A note about confidence

I've been thinking a lot about the recent events on Mt. Hood. For the second time in three years, a trio of climbers has gone missing on the upper reaches of the mountain in cold December weather. Both trios started up in light and quick alpine styles on gorgeous sunny days with decent weather windows. Both groups didn't return. As with the well-publicized incident in 2006, rescuers were able to recover one body, but two remain missing. Early this week, weather moved in and now both remaining climbers are presumed dead. Both groups were experienced, had a decent amount of climbing under their belts-- one of the climbers in the most recent group had reached the Mt. Hood summit six other times.

So, why is this still on my mind? Well, for starters, I've been up there. Twice. Once when I was super naive as to what the mountain could do and then again with Scott when he made the summit in 2008. I think to myself, how can you get lost up there? The weather was gorgeous, what went wrong? How come I've been up and down safely without even a hint of impending danger?

I've decided that it all boils down to confidence. All of these climbers were experienced, confident in their skills. But something happened. Something happened to shake that confidence and that's all it took. One little thing goes wrong with the plan and things just start to pile up and bear down. I was thinking about confidence on Friday as B and I were headed up Mt. Hood on the Cascade lift at Meadows. We saw this in front of us:

And that's all it took. I was done, my confidence deflated. I had been skiing well all morning and as we picked our way down in the foggy soup, I got more nervous and scared with each turn. I couldn't see and didn't know where to carve, and if I had fallen on my way down, things would have piled up quickly and we would have had the longest ski run imaginable. But, I talked myself into it and we finished the day lower on the mountain.

I think that your confidence can be shaken at any moment. I've just been blessed and lucky enough to have those shaky moments lower and safer on the mountain. I pray for the families who lost loved ones on the mountain last week. May they feel comfort in knowing they were doing what they loved and out there living it!