Well before the September 11th terrorist attacks I was always carrying an American flag to the summit of every climb I did. On this climb with Rasa Poorman I carried a little flag I found while running in Dearborn (my home town). It was lying on the ground next to a used car dealership where it had been decorating on of the antennaes on the cars in the lot. It seemed so sad the flag was lying on the ground so I picked it up, took it home and washed it and carried it on my next three climbing expeditions. It has flown on the summit of three high mountains on three continents. At the summit of Mt. Rainier I turned around to watch another rope team from our expedition about to reach the summit and was reminded of the line from the song that goes

"Purple Mountain's Majesty."
Contax G2, 45mm Carl Zeiss lens, Circular Polarizer, Fuji Reala 100 ASA film.