Rushing to Sunset
Hiking in the Himalayas (Young) and Grand Canyon (Old)
by
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June 12 The mountains were fantastic this morning with the sunlight bouncing off their snowy sides, making the whole valley glow with the promise of a new day. I'm frightened and, for once in my life, I admit my fear. Ray and I discussed my state of health last night, and there's a strong possibility I'm experiencing symptoms of altitude sickness which are serious and, if ignored, can cause death. It's difficult to know which of my symptoms (coughing, nausea, headache, irritability, and light-headedness) should be attributed to my cold and which are a result of the high altitude. When I woke up this morning, Ray asked me if I wanted to return to Kathmandu, and I replied that I honestly didn't know. Now I'm faced with a decision, the most serious that I've ever encountered. I can appreciate how incredibly remote this area is - no medical facilities, radios, or help in any form if something should happen. If we had chosen the regular route to Base Camp, we would probably be near a hospital right now. As it is, we're at least five days away from anything that even resembles civilization - aiming for 18,000 feet of ice and snow. We're alone with God.
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About the Book
In the preface to Rushing to Sunset, the author says, “This isn’t a book about aging, but it could be. I’m anxious about the aging thing . . . My fear is feeling and acting old . . .” She goes on to describe two extreme physical and mental challenges she undertook at different times in her life—one when she was young and the other when she was old but felt young. She was twenty-six years old when she agreed to accompany a medical student on a thirty-day, three-hundred-fifty-mile trek to the Base Camp at Mt. Everest, with no training or hiking experience. Forty-one years later, at age sixty-seven, she hiked from the South Rim to the North Rim and back to the South Rim in Grand Canyon. At the time of the Himalayan invitation, the author was in Kathmandu, not expecting anything to happen. But when an opportunity to get off the beaten path presented itself, she eagerly accepted. The Grand Canyon experience happened because she was ready for the chance to prove that she wasn’t too old for an adrenalin-driven adventure, that her body could still work for her. While the settings were different, the result was the same: the author accomplished something that made her feel incredibly strong and good. She felt wonder and amazement at the ability of her body to endure extreme challenges at both a young and an old age. In that respect, the book could be about aging after all.
About the Author
Judy Patberg is a coeditor and an author of We Just Shoveled Two Feet of Partly Cloudy, a family memoir; From Peace Corps with Love, a book about her experiences as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the early 70s; A Winter Sabbatical, the story of a middle-aged woman’s return to the place where she grew up; and Tribute: Three Lives Remembered, a story honoring the memories of three people whose different worlds were inextricably tied to each other. She is also a coauthor of Teaching Comprehension, a text to help teachers implement comprehension instruction in their classrooms. Judy is a retired literacy professor from the University of Toledo. She has recently moved to Harbor Springs, Michigan, where she lives with her husband.