This recap episode recounts the inspiration for this podcast coming into existence. While training for Mount Everest in April of 2019, my daily routine would include a strong hike up into Tuckerman or Huntington Ravine on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA. Many times I felt the presence of something, someone. Looking back, I believe that the essence of Sandy Irvine, who disappeared on Mount Everest on June 8 in 1924, was asking for assistance. As our expedition set out to locate Sandy, last seen at over 28,000 feet 'headed for the top', I have always believed that his soul had not yet been freed from the mountain.
I introduce my mentor, Bradford Washburn, who inspired me so deeply in all of my endeavors, and share an interview that I conducted with him in 2001, he at the sprightly age of 91.
This is my introduction to The Happiness Quotient (identical to Episode #3), re-vamped here as an introduction or as a refresher course to the ultimate inspiration for following one's dreams & passions.
=========
For more information about Thom Dharma Pollard:
http://eyesopenproductions.com/
For a free downloadable copy of A Course In Happiness:
www.patreon.com/thehappinessquotient
Our theme song, Happiness Jones, appears courtesy of The Wood Brothers.
For more information about The Wood Brothers:
https://www.thewoodbros.com/
The Wood Brothers on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTvWKQovDZlLceuct1EEMMQ
Happiness Jones video can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKIoiVWwF5A
For more about Thom Dharma Pollard, about personal coaching or his inspirational presentations, virtual or in person, find him at:
www.eyesopenproductions.com
To join his mailing list for The Happiness Quotient, email him at thom.dharma.pollard@gmail.com
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Thom Dharma Pollard
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Thom Pollard (00:00):
This is the happiness quotient.
(00:11):
Have you heard of a course inhappiness? In this short
colorful guide filled withbeautiful adventure photography?
The easy to read guide suggeststhat we stop chasing happiness
in our path toward unlocking themysteries to life's big
questions. It offers a fewguideposts to contemplate, and
(00:32):
to put to use in your dailylife. Go to patreon.com slash
the happiness quotient, whereyou'll find a free pdf download
of a course in happiness.
The Wood Brothers (00:44):
all of my wisdom came from all the
toughest days i never learned athing bein happy
all of my sufferin came ididnt appreciate it I never
learned a thing bein happy
Thom Pollard (01:04):
Welcome to the happiness quotient on Thom
Pollard. When I started thispodcast, it was called Baker
Street with Thom Pollard. We'vesince changed the name to better
reflect its intent to thehappiness quotient. Today's
episode is the third everepisode I produced shortly after
which I departed from MountEverest. This episode is a good
(01:28):
depiction of what we endeavourto explore
The Wood Brothers (01:32):
had a dragon to tame to be happy
Thom Pollard (01:36):
If this is your first time listening. Welcome.
All I ask is that you give alisten to two or three full
episodes before you decide ifyou like it or not.
The Wood Brothers (01:45):
that old dragons gonna come back mad I
got a happiness jones sobadHappiness Jones
Thom Pollard (02:00):
Thank you for being here. And now. Episode
Number three.
I am now presenting to you ourthird installment of Baker
Street with Thom Pollard andwow, a to have come and gone so
(02:26):
fast. And anybody who was hereon the third must be a devotee,
and just ready to dive in andhear the cool stuff. I'm calling
this one my musings of MountEverest. And as many of you do
not know yet, I'm about todepart on an expedition to Mount
(02:48):
Everest, it will be my fourthexpedition there in 20 years.
My first expedition was in 1999went to the north side in Tibet
as a high altitude camera manfor a PBS Nova documentary,
which was a co production withthe BBC. And that was huge that
(03:10):
really opened my eyes to theworld at large and
my place in not only in theworld of climbing and but in a
lot of ways. I learned a lot ofthings about myself. And that
came as a result of fracturingin the team, of sorts in in
(03:35):
disagreements on the way certainthings should be handled. And I
am going to save the realdetails of that for a future
installment. But for now, theidea is that we gain knowledge
through experience. And when wesee someone that we deem to be
(03:56):
suffering or going throughhardships, those people are
having experiences through whichthey gain wisdom.
And we've all been in difficultplaces in our lives. We've all
had hardship lost people that welove to have relationships and
maybe lost a job or hadsomething stolen from us that we
(04:20):
loved or had a fracture in afriendship and things of that
nature that caused us to suffer,or at least go to a deeper place
of thought and reflection thatmade us see the world in a
different light.
For instance, even though thiswas more recently, in 2016, as I
(04:47):
was considering andcontemplating an offer to go
film, a documentary on MountEverest, my mom became very ill.
And in the course of about aweek she went from somebody who
was very engaged and, andbubbly, almost to passing over.
