Can you meet a mountain on the radio? That’s the challenge Anne and I set for ourselves as we were putting together this week’s show, “When Mountains Are Gods.” We had already identified several people to talk about the deep human connection to mountains, but we wanted to do something more - to actually take listeners up a mountain with us.
So when I heard about David Hinton’s memoir/essay “Hunger Mountain,” I knew we had the answer. David is a renowned translator of ancient Chinese poetry. His book is both a meditation on why these poets had such reverence for mountains and also a reflection on his own hikes up his favorite mountain, called - of all things - “Hunger Mountain.” He estimates he’s climbed this mountain around 300 times.
Anne and I were already spending the summer in Vermont, where David lives, so we interviewed him at his house, hidden on a dirt road deep in the woods. And right after the interview, we drove half an hour to hike Hunger Mountain ourselves.
It’s a gorgeous trail that winds up through a forest, and we stopped every so often to pull out our H6 Zoom recorder to capture the sounds of the rushing mountain streams and alpine winds, along with our own reflections on what David had just told us. We tried to wrap out heads around one stunning fact: long ago, this mountain range rose to 40,000 feet, soaring high above the Himalayas.
Then the hike got steep….very steep. Once we got above the tree line, we encountered the expansive bald face of the mountain, which required crawling up the rock hand over foot. Hunger Mountain isn’t particularly tall - it’s 3,540 feet - but the final ascent was exhausting. We often had to pause to catch our breath before finally summiting. The view from the top is spectacular, with vistas toward Vermont’s Green Mountains in one direction and New Hampshire’s Presidential range the other way.
And the radio story? The narrative cuts back and forth between our interview with David and our climb up Hunger Mountain. And yes, you’ll hear us panting and gasping for air as we reach the summit.
—Steve