Last month we introduced you to mountaineer Melissa Arnot, on a mission to climb Everest. Then the earthquake hit, and everything changed—except her courage.
We all have goals.
But life has a way of resetting them—and showing all of us what's really important.
Let me back up. Anyone here remember the June issue of Glamour? In it you met the wild, wonderful mountaineer Melissa Arnot, who was just setting off for what she hoped would be her sixth ascent of Mount Everest, and her first without supplemental oxygen. "It's the ultimate test," says Melissa, 31, who grew up in a Colorado trailer and became one of the world's most accomplished climbers. But "I know to dig deep and tell myself, 'You got this!'" In a video on glamour.com—the first of what was intended to be a series about her climb—she packed up her ChapStick and Sour Patch Kids, said goodbye to her dog, and set out for Nepal.
And then tragedy struck. On April 25 a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit central Nepal, killing at least 8,100 people—and triggering an avalanche that wiped out Everest Base Camp. Like the rest of the world, I woke up to the news; no one at Glamour could reach Melissa. Four hours later we learned she was safe: Her team had been about five miles away from what she calls "the devastation" of base camp, where 18 other climbers were killed.
But it wouldn't be like Melissa to pack up and come home. She walked back to camp—"it was marked with blood," she says—to help, and made a pledge to support the families of the Nepali workers who had perished. It wasn't the first time she had risen to this sort of challenge: Five years ago, after the death of one of her Sherpa climbing partners, Chhewang Nima, she started the Juniper Fund, designed to give back to the families of Nepalis who die on the job. Today her goal is to support the many more whose relatives were lost this year and to help rebuild the Everest community she loves. She says she thinks she'll climb again, but that's not what matters now.
Most of us will never get near the mountain, but we all have Everest-sized goals of our own, and moments when life forces us to recalculate and set new priorities, dream new dreams. Melissa is doing just that, and you can watch her in action at glamour.com/video. "My whole goal was to tell a beautiful story about Everest," she says. "And I still believe that there's a beautiful story to be told."
Giveback
You have to love a woman with a cause, and even before the earthquake, Melissa Arnot had one. Her Juniper Fund, founded with fellow climber David Morton, supports the families of Sherpas who are killed while working in the climbing industry. Before the April avalanche, the organization sponsored 21 families who had suffered such a loss, and it is now adding those of 11 Nepalis who died this spring. "This is the obligation we have," Melissa says. "We have to support the families." Every dollar helps them survive; learn more at thejuniperfund.org.
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