Within both the readings, Mount Analogue and Mount Verita, it is quite obvious that mountains, and moreover, climbers have a certain spiritual or mystical view towards the mountains they climb. Very early on in René Daumal novel, Mount Analogue, there was a reference to several mountains worldwide that had some holy or spiritual connotation, such as, Mount Olympus. However, all these mountain have been summited and now, are no longer thought to be mystical. Yet, Mount Analogue has not been discovered, nor climbed. Thus, implying that Daumal’s pursuit of Mount Analogue was not only to find and climb a very large mountain, but to find and climb into the heavens. This theoretical path to enlightenment was not easy to find. The mountain seemed to be placed in a dip within the earth’s sphere. In other words, a place that seemed only to exist if one knew how and what he/she was searching for. According to Daumal, the continent of Mount Analogue had not yet been discovered nor explored. Later in the book, when the expedition arrived on Mount Analogue, it was soon discovered that all sort of settlements and expedition had been mounted on this “continent.” However, it would seem that many expedition, similar to Sogal’s and Daumal’s, had been mounted previously, with no one seeming to return from the summit. Could the belief throughout time that mountains are a gateway to the next world, create a frenzy to discover a true gateway?

Mount Verita has its own mystic appeal in regards to perfect or immortal women. Starting with Victor and Anna’s ascent of Mount Verita, where the priestess, that the people of the little mountain village were so afraid of, was first mentioned. The accounts that soon follow suggested that these women were captured by the allure of the mountain where time was stagnant. Stagnant time is a common concept among mountaineers, in the capacity that mountains are always changing, but yet stay the same. Stagnant time is described to be as if the mountaineers feel that they are in another world of their own, surrounded by the beauty of the mountains. In Mount Verita, the mountain is incredibly beautiful, but also attracts the beauty of young women to join its stagnated time. The mountain seems to be a place of paradise and worship, similar to a monastery. Furthermore, Anna’s account of coven suggested as “If I were dead, you would want me to be in peace and paradise. This place, to me, is paradise (p. 304).”  It seemed to be that the pardise, in order to worship the sun and eternal time, was on top of a mountain. As I previously stated in the last paragraph, Mountains have long been looked at as mysterious, abnormal, and had a religious connotation. This story furthered this distrust in the high mountains where anything is plausible, yet nothing is proven to be abnormal.