SUMMER 2002 • VOLUME 7, NUMBER 1
Setting
Her Sights on Everest:
Marjorie M. Cross '65 Reaches Ultimate Goal: "To Inspire"
 Ever
since George Mallory quipped, "because it is there,"
every climber who has set his or her sights on Mount Everest has
been asked: Why? Just prior to her March 29 departure for Nepal,
Marjorie M. Cross ’65 explained her reasons for attempting to
scale the world’s highest peak: "What I want is to not live
a predictable life. My mom used to buy American cheese with every
slice wrapped, and that to me epitomized the kind of life that
I don’t want to have." For Cross, Everest wasn’t about risk
taking, nor did the alumna go there in pursuit of glory. Diagnosed
with diabetes eighteen months before the expedition and a five-year
survivor of breast cancer, the fifty-eight-year-old had a loftier
goal than tagging Everest’s summit: "If I can inspire and
motivate older women, that would be success. I’m not asking them
to climb Mount Everest, but to think about doing something outside
their comfort zone. Being past forty, fifty, or sixty is no reason
to give things up. In fact, it’s a good reason to take up new
interests and challenges."
Read the whole story here....
•From Hobnail Boots
to Mechanical Ascenders: Mount Holyoke Mountaineers
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