The Carabiner – On being "roped up" with Max De Pree
Mountaineering has been an important part of my life and leadership development. I have been part of a group of men who climb mountains together now for over 33 years.
I find in mountaineering a rich resource for images of leadership and management, relationships and community. Almost every element of leadership and organizational life finds an image or metaphor present in the organization and execution of a mountaineering expedition.
The mountaineer's rope has been an especially powerful image for me – the connection between climbers at high altitude. The process of roping up is a metaphor that helps me think about leadership – an image that informs my thinking about mentoring. Being roped up is about tying your life to another – an image that fuels my understanding of mentoring. The carabiner is the clip that ties a mountaineer into a climbing rope. It is a personal symbol of choice: the carabiner – the personal hardware with which each individual climber ties into the climbing rope.
 This carabiner has served me since my introductory mountaineering course with the Sierra Club. With it I tied into rope teams that climbed Mt. Rainier and Mt. Baker in the Washington Cascades, Mt. Banner, North Peak and several attempts on Mt. Ritter in the California Sierras. This is the carabiner that I took to the Mount Everest Base Camp. It is the carabiner that I gave to Max De Pree as a symbol of thanks for allowing me to clip into his rope during my leadership journey.
Some thoughts about being roped up:
The rope is the mountaineer’s lifeline.
It distributes the risk among a group; it protects the individual. |
Climbers choose to rope up.
It is for their own protection – against mistakes and bad decisions. In the 1970s the BBC sponsored a climb up Mt. Everest. The first team Scott and Hasten successfully reached the top. Martin Boysten and Mick Burke, the second team, were nearly there when Boysten’s oxygen failed. He had to return to camp. Mick Burke, so close to his personal objective, untied from the climbing rope and proceeded toward the summit alone. He was not seen again. The climbing rope protects individual climbers from hidden crevasses and from their own bad judgment. Climbers also choose to rope up for the safety of others. One climber in good position can hold several colleagues secure on a high glacier. But there is risk in tying yourself to another. Another’s fall can also take you down. Recently on Mt. Hood, the leader slipped and took two rope teams down. Three died. |
The strongest climber goes first.
The strongest climber leads the climb, choosing the route and demonstrating the way forward. The lead climber provides security for those following, but it is the riskiest position. The lead climber has the furthest to fall before the followers can stop him/her. A group of paraplegics climbed Mt. Shasta in California. One of the team was Mark Wellman. Wellman received fame several years ago when he climbed the 3000 foot rock wall of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. It was a major achievement for one who was “never to climb again.” But it was Mike Corbett who first caught my attention. Mike Corbett risked his life by roping himself to a paraplegic and coaching his friend up that awesome rock face. |
Being roped to someone stronger protects you against your mistakes.
The lead climber holds you secure while you correct (learn) and recover. It also encourages risk. It is much easier to risk when you know someone will keep you from a fatal fall. Being “roped up” gives confidence, but also means giving trust. Actually, you need to fall once to learn how to trust. |
The leader does not do your climbing.
Everyone climbs for themselves, even when in trouble. The rope gives you space and time to do what you need to do to get back on your feet.
|
Persons roped together have to find a pace that works.
If the leader walks too fast the follower is pulled off balance. If the follower walks too slowly the leader is pulled off balance. If the leader walks too slowly or the follower too fast the rope gets too much slack and becomes dangerous to both. Few climbers have the confidence (or foolishness) to climb on high mountain glaciers without being roped to at least one other person.
|
For over twenty-five years I have had the wonderful experience of being tied into a rope with Max De Pree, following a leader who knows who he is, shows me a path, models a way of climbing, and who believes in me enough to let me clip into his rope to risk a piece of his legacy in the Center. As a model mentor, he encourages me to take risks, to learn and grow and further develop my leadership in the process. He has “held” me and believed in me when I fell and thought I was failing. He provides a space to test my ideas, to explore my thinking and review my mistakes. He asks me the questions that I do not think to ask or have been avoiding asking.
For twenty-five years, knowing that Max was only a rope's length away gave me the confidence to risk this adventure we call leadership. If the rope is a metaphor of the relationship between mentor and mentoree, the carabiner for me is a symbol of the personal choice and connection we have to that mentoring relationship.
Walter C. Wright, Jr.
|
