What I hope to look like in 10 years

I can still reach my dreams

How often do you meet someone you really admire? Someone you hope to model yourself after? I was fortunate enough to meet one of these people recently on Mont Blanc, Europe's highest mountain. Its height is about 4,808 m (15,774 feet).

Yes, the man in this picture is one of my heroes. When I was in university, I always dreamed of growing up to live the free life like him. Now I can only dream and plan to approximate him in a smaller stature.

I encountered him on the cable car going up to the Aiguille du Midi on Mont Blanc. He was slim with an iron jaw, long hair, and forearms that seemed to be chiseled from steel. Certainly he is a mountaineer. His T-shirt proclaimed proudly that he had been to Mount Everest and to Mount Ama Dablam - giant mountains of the Himalaya range of Nepal and Tibet. He stared at the cliffs and ice falls of Mont Blanc as if they were his private, familiar playground.

Yes, in 10 years or 20, i hope to be living a life in the mountains. I hope to have the free style and eyes of the eagle of men like this. What do you think? Is it possible to return from the city to the mountains? Is there something in city air I just can't breathe? Is there something in the mountains I just can't leave? Yes....I think so.