High above a small village in the French Alps towers a famous mountain named Mont Blanc. Mont Blanc serves as a permanent challenge to mountain climbers. Nearby is an even more difficult and dangerous crag, called in English, “Fool's Needle.” That mountain sounds appropriately named to me. “Fool's Needle.” Why do mountain climbers tie themselves to one another? asks the old joke—to keep the sensible ones from going home. That’s Fool’s Needle. Standing 11,487 ft. high—only the more experienced mountaineers even attempt to scale its slopes.

Sometime back a young student was trapped for three days on the north face of Fool’s Needle. He was dangling from a narrow ledge when rescue workers found him. His hands were frozen, and later, from a hospital bed, he told about the harrowing ordeal. “I …