SHIVA'S ICE
Serendipity, said Julius Comroe, is “looking for a needle in a haystack and finding the farmer’s daughter”. Apart from a slight hint of sexism, the definition is effective: serendipity is a word invented to describe a specific attitude: and that is to keep one’s eyes wide open, because you may happen to look for something and not find it, but at the same time you may run into something else which is just as beautiful or important, and if your eyes aren’t wide open enough you risk not noticing it, continuing the search of your needle. Simon Gietl and Vittorio Messini know this very well: “serendipity” is like mixed climbing: you climb a mountain, but in the meantime you discover that the rhythm of breathing, ice axes, and crampons frees your mind, just like a mantra. It is just like starting off a journey aiming to repeat Huber’s and Wolf’s route on Mt. Shivling, in India, and instead ending up opening an incredible new line.
