The business guys I take out aren't like doctors or lawyers, who are more apt to look for ways to minimize risk. Big risk is what has netted them their biggest paydays. We're a curious mix, with curious reasons for being here. I'm a writer who has reported on mountaineering for the past decade and has developed a degree of familiarity with the sport that has no basis in reality. This becomes apparent on day one when I put the climbing harness on backwards, then inside out, then backwards again.
Knots are also a problem.
Jen and Mark Mjellinek, a honeymooning geologist couple en route to volcanology fellowships in Australia, have a bit more real-world experience. They're from Idaho and they're rock-climbing enthusiasts, though only Mark has an alpine background. A few weeks earlier, he and a friend climbed Mount Rainier, the toughest ascent in the lower 48. Si Matthies oversees 17 traders who buy and sell corporate bonds for Norwest Investment Services Inc. in Minneapolis. His wife gave him the course for his 40th birthday this past spring a reward for a statement he once made about climbing Mount McKinley before he hits 50.