dawn & sir edmund hillary...

sir edmund hillary & tenzing norgay reached the summit of mt. everest on may 29, 1953. the first folks to do so.

here in new zealand, hillary is a legend, and he adorns the orange five dollar bill and is a part of daily life.

it is said that the first mountain hillary climbed was mt. ollivier, which happens to be about a 20 minute walk or so from the mueller hut in which luke and i and a bunch of other folks from new zealand and around the world spent a night, early last week i'd guess it would've been.

the wind had been whipping and it was cold when we hit they sack that night. i woke up round 4am and went outside in my long johns for a middle of the eve trip to the ticket office. it was unseasonably warm and the tender warm breeze compounded by warm air felt almost abnormal with snow surrounding me and only the light of the moons and stars bouncing off the darkened white that was everywhere. i returned from the natural t.o. and walked back on the porch of the hut as a young israeli cat was smoking a cigarette outside. dude couldn't sleep and we chatted for a minute or so. then i went back to the bunkroom and lay in my sleeping bag, hoping to hit the hay yet again. through the wall, i heard the radio crackle in the hut warden's quarters.  i found out in the morning that two australian climbers had been hit by falling ice on mt. cook and miraculously found their way back to a hut and the radio call had been the news and the park officials assessing whether a middle of the night airlift was needed.

eventually i did fall asleep, but only for an hour or so and then woke up before sunrise, thanks to the hut warden who was fired up to be a rooster and get peeps up for sunrise. i put on my jacket and walked up mt. ollivier on an early morning sunrise solo meditation tip and breathed and watched the dark turn to dawn turn to light, like always, siempre fresco, beautifully on this forever remarkable & mad planet...

love and health to all...