(Way) Out Of Office

For some of us, relaxation means leaping off cliffs, rowing the Atlantic solo or summiting Everest, pushing mind and body to the breaking point – and beyond. So what do these overachievers have to prove? And to whom?

- Paige Reddinger

LISA THOMPSON, A 48-year-old mountain climbing enthusiast, is recalling her harrowing trek on Bottleneck, one of the most perilous passes of her 8,611m ascent to the summit of K2 in 2018. “This giant tower of ice is hanging above you, with chunks that periodically fall,” she says, “and you have to climb underneath it for hours.” But the biggest threat lay beneath. “You walk very delicately, right up against it, on a boot path that’s less than the width of your foot. And if you fall there, it’s something like a two and-a-half-mile (four-kilometre) drop.”

The Bottleneck comes about 8,230m into one of the world’s most treacherous climbs. The inherent difficulty of breathing at that altitude and the unsettling narrowness of the path aside, Thompson says the physical challenge is relatively minor for a seasoned climber. It’s the magnitude of being mere centimetres from plummeting over the edge and into oblivion that can be mindblowing. “Getting your body to move quickly and efficiently in a spot like that is 100 per cent mental,” she says. “It’s about just telling yourself you can do it.”