Dancing on rocks and reaching for the skies
Breast cancer survivor inspires, instructs other female climbers

This article by Aimee Chou was printed in the October 19, 2005 Jackson Hole News&Guide in the Working Women special section.
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Little is more symbolic of Cara Liberatore's penchant for teamwork than a drill in which she literally ties her students in a knot. The Exum Guide's harness anchoring seven students' multi-hued ropes, Liberatore demonstrates belaying arm motions - one arm pulling down, another pulling up. Passersby on the Teton Park trails gape at what looks like 7 strands of brightly hued bubble gum slowly lifted off a shoe heel. The students knot ropes to each others' harnesses, proceeding up a multi-pitch route.

"I don't care if there's a bee stinging you between your eyes - you have their life in your hands," said Liberatore, stressing the fatal potential of an idle belayer.

The youngest member of the first all-women Women's Century Expedition ascent of the 8,000-meter Cho Oyu in 2000, Liberatore was already a climbing veteran by age 27. Today, at 34, she has accomplished - and endured - more than most women twice her age.

Before easing you into knots, rappelling and befuddling climbing vernacular, Liberatore reassures you class activities will be "rather benign - we won't be going up something steep," and much to your relief it is benign.

But for Liberatore, diagnosis for breast cancer two summers ago indicated something much more than benign. Suddenly, the French meaning of "Teton" - breast - took a literal meaning as she faced mastitis surgery. And suddenly, the HERA Foundation (Health, Empowerment, Research, Advocacy) Climb for Life - an event she had done for two years before diagnosis - became a little more personal.

Liberatore began fund-raising four years ago in honor of her adoptive mother, Carole Liberatore, who died of breast cancer. When the same disease struck her, there was a shaky moment when she came back to the Exum guiding outfit "questioning my strength."

Liberatore opted for a single mastectomy over lumpectomy, because the radiation associated with the latter could potentially hurt the lungs with which she breathes, shouts encouragement, and scales an 8,000-meter peak. While climbing the Grand Teton is a metaphor for conquering an obstacle, a fear of heights or fatigue is different from the fear of a spawning cancer cell.

"In climbing, you have some control over elements - if the weather's bad, you can turn around and pull the plug early," she distinguished between the two fears. "When you're diagnosed, there is no time out and acceptance is the path you walk down."

Despite a brief medical hiatus from the peaks, her contagious enthusiasm spread even faster than cancer. Liberatore is a "great synthesizer, and has absolute professionalism. She's spiritual in the way she acts and treats people; that's spirituality," said student Mary T. Browne, a New York-based author of The Power of Karma. "Someone like Cara is a paramount example of inspiration and survival. She never misses anything. For that reason no one will ever fall over or get hurt; she gives everything she has."

Liberatore credits others for influencing her attitude, pointing out Browne's tenacity after she slipped off a rock while bouldering, skinned her knee and climbed right back on. As an instructor her ability to simplify the knottiest of knots borders on hypercreative - "imagine that the end of the rope is a car, and the "8" is a highway. Pretend this is your car, this is a highway, and we're going for a drive." While teaching the class how to smear, she will advise one to "start with small steps."

For ophthalmologist Dr. Jerry Maida, that first step on the mountains led to many more, including three Grand Teton summits, the Expedition Inspiration in the Himalayas, and recently, bagging peaks in Italy. Before doing the HERA climb, "I was totally out of shape and didn't exercise a day of my life," Maida recalled. Genetic cards were not in his odds - nary was a male in his family who had lived past 63. In his late fifties, his fate seemed sealed as the sands of time fell. Until Liberatore stepped into his life.

Even through harsh weather, exhaustion and the precarious descent from summit, every climb with her is "like getting my fix," said Maida. "I've traveled around the world, and I've never met anyone like her before."

Liberatore's philosophy is that "it's so incredibly empowering to take life step by step and to slow yourself down instead of taking quantum leaps."

Empowerment is the keyword for HERA, which empowers women to take control of their health, empowers scientists to find new solutions, and empowers support in the community. "You, Cara?" was the reverberating reaction to her diagnosis as shockwaves rippled through the community.

A nutrition-conscious athlete, she seemed the last candidate for cancer. Teaching "Food for Life," an 8-class series for the Cancer Project in Washington D.C., she empowers self-control against a scourge which she learned is "indiscriminating."

Early menopause induced by the estrogen suppressant Tamoxifen was "literally a hard pill to swallow," she said, but on the step-by-step trail toward recovery, she walked, sometimes even Rollerbladed, 3.5 miles to the Beth Israel Medical Center clinic in New York and skied in Bozeman, Mont.

"You don't ever take the medication without thinking each day about why you're taking it," Bill Liberatore said. And even as Cara recovers in remission, "you don't ever really 'leave' the cancer community."

To Cara, climbing is "about the journey; the summit is the icing on the cake." Between the base of the mountain and the summit is a lifelong camaraderie Liberatore has grown amongst many others in the cancer community. With a bracelet of mother of turquoise from each of her five Cho Oyu teammates, she wears the "reminder of sisterhood" on her wrist.

Despite the incredible support, the reality of cancer is "you're all alone, bottom line," and no one can take a needle or chemotherapy for a cancer patient. Cara, a former dancer, and Bill had concocted a witticism: "Ballet is like rock climbing on a flat surface." To watch her demonstrate a smear or belay is tantamount to witnessing her intimate connection to the Earth that is her playground, or in her words, "my office is the outdoors."

It's a playground she will play in for as long as she can, and nary will a night pass that she doesn't gaze in awe at the stars. "Because of who she is, how bubbly she is, (full recovery) is what everybody expects," Bill added. But in reality, cancer is indiscriminating to persona and full recovery is still a question mark.