After serving 8 years in prison for assault with a deadly weapon, the man (high on meth) was observed through the window strangling a woman with the intent to kill. This is a true story! The window was at a Culvers fast food restaurant where my friend Randall was eating with his son. His son (an ER doctor) first spotted them and ran out to the patio, hit the guy and pulled the woman to safety inside the restaurant. While he was working to keep her alive he saw that his father was now on the patio and using a chair to defend himself against the bad guy who was now brandishing a large knife. Details are fuzzy but I believe he was stabbed as he then used the chair as a weapon in self-defense, aiming for the head. The man took off, somehow crossing six lanes on a very busy road with my chair-wielding friend on his heels, stab wounds and all…

The others in the restaurant didn’t help. They didn’t want to be involved. For Randall, he just says that these things seem to be a part of his life’s journey.

It all sounds like a movie – but so do the other stories I heard last night, and they are all true!

Like the one when Randall was 14 and his mother dropped him off at the foot of a mountain with a backpack and a dime. The dime was to call her in a couple days when he reached somewhere (on the other side) with a pay phone. Or when he was 16 and involved in a motorcycle accident which left him with over 1,000 stitches, one month in the intensive care unit and sporting a “halo” for four more months!

Randall was born and raised to be a farmer. He turns 70 this year, and he is still a farmer – but perhaps a part-time farmer, part-time Indiana Jones. I think he might have told us stories for hours, but the one that we gathered to hear last night was about the time he survived the deadliest natural disaster in written history – in Nepal, ON Mount Everest! Can you first guess that this was one of SIX trips to Mount Everest? I don’t know that there is a peak on the earth that he has not summited, probably several times. He switched from apple orchards to pie cherries so that his winters would be free to travel to South America and climb.

“So do you climb a new mountain every season?” I queried… Well, I don’t have the exact number but he explained how, during a trip to South America he might climb 4-5 volcanoes in Peru, and then to Argentina for a couple mountains and then… somewhere else. That would take a month and prepare his for Everest ascent a few weeks later.

“For every storm you survive, a stronger you emerges, for every mountain you climb, a bigger you is born.”

I digress… back to last night’s gathering. Randall and his wife joined a group of my friends in my home to share his story and lessons that he had learned (thus making his experiences just right for my blog). My notes are scribbles so I hope I have recorded the details correctly.

“Mountains are like life,” he began, “They are hard work and they are worth it!”

On this particular trip ten or eleven years ago, he was accompanied by his daughter, a hair stylist from Arizona who can hike circles around him. Randall says he likes to hike with women. Women are resilient. Women never give in, they laugh, they are strong. They have an edge. (This sounds like the women in my life!!) He also has a great love and respect for the sherpas. Here is how AI defines a sherpa: Sherpas are a Tibetan ethnic group indigenous to the high Himalayas of Nepal, renowned for their mountaineering expertise, high-altitude endurance, and roles as guides and porters in Everest expeditions. Originating from eastern Tibet, they are predominantly Buddhist and inhabit the Khumbu region. Randall describes them as some of the poorest people on the earth, but the people most full of love. Due to his beard which is long and beaded, he says that if he is in trouble in America most people would fear him and drive on by, but in Nepal he was loved and cared for as nowhere else on the planet.

Here is a trailer to the NBC Dateline (June 2015) that covered the story. There is a documentary coming out this year as well.

Randall and his daughter had left the basecamp before the 7.8 earthquake struck. At the next camp (Camp One) Randall became very ill and his daughter asked him to remain behind. Of course he wouldn’t do that. He had altitude sickness and the pulmonary edema made it very difficult to breathe. She was at or near Camp Two and he was far behind when the 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal. Away from the mountain over 8,000 people were killed and over 100,000 injured. On the mountain 19 climbers died and 60 were injured (don’t quote me on those numbers). I read somewhere that a chunk of ice the size of the Statue of Liberty (think about that) from one of the adjoining peaks fell 3,000 feet in 30 seconds! This climber said that there were hurricane force winds and a tsunami of ice and rocks hurled at them. The ensuing avalanche erased the trail.

His daughter’s vigil was rewarded as Randall eventually came into sight, but he was in a very poor condition. His O2 sats were at 50 and although he had acclimated, his organs were beginning to shut down. They gave him what little oxygen they had with them. There was no way to hike down, and even if the weather could clear, no one can fly that high… well, no one except a hero! As they were down to the final oxygen tank, suddenly the clouds lifted and a helicopter appeared. Again, helicopters cannot fly at this altitude, but this pilot from Switzerland risked his life to attempt to rescue Randall. They had to take everything out of the chopper including the chairs. Randall says that he had to grow fingernails very quickly as they were the only way to hold on. Remember his weakened condition and now imagine this – because the air is so thin – there is no lift and the helicopter could not fly down to the lower altitude. The only was down was to put it into a corkscrew pattern and then land it sideways. This was miraculously completed and then… the clouds returned.