(05:08):
And in the moment of herpassing,
the interesting thing was, isthat I felt as though there was
so much clarity in that moment.
Although, indeed I was sad, orfelt the loss of a living being
that was in my presence. Therewas such clarity that I almost
(05:30):
sat back in awe of the beauty ofit. So my sister who was with me
at the time, it was about threeor so in the morning, and we
were in the the main front roomdownstairs in my mom's house in
Maine. And instead of callingsomeone or instead of getting
(05:53):
busy doing things that one does,when their mom loses, passes
over, we sat on either side ofmy mom, and talked for three
hours, and just basked in herpresence and, and loved her, and
allowed that moment to, tolinger. And there was a lot of
(06:19):
beauty in it, because my sisterand I had an incredible
conversation that went from joyand laughter to tears to
disagreement in certain things,talking about how each of us had
chosen to live our lives andeverything.
So what I'm getting down to thebottom of in some respect is
(06:41):
that there's a lot of clarity inour suffering or our hardships.
And when we look at someone whois going through a hardship and
think, oh, that poor person,we're judging them, we're
actually looking upon them assomebody who is not equal to us,
and we're all equal, we're allbeings have the exact same
(07:05):
level. There's no caste systemin, in the world that was
created before religion, orbefore differences are between
before politics. And so whensomebody is suffering, and we
feel pity or sorrow or sadness,we are in fact, actually sharing
(07:25):
judgment upon them. And that's anegative energy.
It's not that we don't care orthat we don't have any
sensitivity to what their needsmight be in that moment. But
when you think about it, thereis some negative aspect to
feeling pity or sadness. Oh,that's so sad, or that's so
(07:48):
tragic. But in that moment, thathuman being is gaining
experience and actually gainingin wisdom. So as I said, I'm
departing in a very short amountof time to go on my fourth
expedition to Mount Everest andI'll be returning to the the
north to the Tibet China side.
I'm very, very excited about it,and will endeavor to share with
(08:12):
you some social media posts andand thoughts and musings,
whether it's on Facebook orInstagram or Twitter, and I hope
you'll look for me, and find methere if you can. And one of the
ways that you'll do that is youcan go to my website, eyes open
productions.com.
(08:35):
So I'm going to start today bytelling you that I'm going to
introduce you to one of mymentors who passed over 10 years
ago. His name is BradfordWashburn. He was a man who
showed me great kindness andshared with me much of his
knowledge and helped me growfrom an impulsive, over eager
(08:58):
adventurer, camera man tosomebody who became more
thoughtful and and planning inmy endeavors. And Brad was a
good friend as well. And I'mvery blessed that he became a
part of my life. And one of theplaces Brad loved to the most
(09:19):
was Mount Washington. In NewHampshire, it's the highest
point in the northeast at 6288feet. He was a young boy of who
had a fever, allergies and whenhe went hiking up on Mount
Washington, he found that whenhe went up higher his hay fever,
symptoms disappearedimmediately. And he fell in love
(09:44):
with mountains and all thingsmountain climbing and became a
great cartographer, anadventurer, mountain climber,
but one of the things that hewas the best at was sharing his
knowledge of the world. So as Ido that, I'm going to share with
you someof my musings, as I train for
Mount Everest that I recordedwhile hiking up the Tuckerman
(10:05):
ravine, and Huntington ravinetrails to get my workout in, if
you will. So, maybe I can giveyou a feel of what it's like to
be on Mount Washington and maybeif you have hay fever, maybe it
will disappear as well.
(10:47):
Bluebird conditionson thisHuntington ravine trail,
probably 34 degrees out andstill not really any wind or
breeze worth noting. It's greatto be able to hike in late
(11:10):
winter, early springwith light gloves and thinner
layers with the contingency forkeeping warm to be getting your
body moving and generating alittle bit of heat via exercise.
(11:31):
Which I've been asked what Iwore on summit dayon Mount
Everest in 2016.And I wore adown suit and thin layer of
(11:52):
long underwear on my legsas well along underwear top,
probably medium weight.
Not was iton my hands I were on the glove
layering system where the innerlayer was a thin fleece type
fabric that you might wear, youknow cross country skiing or
(12:15):
something. And outside of thatwas the shell of a pair of
gloves from which I had takenthe inner liner out. That was a
very thick, fleecy interior andit worked perfectly. Now I'd
like to say that there's no suchthing as cheating on something
(12:40):
like this because keeping yourfingers and toes intact is
pretty important.
