LAST Thursday's avalanche on the Mont Blanc of the French Alps, the highest mountain in Western Europe, is a saddening event indeed, having killed nine climbers and injured a dozen others in what has been described as the deadliest such mountaineering accident in ten years. The Mont Blanc misfortune is obviously neither the first nor last such story. An insightful reading would bring us close to man's intrinsic search for knowledge of the real physical world, in this case from the highest and widest possible angel. There are moments and venues when such search could be risky or even fatal. Presumably, men and women who engage in such endeavours are definitely aware of the risks involved. History indicates however that such awareness has never preempted or diminished man's quest for ever-greater knowledge of nature, be it on earth or in outer space. Noticeably however, most of the available definitions of the mountaineering sports, including that of the Encyclopedia Britannica, tend to largely miss that angel, focusing mainly on three aspects; namely, the pleasure of the climb itself, the thrills associated with the activity and testing the personal ability to face hazardous situations. In the latest incident in particular, the regional authorities concerned had reportedly warned climbers while grouping at the base station, against the potential risks bad weather conditions resulting from unusually massive snow and high winds. And it must have been in the very knowledge of the Mont Blanc victims, some were themselves guides or instructors, that they were launching their ascent to a summit that is classified as one of Western Europe's most dangerous peaks and that they could possibly face the same fate of the eight climbers who were killed under similar conditions on a nearby mountain four years earlier. Despite these solid alarms; namely, the official early warning, prior knowledge of the dangerous character of the summit of choice, the availability of a record of past mishaps in a nearby region, the climbers, numbering 28-30 according to most press reports, proceeded with their operation and the disaster took place. The efficiency and swiftness with which the French authorities dealt with the mishap, having immediately deployed two helicopters, ferried to the site specialised rescuers equipped with life-saving kits, body heat wraps, and mountain dogs for quick search purposes and arranged fast evacuation of the victims and injured to hospitals, represents a model of competence and time-saving in emergency situation management. As this demonstrably skilled and expeditious rescue effort was initiated, news coverage indicated that those killed and injured included climbers and guides of some six or seven different nationalities. That bit of news, in particular, implied special significance; for it pointed to the universal character of the incessant human endeavor to scan nature and get first-hand outlook. With the help of existing technological and scientific innovations aerial filming and space imaging do bring us now vivid and magnificent pictures of Earth and of some segments of the Universe. But human eye-sighting remains different in effect, given its distinguishing characteristic as a means of cognizance from time immemorial. This observation might be helpful in any attempt to understand some of the hidden dimensions of certain human activities, including such risky ones as mountaineering. “They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths," were the words of late US President Ronald Reagan when mourning the loss of seven crew members of space shuttle Challenger in January 1986, adding: “It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons." There are many differences between mountaineering and space exploration, yes, particularly in the risk early warning time and in the rescue possibilities. But they share the underlying motivation, Man's time-old and risk-proof quest for expanding the horizons of knowledge.
