the urge to climb

At a youth conference that Dr. Wheeler helped administrate, I met a man named Willy Unseold. He climbed with an American expedition to Mt. Everest. The conference was ecumenical Christian and mostly for girls. I was along as a kid because Dr. Wheeler had work to do on campus and my sister Alice and I could explore the campus of the Westown School or attend attend seminars as we pleased. Willy Unsold was there to give an inspiring lecture The lecture was about Climbing and having faith in your fellow climbers.
Three years later my mother, Dr. Wheeler, showed me a clip from a newspaper memorializing his daughter who died climing (Annapurna,) a mountain she was named after. A few Years Later I heared that he had died climbing that same mountain. That was probably when I was thirteen.
When I was in kindergarten I loved to climb trees, especialy hemlock because their branches protrude perpendicular to the trunk, and because there was one of those trees at each end on the playground. I used to race to the top with a girl named Diane Norris. She always climbed higher because she was smaller and lighter.

Update: March 09, 2005
In 1976 Unseold and his daughter Nanda Devi were on an expedition to climb her namesake mountain (Nanda Devi), the highest peak in India. His daughter died during the climb, which was plagued by accidents and eventual tragedy.

I admit that there were some inacuracies in my memory.
Heres a book about the expedition.

Nanda Devi: The Tragic Expedition
by John Roskelley