At this point Randall paused, “Life is a journey, these things happen.”

I hope these things never happen to me… but other things are bound to appear – I just hope to never make it onto Dateline NBC with my story… and I really don’t want to be stabbed by a bad guy and then chase him with a chair!

There were several words of wisdom for when “life goes south” and since most of us will not be suffocating as blood fills our lungs while stranded on Mount Everest… think about any sort of difficulty in your own life. These things apply to all of us!

1. Take a moment to understand your circumstances
2. Don’t panic
3. Don’t focus on what you cannot control
4. Focus on one breath, then focus on the next breath
5. Adapt
6. Be positive
7. Get a plan
8. Take the time to focus on the next minute, on the next five minutes
9. Have a dream and work hard
10. Work will make your dream a reality
11. Keep going!
12. Keep calm!

Eventually they were able to bring the hikers on the mountain down via helicopter two at a time. Back at camp the medical tent had been destroyed and the oxygen tanks were blown all over the place. He and his daughter had only the clothes on their back as all their supplies had blown away. Randall’s life was still very much in danger and the closest village was a five hour hike away. Alas, another hero appeared. A very wealthy man from England was in base camp. He offered to purchase a helicopter that would come and take Randall somewhere that he could receive medical care. Randall would only go if his daughter could come along. The promised helicopter arrived.

Recall that this country is badly damaged and reeling from the massive earthquake. After 6 or 7 days the bodies left in the rubble were decaying and having to be cremated on the sidewalks. The devastation was unthinkable and help was scarce. They flew somewhere that I don’t remember, and then that wealthy man purchased an airplane which I believe took them to India. Bless that wealthy man!! Also, these two had no supplies, no passports and rescue operations were underway for the entire area, so their flights had to occur at night. It was 15 days before he was able to tell his family that he was alive. Eventually he made it to Hong Kong, Los Angeles and then Arizona where he was treated in hyperbaric chambers. His lungs were badly damaged. NBC wanted an interview. BBC wanted an interview. Randall just wanted to be home – and to find out where his daughter was (she was in Thailand).

Wanting to be home was his goal, but in the moment of crisis this could not be his focus. Like us, he had to focus on what was ahead, how to survive. One breath, then another breath. I remember when my brother-in-law climbed Mt. Hood. They began their hike in the middle of the night and I understood this was so that they could summit and make it home before it was dark again the next night. Randall explained another reason to hike upwards in the dark. He said he wants his hikers to focus on the two steps in front of them that are illuminated by their flashlight, not on the summit. This would be their goal, but not their immediate focus as they do the hard work to get there.

A few more words of advice:

1. Take one step at a time, take care of the immediate problem.
2. Air, food, water and shelter are important.
3. It will all work out.
4. Stay with your team – this is your FAMILY your neighbors.
5. Women are smart – they have things figured out.
6. Men need to listen to women.
7. Be truthful.
8. Don’t surrender.
9. Keep HOPE.
10. Keep your head.
11. Keep moving forward.
12. Do what you love.
13. Fear inhibits.
14. Do not be inhibited by fear.
15. Women are relentless.
16. You aren’t failing if you press forward.
17. Abundance does not bring happiness. Randall recalled a time that he had handfuls of little Hersheys chocolate bars for the children. When they received one they did not eat it – they took it to their families to share. Think about that.
18. In Nepal they take care of their elderly as they should. Think about that.
19. One lama (spiritual leader in Nepal) told him to do one good deed every day, and to tell others to do one good deed every day, and then look and see what happens.

When his daughter got engaged Randall told her future husband – Let her do what she wants! Also, he might fail at something but that failure will not come from a lack of energy nor a lack of trying. Randall once missed a hike because of a broken ankle. Every person of his 20 member rope team died in a tragic accident on that hike.

Nature happens to everyone. Good people. Bad people. Things will happen. It is our attitude that we have about what is going on in our lives that make a difference. The year after the disaster Randall took his entire family back to Mt Everest, even his grandchildren.

As I mentioned, Randall wears a beard and this beard is full of beads. He says the beads are heavy, they dangle and he feels them every day. They remind him of his family and his ancestors. They remind him of where he has been, of his life. This is his journey.

He declares, “What I have gone through is what I am!”

I would say these words about grief. I would say these words about cancer. Let’s add motherhood, marriage, moving, friendships, financial setbacks… I can relate… can you?

PS – the first photo is what I used created to use as an invitation to hear Randall’s story and the second photo was created to remind everyone that we would be having ice cream sundaes… may be there is a little mini-lesson here. A reminder that it will all work out. Or perhaps that you can still eat ice cream in the middle of your storm.