As we pass by gorgeous littlestream slowly slowly building
(13:04):
its force and speed and more andmore exposed as the snow and ice
melts above it. But inside mygloves, each hand I had a heat
packet that I opened up when Iwas booting up in my tent
Unknown (13:28):
and I also put a heat packet inside the toe of each
boot on the top of my footand then generating heat
in the 12 hours round trip fromhigh Camp 26,000 feet to the
summit and back.
(13:52):
I was just fine.
The only time I got a littlechilly
was when we stopped on thesummit for about 30 minutes.
Okay, so 5075 feet ahead of me.
There was a guymoving really slowly.
(14:17):
And my disease isI can't relax when somebody is
ahead of me.
So I just turned the gas on gonedusted by the looks of the
(15:05):
amount of snot pouring out ofhis nose.
I need to rehydrate later to getI'm almost at hobbit corner
(15:26):
and it's right around here Iswear.
I always feel like I can usesomebody walking with me and
I don't doubtme someone's got a message for
me wants me to know some thingsI saw beautiful sometimes chases
(15:55):
sometimes I moved to tears outhere.
Andmaybe I'm better off not trying
to articulate just what it isthat I'm feeling inside.
That's what this podcast is allabout.
dot dotprocess thrifted the stuff that
(16:24):
worries me Ah, no, no.
MUSIC
Bradford Washburn (16:39):
Over the years I've written quite a
number of articles in theAmerican Alpine journal
with lots of illustrations andshowing routes that I as a
climber with considerableexperience. Know I think can be
caught. But haven't been quite.
Thom Pollard (17:01):
The voice that you just heard was of Bradford
Washburn.
I call him my mentor and friendand he took me under his wing
and shared with me much of hisknowledge and enthusiasm for the
world from mountain climbing foradventure. And one of the things
(17:22):
that I look back on knowing Bradas giving him his greatest
quality was that he sharedeverything he knew. He gave it
away freely. He was an openbook. anytime anybody would come
forward asking for somethingfrom him he would give it and
many mountain years, many, manymountaineers around the world
(17:46):
have basked in Brad'senthusiasm, while asking him
about routes on say Denali andAlaska or other routes that had
been unclimbed in Alaska. AndBrad would share with them his
his idea of how it might bepossible for them to accomplish
(18:08):
that. So eager mountaineers fromall around the world would email
him that's when email actuallyexisted. But back in the day
before email in the earlier 90s,or 80s, or 70s, or 60s,
it would be on a phone call.
Brad actually talked to me onetime about calling Sir Edmund
Hillary up and waking him up inthe middle of the night because
(18:34):
that Hillary is over was over inNew Zealand, which is actually I
think only a six or seven hourtime difference. But waking Ed
Hillary up and in the middle ofthe night to ask a burning
question, which now I can't evenremember, but to Brad at the
time, dammit, when it was aquestion that he needed
answered, he would pick thatphone up and bang, he would call
(18:55):
somebody up.
Bradford Washburn (18:59):
Well, you know, this, this is like putting
a sirloin steak out in front ofa hungry dog. You know perfectly
well, the next year is Alpinejournal have a story by somebody
climbing one of those roots. AndI've always been fascinated to
see whether the route that Ipicked up, made sense to them
when they got on the ground. Andthis is particularly true. After
(19:22):
you let's say you get over 55 or60. And you're unlikely likely
to be doing state difficultclimbing. And I had quite a
number of claims. It sort of inmy hip pocket that I didn't want
to talk to other people aboutuntil I was sure I wasn't going
to be able to do it. And then Ibegan sort of pressuring these
claims out one by one andwatching getting enormous amount
(19:43):
of amount of vicarious pleasuresaying that the route really did
work.
Thom Pollard (19:52):
Many people asked Brad over the years what his
greatest accomplishment wasexpecting perhaps that he would
say thefounding of the Boston Museum of
Science one of the greatestlearning museums in the world, a
standout among, among sciencemuseums in the world, where Brad
single handedly raised the moneyto actually buy the plot of land
(20:15):
where that museum stands todayand building it from the ground
up.
He was a great cartographer, hemapped Everest, he mapped
Denali, he mapped the GrandCanyon, he was an aerial
photographer unmatched anywherearound the world friends with
ancel atoms and sought out byNational Geographic for aerial
(20:39):
surveys of the glaciers andmountains of Alaska. And also,
he did aerial surveys over MountEverest when he was making the
map.
