Mountains and Missions

I love Mountaineering. As a guide, climber, athlete, and adventurer I am continually driven to the beckoning silence of high places. This love prompted my move to the Lake Placid Region. Here, in the High Peaks Wilderness, we can simulate conditions found in some of the most remote places in the world without the inherent risk of going to those more remote areas. It is a joy to have the Adirondacks as my backyard.

Prior to moving here, I spent quite some time in the Rockies, Cascades, Alaska Range, Patagonia, Himalaya, and European Alps. I have been fortunate enough to climb some of the highest and most difficult mountains in the world.

By engaging in such an endeavor, I have learned several lessons in life, love, leadership, happiness, stress management, and other very meaningful aspects of the human experience. But one thing I learned for certain is about the sport of mountaineering itself. The lesson is simple: Mountaineering is the only sport where people celebrate victory at halftime.

In life I have reached many literal and metaphorical summits. It is no secret that much too often it is the internal struggle of life which presents the steepest obstacles. In his book, “No Shortcuts to The Top” Mountaineer Ed Viesturs discusses the struggles of success and failure that he faced in being the first American to summit all the worlds 8,000-meter peaks with no supplemental oxygen.

In this story, Viesturs paints a picture of his partnerships along his journey. He looked at, what to that point, was an impossible obstacle and said, “I can do that!” However, this is not a story of ego, overestimation, or solitary accomplishment. It is the story of discovering how to create and accomplish the next steps.

“Viewed as a whole, climbing all fourteen 8,000ers would have seemed almost impossible, but I took it one day at a time, one step at a time. I was passionate about what I did, and I never gave up. “Whatever challenge you have before you can be accomplished in the same fashion—whether it takes a week, two months, or a year. If you look at the challenge, it may seem insuperable, but if you break it down into tangible steps, it can seem more reasonable, and ultimately achievable.” The model for that strategy comes from the way I learned to break up the “impossible” 4,000-foot climb to a summit into tiny, manageable pieces: just get to that rock outcrop there, then focus on the ice block up ahead, and so on.”

My own story is full of success and failure. Of moments of heroism and inadequacy. My best accomplishments are not the times where I have been the most productive or seen my own work become established successes, but the times where I have recognized the humanity of others within my work. This reminds me that success cannot be measured at half time but, rather, in continuation.

It is a long journey to get into the mountains. It is a longer journey to come home. If we stop too long at one summit, we jeopardize our attempt at the next. Interestingly, nothing happens in the natural world that is not a part of our internal lives.

At Mountain Lake Academy we are compelled to change. Our staff are guides walking students thought their own summits. Internal pain, trauma, broken family lives, personal struggles, challenges with learning, and the pain of growing all present what at time feel like an impossible obstacle. And at the end of that impossible obstacle is the reward of another impossible obstacle. Our time on the summit is short compared to the journey there. And as we look to the past, we are continually challenged with “What’s Next.”

We are not now what we were yesterday, and what got us to today will not sustain us through tomorrow. Our humanity compels us to be in a state of perpetual motion. To be in motion is to be alive. To move with purpose is what it means to live. Everyone is going somewhere; but not everyone is going somewhere on purpose.

We, at Mountain Lake Academy, are working tirelessly with students to halt the regressions in life that have stunted their abilities, help them to recognize their own potential, then mentor them as they actualize their potential. This progression is core to who we are and what we do. However, it is not our purpose for doing such challenging acts. Our purpose is that we work with youth the re-set their trajectories because we believe that everyone, no matter what has happened to them in life, deserves a chance to succeed.

It is easy to look at youth in a therapeutic boarding school and ask, “What did you do to get there?” We challenge ourselves, and you the reader, to shift the focus from “What have you done?” To “What has been done to you?” Much like the mountaineers in the Ed's book we are tethered to each other's lives through bonds of humanity. We are, at the core of the journey, on a path of togetherness. Some of us walk as guides, some of us are guided. None of us have come from the same place. However, in the convergence of paths comes a new trailhead. It is at this trailhead that we meet.

Mountain Lake Academy serves as a place where several diverse paths converge. It is the trailhead of a new adventure. We draw from our experiences to help educate us about the road ahead. We learn from each other. And, as guides, we come together to provide understanding, support, and insight to those with whom we travel.

Over the next months we will be publishing a new mission statement, a set of community values, and a vision for our future together. We will be charting the course for the next steps on the journey. By doing so we are going somewhere on purpose, roped in, and ready to face the challenges together.