This is the story about a crippled woman who decided to climb Sweden’s highest mountain.
Anette Jørgensen is 47 years old. Once her mother took a pill against nausea - the pill contained the substance Thalidomide which causes birth defects.
Anette was born without knees and elbows,
she has only three fingers on each hand, and also suffers from celiac disease. She is
allergic to gluten, and as a precautionary measure sticks to a diet consisting of apples, porridge and raw ginger.
She has never known her mother who rejected her after giving birth. Anette spent the first 18 years of her life in hospitals and various institutions.
When the pain became too strong, she let go and let herself fall into a world of spirit where she could see herself from the outside with a smile on her face.
In 2006 Anette was lying on the operation table. She was with her friend Gustav - he was watching over her. She felt there was nothing more to live for. It was time to give up.
A voice - she doesn’t know where it came
from - asked her to drop all self-pity and
instead help Gustav, who had a personal
crisis.
She was strong, the voice told her. There was
a lot more for her to do in the world.
Anette recovered, got up and joined forces
with a group of fired-up individuals from
Denmark with a very high morale.
They taught her to see life as an evolutionary process where the highest good is to evolve beyond ego for the sake of the whole.
Anette refuses to be a victim.
To show herself and the world that you can do wonders even with a handicapped body, she decided to climb Kebnekaise - Sweden's
highest mountain.
Before the trip she made a chair out of a backpack so that Gustav could carry her when the terrain became too inaccessible.
The high north, Sweden. Anette on her way to the parking lot that is closest to Kebnekaise. From the lot
there are 19 kilometers (11 miles) of rocky path to the foot of the mountain. The longest walk Anette ever
did was a three-hour walk in a Danish forest. But three is just a number. On the same day she ends up
walking eight hours, and ten hours the day after.
The three fingers on Anette’s hand are the ring finger (is flexible) and the middle and index finger (are like hooks that cannot be straightened). Children love Anette’s hands. She always tells them
that the little finger and thumb got eaten by a shark.
Kebnekaise lies above the Polar Circle. It takes 24 hours to get there by train from
Copenhagen. If you drive the same distance
straight south instead you end up in Rome.
The mountain is 2103 meters (6900 feet) high.
Before the trip Anette went to the beach to find a stone. She wanted to have a present that she couldgive to the mountain. She found one, took it home and painted a symbol of evolution on it. Now the stone
lies on top of Sweden.
Team spirit in the Cirkus Valley. Anette, Jon Bertelsen, Martin Fluri and Gustav Pedersen are practising ‘letting go of everything’ for five minutes before the last climb to the top.
Close to Kebnekaise’s top is an empty shed where people can rest and hang out before moving on. Anette + team reach the shed late in the afternoon on a Wednesday. Their train back to Denmark leaves
Saturday three days later. When it rains on Kebnekaise’s top you get snow storm, and the weather
forecast has predicted heavy rain from six pm and all through the next day and the day after.
Jon, the team leader, makes it clear in his own quiet way that it’s simply too dangerous to try to reachthe top. Besides, according to him, it makes no difference wether they physically touch the top or not.
What matters is that they have proven that they are able to work together for a higher purpose. The
group eats, heads back down the mountain again and hits the Circus Valley at 1 am, crashing.
To Anette this trip is like a beautiful dreamcome true. The fact that three men have
done their utmost to help her carry out this
mission fills her with gratitude and joy.