But Brad's would always say hisgreatest accomplishment was
marrying his wife, Barbara, whowas indeed one of the most
remarkable and lovely and kindand wonderful women that one
(21:03):
could ever meet. And Brad wasmush in her presence. And he
would speak about her with suchfondness and how she was the
greatest accomplishment havingmarried her was the greatest
accomplishment ever. Kind of afunny story. One time Brad was a
Harvard graduate. And Brad waskind of showing off one day in a
(21:26):
conversation talking about oh,well, you know, yes, of course,
when I was in Harvard back inthe 1930s. And, you know, we
Harvard graduates and this andthat, and Barb was like, Oh,
they let anybody into Harvardback then and Brach
shrugged his shoulders, andlaughed, it was like, she just
(21:48):
brought him back down to earth,because he was bigger than he
was bigger than life. But Barbbrought him back down to earth
in such a loving and kind way.
Bradford Washburn (21:57):
Well, Barbara, and I done everything
together for a little bit over52 years, and play aside from
being my constant companion.
And an inspiration that as aperson, in all this period of
time, she is has done anenormous amount of recording of
(22:20):
angles, I would be working withan instrument to see. And today
this, this is on tape, but notin the old days, it wasn't. So I
would have to give her theangles, and she'd put them in
the angle book. And thissometimes was very, very cold.
It's been wonderful having heron all these trips. And I think
that her presence has addedadded a great deal to the morale
(22:43):
of the people on the trips.
Because wherever she's been on alarger expedition, she's been
the only girl that was involved.
And this, I think, helpseverything a great deal.
Thom Pollard (22:53):
Brad, and I didn't get to know each other until
more or less the latter stagesof his life, he was probably
already in his 80s. When I methim, when he passed over, he was
96. And that was, I believe, inJanuary of 2006, when he passed
over, and I was so blessed tohave the opportunity to spend
(23:14):
some time with him just a day ortwo before he passed, and he was
still active and trying to getout of his bed and, you know,
bounce around and everything.
Andbut but I was very curious about
what he believed was theimportant thing that he would
hope he left as his legacy. Andwhen he speaks of this, it's a
(23:37):
really beautiful thing, becauseit's something that we can all
take upon ourselves to thinkabout what are what are we
leaving behind? Is it to be thebest at something or the
greatest or the most popular ormost famous or the richest or
whatever? And Brad'sBrad's common thread to his
life's work. And his legacy wasalways very easy for him to
(24:01):
answer. When you get snugglingup toward the end of your life,
which anybody who was a two hasto be thinking about, then you
tend to look back and say, wasthere anything that that sort of
pulls it all together? And theword I get out of this is
sharing.
(24:22):
And this applies to the Museumof Science, as well as all my
photography and all mymapmaking. Very few people are
going to climb Mount McKinley.
1000 people a year, are tryingto claim that right now, about a
half of them get out. But interms of the whole population,
this is nothing at all. And sothat most of the people you're
talking to will never have theexperience you're talking about.
(24:43):
So you have to measure it, whenyou describe it, in terms that
they can understand. And thishas been really great fun. And I
think that you would most of thepeople who have been on these
climbs would agree with me thatthe saying that
made the climb fun was the factwe were trying to do something
(25:05):
to create something that wouldmake other people interested in
happy rather than just gettingup there and enjoying what we
did our show. This shearingdoesn't just apply to lectures,
photographs, stories, it It alsoapplies to arm is in the
science, because indeed what itis doing is sharing exciting,
(25:30):
interesting science informationto large large numbers of
people. And if I were asked whywe did the museum and did all
this work raised all this money,I would say this is it. It's a
very exciting thing. To sharethe thrill of discovery, there
is nothing for my money soexciting as to see the eyes of a
(25:54):
four year old kid when that kiddiscovered something for the
first time. It's a thrilling astheirs. It was for Neil
Armstrong to land on the moon.
(26:27):
Hot tea,
Unknown (26:29):
sugar, no milk.
Well, that tea was just what thedoctor ordered.
It's time to get back down tothe car to the valley to the
cabin in the woods. cook up somegrub with my boys.
(26:54):
Thank you Matt Washington inHuntington ravine for giving me
your quiet splendor and beautyand for bathing me in aeons of
wisdomand thank you for the silence
(27:19):
which I'm sure the listeners arethinking to please be quiet.
Thom Pollard (27:26):
We've heard off and this podcast now.
Thank you to the wood brothersin their management for the use
of their song happiness Jonesfor our theme song here on the
happiness quotient. If you'dlike a free downloadable PDF of
(27:46):
the happiness quotient, a coursein happiness, visit me at
patreon.com slash the happinessquotient for more information
about me to inquire aboutpersonal coaching or public
speaking whether in person orvirtually please visit eyes open
productions.com and write meanytime at Tom dot Dharma
(28:07):
dot pollard@gmail.com
The Wood Brothers (28:09):
I got a happiness happiness Jones
Thom Pollard (28:17):
Thank you for visiting the happiness quotient.
I will see you all real soon.
