J.T. Wilcox of Wilcox Farms recently celebrated the family business' 100th anniversary by climbing Mount Rainier. He learned that the mountain can be ruthless.

Wilcox passed along a story about the trip, which pushed him to the limit.

By J.T. Wilcox

Why do you climb a mountain?

"Because it is there," said Mallory, but he's been lying frozen on his mountain since 1924, so this is an unsatisfactory answer for a happy, middle-aged father of three.

"To prove I am tough enough to do it," would be a more accurate answer for me, if I was honest enough, or maybe if I had a few tumblers of Laphroig, but wasn't yet at the verbose philosopher stage. Yes, I might have said that before I climbed the mountain.

"Do not take the mountain lightly," was Bill Vipond's frequent advice. Bill is a slightly older guy whom I met a couple of years ago. Bill is a nearly perfect friend, not just to me, but also to a multitude of others. In fact, he's been like a brother over the last year. Although he has a slight tendency towards pontification, Bill's unusual personal openness, enthusiastic desire to help and the sense that he has a mission in life make him one of the most endearing people I have ever met.

It would be hard to exaggerate the respect that I have for him, but this story is about the mountain, so I'll leave my relationship with Bill for another time after just adding that he has climbed in many areas across the world and is one of those who believes strongly in the spiritual aspects of being in danger with guys in exposed places. The rope team, Bill, John Colleran, Rob Coyne, Henry Liebman and I had been training hard for more than three months. We'd meet twice a week to do the Cable Route, an agonizing climb straight up Tiger Mountain, a couple of miles long but with around 2,500 feet of vertical gain. We did this with at least 20 lbs on our backs and our times went from about 65 minutes to around 50 minutes at best for me.

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