Subscribe to Outside Magazine
advertisement
Survival Guru

Today's Question
What should you do if you run into a cougar in the backcountry? answer

What is the number one backcountry skill people should learn? answer

Eco Adventurer

Today's Question
What are the five best environmental movies of all time? answer

What are the greenest colleges? answer

Videos Ask Dave
  • What kind of dog will make me look manlier? answer
  • Is there a sport that safely combines my twin passions for guns and kayaks? answer
  • How come most of the world's cultures enjoy eating goat, but Americans don't? answer

Online Favorites

Special Issues

Photo Galleries

save this page print this page email this page
  • share this page

Outside Magazine, October 2007

The Big Idea
30 Times

By Jack Handey

Everest
(Illustration by Barry Blitt)

Don't like to brag, but I have climbed Mount Everest 30 times.

The first time I climbed it, I was only ten years old. I was lucky to make it to the top. I didn't know what I was doing. I was wearing only corduroys, a windbreaker, and Keds.

After that I decided to get some real mountain-climbing gear. I got some boots with those spiky things on the bottom, and I got one of those ice-pick things.

To be honest, you don't really need the ice-pick thing, but it looks cool in photos. You might also want to take some rope; any kind will do.

I have climbed using oxygen and without oxygen. Once I climbed using helium, so my voice would sound funny. When I was younger, I climbed Mount Everest five times in a row. Every time I got to the bottom, I said to myself, "What the heck, I'm going back up."

I guess I must have been getting bored, because about my 15th time, when I got to the top, I piled up a bunch of rocks to make Mount Everest a few feet higher, and then stood on that. But the next time I reached the peak, someone had scattered the rocks and left a sign that read, don't pile up rocks. Screw you, I'll pile up rocks if I want to!

Whether it's rude signs or altitude sickness, Everest is always a challenge. Once I was within a few hundred yards of the summit when I had to turn back. I remembered I had to go to a bachelor party back at Base Camp, and I would have been late. Another time I made the mistake of starting my climb after dark. Also, I was drunk. I stumbled around all night. Finally, at dawn, I struggled onto the summit. But it turned out to be the wrong mountain!

Probably my most difficult assault on Everest was when I attempted to climb it nude. I hadn't started out nude. But it was a nice, warm day, and on my way up I decided to take off my clothes and catch some rays. A blizzard suddenly moved in and blew my clothes away.

I had a decision to make: I could turn back, or I could continue on, naked. I decided to go on. The blizzard got worse. I became disoriented. Finally, I spotted a Sherpa's hut and knocked on the door. The Sherpa answered. "Excuse me, sir," I said, "but I'm climbing Everest and I've become nude." I asked if I could spend the night. "You can spend the night," he said, eyeing me suspiciously. "Just don't try any funny business with my daughter." It was then that I noticed a beautiful, buxom girl peeking out from behind him.

To make a long story short, I did make it to the top, wearing a woman's dress and carrying a load of shotgun pellets in my buttocks. Sometimes I wonder: How many more Everest climbs do I have in me? A hundred? Two hundred? It's hard to say. All I know is that I hope I can keep climbing Everest until the day I die. And even after I die, maybe some type of high-voltage stimulator could be implanted in my brain, so that I sort of flop uphill, spasmodically. That's my dream anyway.






JACK HANDEY created "Deep Thoughts" for Saturday Night Live. His latest book is The Lost Deep Thoughts (Hyperion).

 Subscribe to Outside and get a FREE Gift!
 Give the gift of Outside Magazine!
 Subscribe to Outside Online's free weekly e-mail newsletter featuring gear reviews, fitness advice, galleries, podcasts, and more.