The Wood Brothers (28:27):
all of my answers came driving myself
insane I had a dragon to tame tobe happy all of my peace and
(28:49):
quiet came from putting out fireI keep a spark alive to be happy
that old dragons gonna comeback mad I got a happiness jones
(29:18):
so badHappiness Jones HappyHappy Happy Happiness Jones Im
not sick Im not alone we allgot itHappiness Jones all of
(29:46):
those words I wrote in the stormthat rocked my boat all of that
was stuck in my throat when Iwas happy all of those songs I
(30:14):
was singin while my boat wassinkin next thing im thinkin'
im happy i might as well changemy name to Happiness jones my
(30:42):
friend.Happiness JonesHappy, happy, happy.
(31:10):
Happy, Happy. Happy. Happy.
Happy.
(31:30):
Happy. Happy. Happy. Happy.
This is the happiness quotient.
(00:11):
Have you heard of a course inhappiness? In this short
colorful guide filled withbeautiful adventure photography?
The easy to read guide suggeststhat we stop chasing happiness
in our path toward unlocking themysteries to life's big
questions. It offers a fewguideposts to contemplate, and
(00:32):
to put to use in your dailylife. Go to patreon.com slash
the happiness quotient, whereyou'll find a free pdf download
of a course in happiness.
The Wood Brothers (00:44):
all of my wisdom came from all the
toughest days i never learned athing bein happy
all of my sufferin came ididnt appreciate it I never
learned a thing bein happy
Thom Pollard (01:04):
Welcome to the happiness quotient on Thom
Pollard. When I started thispodcast, it was called Baker
Street with Thom Pollard. We'vesince changed the name to better
reflect its intent to thehappiness quotient. Today's
episode is the third everepisode I produced shortly after
which I departed from MountEverest. This episode is a good
(01:28):
depiction of what we endeavourto explore
The Wood Brothers (01:32):
had a dragon to tame to be happy
Thom Pollard (01:36):
If this is your first time listening. Welcome.
All I ask is that you give alisten to two or three full
episodes before you decide ifyou like it or not.
The Wood Brothers (01:45):
that old dragons gonna come back mad I
got a happiness jones sobadHappiness Jones
Thom Pollard (02:00):
Thank you for being here. And now. Episode
Number three.
I am now presenting to you ourthird installment of Baker
Street with Thom Pollard andwow, a to have come and gone so
(02:26):
fast. And anybody who was hereon the third must be a devotee,
and just ready to dive in andhear the cool stuff. I'm calling
this one my musings of MountEverest. And as many of you do
not know yet, I'm about todepart on an expedition to Mount
(02:48):
Everest, it will be my fourthexpedition there in 20 years.
My first expedition was in 1999went to the north side in Tibet
as a high altitude camera manfor a PBS Nova documentary,
which was a co production withthe BBC. And that was huge that
(03:10):
really opened my eyes to theworld at large and
my place in not only in theworld of climbing and but in a
lot of ways. I learned a lot ofthings about myself. And that
came as a result of fracturingin the team, of sorts in in
(03:35):
disagreements on the way certainthings should be handled. And I
am going to save the realdetails of that for a future
installment. But for now, theidea is that we gain knowledge
through experience. And when wesee someone that we deem to be
(03:56):
suffering or going throughhardships, those people are
having experiences through whichthey gain wisdom.
And we've all been in difficultplaces in our lives. We've all
had hardship lost people that welove to have relationships and
maybe lost a job or hadsomething stolen from us that we
(04:20):
loved or had a fracture in afriendship and things of that
nature that caused us to suffer,or at least go to a deeper place
of thought and reflection thatmade us see the world in a
different light.
For instance, even though thiswas more recently, in 2016, as I
(04:47):
was considering andcontemplating an offer to go
film, a documentary on MountEverest, my mom became very ill.
And in the course of about aweek she went from somebody who
was very engaged and, andbubbly, almost to passing over.
(05:08):
And in the moment of herpassing,
the interesting thing was, isthat I felt as though there was
so much clarity in that moment.
Although, indeed I was sad, orfelt the loss of a living being
that was in my presence. Therewas such clarity that I almost
(05:30):
sat back in awe of the beauty ofit. So my sister who was with me
at the time, it was about threeor so in the morning, and we
were in the the main front roomdownstairs in my mom's house in
Maine. And instead of callingsomeone or instead of getting
(05:53):
busy doing things that one does,when their mom loses, passes
over, we sat on either side ofmy mom, and talked for three
hours, and just basked in herpresence and, and loved her, and
allowed that moment to, tolinger. And there was a lot of
(06:19):
beauty in it, because my sisterand I had an incredible
conversation that went from joyand laughter to tears to
disagreement in certain things,talking about how each of us had
chosen to live our lives andeverything.
