friday, Dec. 17, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 18, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 19, 3 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 20, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets start at just $19
($ 14 students/seniors).
Subscribe and save!
All performances at Trinity Cathedral
TICKETS: (503) 222-6000
www.pbo.org
___ WILLAMETTE
WEEK
Concert Sponsor
5
Crf- iti Ti*f^
A
Season Sponsor
PORTLAND BAROQUE ORCHESTRA
Finally, shortly before noon, we reach the
he mountain rose up before us, taunting
summit
—8,363 feet. We’ve done it! Triumph
us, challenging us, making faces at us,
of the human spirit! Proudly, we plant our rain
daring us to scale its treacherous slopes.
bow flag atop the peak and watch it unfurl to
We faced a grueling 4,500-foot elevation
gain in less than 5 miles. Straight up into thin snap and wave in the wind, right next to the
happy face banner of the team from the Gold-
air. Each one among us knew the risks; each
endale Senior Center.
had weighed his chances. Man pitting
We stand on the thin, knife-edge narrow
himself against mountain. Epic stuff.
rim of the crater, gazing out into the vast
We were up to the challenge. We laughed in
grandeur and majesty of the northern Cas
the face of danger.
cades. There are few thrills that can match
There were six on our climbing
standing atop a mountain peak—I can think of
team: Nordquist, Hilary, Mallory,
only five or six, and most of those are illegal.
Whitaker, Shackleton and myself.
Nordquist points out the surrounding peaks:
(Note: Names have been changed
Mount Hood, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams,
to avoid messy lawsuits.)
Mount McKinley. (Too late we realize
Nordquist is the leader of the
Nordquist’s poor sense of geography.)
expedition. The success and safety
of the climb is going to rest on his
Looking thousands and thousands of feet
cool head and clear thinking. The
down into that immense crater, beholding the
very epitome of the mountaineer,
rising lava dome with its fissures and steaming
he inspires confidence in the rest of vents, I am overwhelmed by one powerful real
us. Dressed in his mountain boots
ization: “We’re standing on a live volcano!”
and gaiters, his Kelty pack
We break out our provisions. I share my
bedecked with ice ax, ropes, pitons,
orange with Hilary, who had been under the
carabiners, oxygen canisters and a
mistaken impression that there would be vend
dome tent that can comfortably
ing machines at the summit. Nordquist offers a
BY
accommodate 20, he carries
piece of beef jerky that was dried and seasoned
ALAN
enough food to have kept the
last century. Mallory shares his high-tech high-
Donner party alive. I feel slightly
carbo-protein bar, which contains enough
ROSE
unprepared with only my sneakers
energy to fuel a small city. Shackleton, mean
and a space blanket.
Hilary is still laughing in
the face of danger. We real
ize the altitude is already
getting to him. Since we
haven’t left the parking lot
yet, this is not a good sign.
We may have discovered
our weak link.
It is a clear and cloudless
morning as we set out, yet
each of us knows how fickle
the weather can be. (Cer
tainly not as fickle as last
night’s date, but still...) It
would be a race against
time. We would have only a
narrow 12-hour window to
reach the summit and get
back down off the peak
before happy hour at
Scandals.
Nordquist orders us to
rope up. We appreciate his
concern for safety. Still, we
feel a little foolish being the
only ones roped together as
we leave the parking lot.
The climb soon becomes
grueling. We break out of
the trees into the vast and
barren lava fields. We are
on our own now, cut off
from the outside world—
except for our three cell
phones, one laptop comput
er and Mallory’s high-tech
palm-size television-radio with satellite relay.
while, is dining on gazpacho soup with a crisp
We are soon scrambling over boulders and
Caesar salad and barbecued lamb in a tahini
traversing the scree slopes. Hilary is having a
marinade as he lets his bottle of merlot
particularly difficult time. (Note for future
breathe. (Shackleton’s also a member of the
expeditions: High heels should be strongly dis
Cooking Club.)
couraged.)
An hour later we begin our descent, each of
It is a warm day on these hazardous and
us quietly proud of our achievement. We had
unforgiving slopes, and Nordquist orders a halt
risen to the challenge and triumphed. Forever
for the expedition to rest and rehydrate. (Real
more we would be counted among the coura
mountaineers don’t drink water, we rehydrate.)
geous few (13,000 each year) who had reached
Mallory keeps us informed of the altitude
the treacherous summit of Mount St. Helens
with his new razzle-dazzle high-tech watch with and returned to tell of it.
built-in barometer, altimeter and can opener.
At 7,000 feet we come upon a sensitive geo
■ A lan R ose is a member of Portland Gay Men
physical seismic sensor. It is great fun jumping
Writing and contributes regularly to the OutWord
up and down around it, wondering if there will
column.
be anything in tomorrow’s papers.
T