Acclaimed climber Mark Synnott spoke to a crowd gathered in the basement of the Campus Center of his experience that brought him out of rural Jackson, N.H., and on top of the largest rock walls on Earth in a presentation titled "Climbing Round the World" held last night by the University of Massachusetts Outing Club. But after the presentation, he sat down for an interview with the Daily Collegian.
A graduate from Vermont's Middlebury College in 1993, Synnott is known throughout the climbing world for his prowess in climbing the sheerest rock faces and is equally adept in both ice and rock climbing.
While classmates at Middlebury had been recruited by investment bankers enticing students south to New York, Synnott had only one passion for which he was ready to go anywhere.
He said that from an early age, his main goal was to climb, and he later became a carpenter to support his roaming lifestyle. Three years after graduating from Middlebury, Synnott spent 39 days living in the shadow of the 4,700 ft. Polar Sun Spire on Baffin Island, Canada, an event he said dwarfed his preconceived notion of self. The experience changed his outlook on life, but his assumed life direction was not only augmented but became clearer - up.
"I was coming back from Baffin Island and was kind of depressed with the idea of going back to carpentry and construction. Up until then, I'd been using carpentry as a way to go climbing. I'd work really hard for three months and take a few months off," he said.
But coming back from the island, Synnott realized he could support both himself and his passion by creating slide show presentations and touring with them.
This had been his version of life from the first National Geographic he was lost in.
"I kind of just looked at that photograph and told myself that I was going to climb it," he said. "And I guess that's the difference between a reader and an explorer. They look at it and say, 'wow it must be a great view from up there,' explorers find a way to get up there themselves."
Synnott speaks from experience when speaking of being atop the world. However, spoke too on the qualities necessary to reach those heights, and perhaps more fittingly, on the literal pitfalls that appear and often consume one's attempt to summit anything, never mind a mountain.
During the lecture he spoke of a moment called "the Grip" during which every climber says to himself, "Okay, this is really really bad." He said that climbing slime walls in the Amazon was his experience with it, and it's a feeling that is associated with being stuck on a wall, unable to move up or down, fearful of death.
He sat across the table red-eyed. Maybe it was the slide show or the idea of driving home to New Hampshire after the interview, but then again it could have been the plain white walls of the room we were in, his eyes unable to process the level of starkness compared to the wonder of his most natural habitat.
But he added that in addition to "the Grip" each climber has his moment of triumph, a "primeval scream" that is emitted not only vocally but silently in his conscious as well.
"I've had several. I have them out there when I'm climbing, and I'm looking out over everything below up. But I have them at home too. I have a wife and three kids," Synnott said.
In a profession that has one seeing parts of the world continuously for the first time, Synnott admits that he fears being jaded, a moment where a primeval scream is replaced by an apathetic shrug and a grip that holds nothing.
"I fear it, especially when out guiding. I'll be out 30 days straight, and I might think about it. It's my job, how I support myself and my family. I couldn't do anything else now, but I think that the people who become jaded do it because they allow themselves to."
A suggested $3 donation was well-received by the crowd as it came with a free raffle ticket that could win those in attendance climbing equipment and t-shirts. The Outing Club's membership includes both current and former students as well as faculty. The group organizes trips year round that involve climbing, canoing, hiking and spelunking skills of all levels.
Will McGuiness can be reached at wmcguinn@gmail.com.
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