So what I'm getting down to thebottom of in some respect is
(06:41):
that there's a lot of clarity inour suffering or our hardships.
And when we look at someone whois going through a hardship and
think, oh, that poor person,we're judging them, we're
actually looking upon them assomebody who is not equal to us,
and we're all equal, we're allbeings have the exact same
(07:05):
level. There's no caste systemin, in the world that was
created before religion, orbefore differences are between
before politics. And so whensomebody is suffering, and we
feel pity or sorrow or sadness,we are in fact, actually sharing
(07:25):
judgment upon them. And that's anegative energy.
It's not that we don't care orthat we don't have any
sensitivity to what their needsmight be in that moment. But
when you think about it, thereis some negative aspect to
feeling pity or sadness. Oh,that's so sad, or that's so
(07:48):
tragic. But in that moment, thathuman being is gaining
experience and actually gainingin wisdom. So as I said, I'm
departing in a very short amountof time to go on my fourth
expedition to Mount Everest andI'll be returning to the the
north to the Tibet China side.
I'm very, very excited about it,and will endeavor to share with
(08:12):
you some social media posts andand thoughts and musings,
whether it's on Facebook orInstagram or Twitter, and I hope
you'll look for me, and find methere if you can. And one of the
ways that you'll do that is youcan go to my website, eyes open
productions.com.
(08:35):
So I'm going to start today bytelling you that I'm going to
introduce you to one of mymentors who passed over 10 years
ago. His name is BradfordWashburn. He was a man who
showed me great kindness andshared with me much of his
knowledge and helped me growfrom an impulsive, over eager
(08:58):
adventurer, camera man tosomebody who became more
thoughtful and and planning inmy endeavors. And Brad was a
good friend as well. And I'mvery blessed that he became a
part of my life. And one of theplaces Brad loved to the most
(09:19):
was Mount Washington. In NewHampshire, it's the highest
point in the northeast at 6288feet. He was a young boy of who
had a fever, allergies and whenhe went hiking up on Mount
Washington, he found that whenhe went up higher his hay fever,
symptoms disappearedimmediately. And he fell in love
(09:44):
with mountains and all thingsmountain climbing and became a
great cartographer, anadventurer, mountain climber,
but one of the things that hewas the best at was sharing his
knowledge of the world. So as Ido that, I'm going to share with
you someof my musings, as I train for
Mount Everest that I recordedwhile hiking up the Tuckerman
(10:05):
ravine, and Huntington ravinetrails to get my workout in, if
you will. So, maybe I can giveyou a feel of what it's like to
be on Mount Washington and maybeif you have hay fever, maybe it
will disappear as well.
(10:47):
Bluebird conditionson thisHuntington ravine trail,
probably 34 degrees out andstill not really any wind or
breeze worth noting. It's greatto be able to hike in late
(11:10):
winter, early springwith light gloves and thinner
layers with the contingency forkeeping warm to be getting your
body moving and generating alittle bit of heat via exercise.
(11:31):
Which I've been asked what Iwore on summit dayon Mount
Everest in 2016.And I wore adown suit and thin layer of
(11:52):
long underwear on my legsas well along underwear top,
probably medium weight.
Not was iton my hands I were on the glove
layering system where the innerlayer was a thin fleece type
fabric that you might wear, youknow cross country skiing or
(12:15):
something. And outside of thatwas the shell of a pair of
gloves from which I had takenthe inner liner out. That was a
very thick, fleecy interior andit worked perfectly. Now I'd
like to say that there's no suchthing as cheating on something
(12:40):
like this because keeping yourfingers and toes intact is
pretty important.
As we pass by gorgeous littlestream slowly slowly building
(13:04):
its force and speed and more andmore exposed as the snow and ice
melts above it. But inside mygloves, each hand I had a heat
packet that I opened up when Iwas booting up in my tent
Unknown (13:28):
and I also put a heat packet inside the toe of each
boot on the top of my footand then generating heat
in the 12 hours round trip fromhigh Camp 26,000 feet to the
summit and back.
(13:52):
I was just fine.
The only time I got a littlechilly
was when we stopped on thesummit for about 30 minutes.
Okay, so 5075 feet ahead of me.
There was a guymoving really slowly.
(14:17):
And my disease isI can't relax when somebody is
ahead of me.
So I just turned the gas on gonedusted by the looks of the
(15:05):
amount of snot pouring out ofhis nose.
I need to rehydrate later to getI'm almost at hobbit corner
(15:26):
and it's right around here Iswear.
