Last summer, Alison Levine got an email from Erin Simonson of Mountain Guides International: Would she be interested in helping put together a team of American women to attempt to climb Mount Everest?
Would she ever.
Having bagged the highest peaks on six continents, Levine had but one to go. The BIG one. It was her dream to climb Everest — and to do it in order to raise money for the V Foundation, in honor of former North Carolina State University basketball coach Jim Valvano, who died of cancer in 1993.
"His mantra was, 'Don't give up, don't ever give up,'" says Levine, a college hoops fanatic. "I echo these words to myself all the time when I am climbing, although I usually add the caveat: unless you get frostbite or pulmonary edema. He was a great leader and motivator. He had spirit."
It was with spirit that Levine has attacked the pursuit of mountaineering. She started climbing just four years ago, 18 months after her second heart surgery. She had been born with Wolff-Parkinson White Syndrome, a condition that precluded, among other things, mountain climbing.
"I wanted to do something I couldn't have done before my heart condition was corrected," Levine explains. "I am now completely healthy and do not take good health for granted, ever. While I don't think a couple of heart procedures are all that big of a deal compared to what many other people have gone through — cancer survivors, for instance — I do think it has taught me to be a fighter. Sometimes, tenacity, persistence and a strong spirit can carry you further than just muscle alone."
