Dreaming Mount Everest

Long-distance athletic endurance events provide a forum for experiencing the limits of the human condition and, thus, an invitation toward what otherwise appears unattainable; a forum for an emptying of oneself in physical and emotional exertion whereby a space is then opened for an experience of the luminous; and, finally, a space is created that reveals a meaning and purpose that otherwise was not apparent. This paper offers a first-hand, applied, and human example of the embodiment of the creative psyche by demonstrating the experience of Jung’s notions of archetype and symbol, the mythopoeic psyche, synchronicity, and the transcendent function. The paper does so by describing the training for and participation in Everesting-29029, a thirty-six-hour endurance event in which participants ascend a mountain enough times to equal 29,029 vertical feet—the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. Because of the size of the mountain, the length of the event, and the extreme weather conditions possible at that altitude, the event becomes one of tremendous proportion made even more so since a large share of the climbing is done absent the light of day, inviting a rich play of the imagination.