I always feel like I can usesomebody walking with me and
I don't doubtme someone's got a message for
me wants me to know some thingsI saw beautiful sometimes chases
(15:55):
sometimes I moved to tears outhere.
Andmaybe I'm better off not trying
to articulate just what it isthat I'm feeling inside.
That's what this podcast is allabout.
dot dotprocess thrifted the stuff that
(16:24):
worries me Ah, no, no.
MUSIC
Bradford Washburn (16:39):
Over the years I've written quite a
number of articles in theAmerican Alpine journal
with lots of illustrations andshowing routes that I as a
climber with considerableexperience. Know I think can be
caught. But haven't been quite.
Thom Pollard (17:01):
The voice that you just heard was of Bradford
Washburn.
I call him my mentor and friendand he took me under his wing
and shared with me much of hisknowledge and enthusiasm for the
world from mountain climbing foradventure. And one of the things
(17:22):
that I look back on knowing Bradas giving him his greatest
quality was that he sharedeverything he knew. He gave it
away freely. He was an openbook. anytime anybody would come
forward asking for somethingfrom him he would give it and
many mountain years, many, manymountaineers around the world
(17:46):
have basked in Brad'senthusiasm, while asking him
about routes on say Denali andAlaska or other routes that had
been unclimbed in Alaska. AndBrad would share with them his
his idea of how it might bepossible for them to accomplish
(18:08):
that. So eager mountaineers fromall around the world would email
him that's when email actuallyexisted. But back in the day
before email in the earlier 90s,or 80s, or 70s, or 60s,
it would be on a phone call.
Brad actually talked to me onetime about calling Sir Edmund
Hillary up and waking him up inthe middle of the night because
(18:34):
that Hillary is over was over inNew Zealand, which is actually I
think only a six or seven hourtime difference. But waking Ed
Hillary up and in the middle ofthe night to ask a burning
question, which now I can't evenremember, but to Brad at the
time, dammit, when it was aquestion that he needed
answered, he would pick thatphone up and bang, he would call
(18:55):
somebody up.
Bradford Washburn (18:59):
Well, you know, this, this is like putting
a sirloin steak out in front ofa hungry dog. You know perfectly
well, the next year is Alpinejournal have a story by somebody
climbing one of those roots. AndI've always been fascinated to
see whether the route that Ipicked up, made sense to them
when they got on the ground. Andthis is particularly true. After
(19:22):
you let's say you get over 55 or60. And you're unlikely likely
to be doing state difficultclimbing. And I had quite a
number of claims. It sort of inmy hip pocket that I didn't want
to talk to other people aboutuntil I was sure I wasn't going
to be able to do it. And then Ibegan sort of pressuring these
claims out one by one andwatching getting enormous amount
(19:43):
of amount of vicarious pleasuresaying that the route really did
work.
Thom Pollard (19:52):
Many people asked Brad over the years what his
greatest accomplishment wasexpecting perhaps that he would
say thefounding of the Boston Museum of
Science one of the greatestlearning museums in the world, a
standout among, among sciencemuseums in the world, where Brad
single handedly raised the moneyto actually buy the plot of land
(20:15):
where that museum stands todayand building it from the ground
up.
He was a great cartographer, hemapped Everest, he mapped
Denali, he mapped the GrandCanyon, he was an aerial
photographer unmatched anywherearound the world friends with
ancel atoms and sought out byNational Geographic for aerial
(20:39):
surveys of the glaciers andmountains of Alaska. And also,
he did aerial surveys over MountEverest when he was making the
map.
But Brad's would always say hisgreatest accomplishment was
marrying his wife, Barbara, whowas indeed one of the most
remarkable and lovely and kindand wonderful women that one
(21:03):
could ever meet. And Brad wasmush in her presence. And he
would speak about her with suchfondness and how she was the
greatest accomplishment havingmarried her was the greatest
accomplishment ever. Kind of afunny story. One time Brad was a
Harvard graduate. And Brad waskind of showing off one day in a
(21:26):
conversation talking about oh,well, you know, yes, of course,
when I was in Harvard back inthe 1930s. And, you know, we
Harvard graduates and this andthat, and Barb was like, Oh,
they let anybody into Harvardback then and Brach
shrugged his shoulders, andlaughed, it was like, she just
(21:48):
brought him back down to earth,because he was bigger than he
was bigger than life. But Barbbrought him back down to earth
in such a loving and kind way.
Bradford Washburn (21:57):
Well, Barbara, and I done everything
together for a little bit over52 years, and play aside from
being my constant companion.
And an inspiration that as aperson, in all this period of
time, she is has done anenormous amount of recording of
(22:20):
angles, I would be working withan instrument to see. And today
this, this is on tape, but notin the old days, it wasn't. So I
would have to give her theangles, and she'd put them in
the angle book. And thissometimes was very, very cold.
