*sigh*

I like what you say about pushing your limits with climbing. It reminds me of something I read here, where former chess champion Josh Waitzkin talked about transferring what he knew about “touching Quality” in chess to his new discipline of martial arts.

After spending every waking hour over the past three years analyzing the risk/reward profile of potential investment opportunities, it is clear (from my perspective) that I would be terribly uncomfortable with the risk/reward ratio of climbing a mountain, a boulder or even a small hill. Due to my profession, my mind has been trained to immediately identify downside scenarios. There are several unappealing downside scenarios to related to climbing on things, foremost of which, is falling off of them. Now, to be fair, I have no idea what the odds are of such catastrophe, so from this point forward I will be talking about my perception of risk and % likelihood of disaster.

For me to even consider the possibility of falling to my death, there would need to be a substantial reward opportunity associated with this risk (and I’m not talking about the spiritual kind). I’m thinking that for every 1% chance that I have of falling (real or perceived) I would need to be compensated on the order of $5-$7 million. This means that in order for someone to talk me into a climb that had a 10% perceived probability of me falling, you would need to have somewhere between $50 and $70 million available for compensation. This would imply that I would value my life at $500 to $700 million, if I did the math under certain circumstances I likely wouldn’t value myself so highly, however, I am placing a considerable premium on this valuation due to the fact that falling to my death is significantly more unappealing to me than most other possibilities.

If you are independently wealthy (or can work out some sort of sponsorship deal) and wish to see me climb a mountain, feel free to contact my attorney and we’ll get it done.

NYPE Analyst

Alpine climbing makes me so very small, tests my strength and endurance hour after hour, and allows me to meditate and sort out priorities. (Although sometimes the weather sucks, partners, avalanche danger and other things can prevent a summit victory which is difficult). The mountains share with me their beauty, power, wonder, serenity, peace. When I reach the summit or an awesome view I feel alive, reinvigorated… John Muir once said the mountains are calling and I must go.

I love rock climbing because it forces me to focus, on a crux move I am only thinking about what is in front of me ALL other cares of the the world and what other people are thinking disappear (although sometimes I do think about falling). I love the motion of climbing, like a dance with the rock. I agree with you the movements are invigorating especially when you make it through a difficult section. I like sharing successes with others and when I fail there is always support from the climbing crew.