It's been wonderful having heron all these trips. And I think
that her presence has addedadded a great deal to the morale
(22:43):
of the people on the trips.
Because wherever she's been on alarger expedition, she's been
the only girl that was involved.
And this, I think, helpseverything a great deal.
Thom Pollard (22:53):
Brad, and I didn't get to know each other until
more or less the latter stagesof his life, he was probably
already in his 80s. When I methim, when he passed over, he was
96. And that was, I believe, inJanuary of 2006, when he passed
over, and I was so blessed tohave the opportunity to spend
(23:14):
some time with him just a day ortwo before he passed, and he was
still active and trying to getout of his bed and, you know,
bounce around and everything.
Andbut but I was very curious about
what he believed was theimportant thing that he would
hope he left as his legacy. Andwhen he speaks of this, it's a
(23:37):
really beautiful thing, becauseit's something that we can all
take upon ourselves to thinkabout what are what are we
leaving behind? Is it to be thebest at something or the
greatest or the most popular ormost famous or the richest or
whatever? And Brad'sBrad's common thread to his
life's work. And his legacy wasalways very easy for him to
(24:01):
answer. When you get snugglingup toward the end of your life,
which anybody who was a two hasto be thinking about, then you
tend to look back and say, wasthere anything that that sort of
pulls it all together? And theword I get out of this is
sharing.
(24:22):
And this applies to the Museumof Science, as well as all my
photography and all mymapmaking. Very few people are
going to climb Mount McKinley.
1000 people a year, are tryingto claim that right now, about a
half of them get out. But interms of the whole population,
this is nothing at all. And sothat most of the people you're
talking to will never have theexperience you're talking about.
(24:43):
So you have to measure it, whenyou describe it, in terms that
they can understand. And thishas been really great fun. And I
think that you would most of thepeople who have been on these
climbs would agree with me thatthe saying that
made the climb fun was the factwe were trying to do something
(25:05):
to create something that wouldmake other people interested in
happy rather than just gettingup there and enjoying what we
did our show. This shearingdoesn't just apply to lectures,
photographs, stories, it It alsoapplies to arm is in the
science, because indeed what itis doing is sharing exciting,
(25:30):
interesting science informationto large large numbers of
people. And if I were asked whywe did the museum and did all
this work raised all this money,I would say this is it. It's a
very exciting thing. To sharethe thrill of discovery, there
is nothing for my money soexciting as to see the eyes of a
(25:54):
four year old kid when that kiddiscovered something for the
first time. It's a thrilling astheirs. It was for Neil
Armstrong to land on the moon.
(26:27):
Hot tea,
Unknown (26:29):
sugar, no milk.
Well, that tea was just what thedoctor ordered.
It's time to get back down tothe car to the valley to the
cabin in the woods. cook up somegrub with my boys.
(26:54):
Thank you Matt Washington inHuntington ravine for giving me
your quiet splendor and beautyand for bathing me in aeons of
wisdomand thank you for the silence
(27:19):
which I'm sure the listeners arethinking to please be quiet.
Thom Pollard (27:26):
We've heard off and this podcast now.
Thank you to the wood brothersin their management for the use
of their song happiness Jonesfor our theme song here on the
happiness quotient. If you'dlike a free downloadable PDF of
(27:46):
the happiness quotient, a coursein happiness, visit me at
patreon.com slash the happinessquotient for more information
about me to inquire aboutpersonal coaching or public
speaking whether in person orvirtually please visit eyes open
productions.com and write meanytime at Tom dot Dharma
(28:07):
dot pollard@gmail.com
The Wood Brothers (28:09):
I got a happiness happiness Jones
Thom Pollard (28:17):
Thank you for visiting the happiness quotient.
I will see you all real soon.
The Wood Brothers (28:27):
all of my answers came driving myself
insane I had a dragon to tame tobe happy all of my peace and
(28:49):
quiet came from putting out fireI keep a spark alive to be happy
that old dragons gonna comeback mad I got a happiness jones
(29:18):
so badHappiness Jones HappyHappy Happy Happiness Jones Im
not sick Im not alone we allgot itHappiness Jones all of
(29:46):
those words I wrote in the stormthat rocked my boat all of that
was stuck in my throat when Iwas happy all of those songs I
(30:14):
was singin while my boat wassinkin next thing im thinkin'
im happy i might as well changemy name to Happiness jones my
(30:42):
friend.Happiness JonesHappy, happy, happy.
(31:10):
Happy, Happy. Happy. Happy.
Happy.
(31:30):
Happy. Happy. Happy. Happy.
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