Aug 1, 2005 By Michelle Thompson For The 7 min read

Climbing a 14,410-foot active volcano blanketed in snow and ice, George Hall felt spiritually invigorated but emotionally and physically drained. For the 25-year-old Uniontown man, the spectacular view of Washington state from Mount Rainier’s summit wouldn’t expand his horizons as much as his fellow climbers did. Hearing them recount their experiences with breast cancer drained him more than the mountain ever could.

As an outsider with no friends or family members diagnosed with breast cancer, Hall joined a small group of survivors and those still in the midst of their battle against the disease in his first mountaineering expedition.

“When they heard that they had cancer, they hit a low, and this is sort of the strength that brings them back out of it,” said Hall, lead hair stylist and colorist at the Woodlands Spa at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa. “The climb is supposed to symbolize their life as a journey. They say that it’s all about the journey. Whether they summit or not, it’s all about the journey.”

Hall felt spiritually fulfilled as they shared their individual stories with him and helped him to understand an illness that leaves them with physical and emotional scars. Hall said he believes these scars have altered their lives for the better.

“It’s made them realize how short life is and not to take it for granted,” he said. “It’s re-energized their lives.”

The Breast Cancer Fund held its 10th anniversary “Climb Against the Odds” expedition July 17-24. The event marked this San Francisco-based organization’s sixth major mountain climb, which raises funds the help prevent a disease affecting one out of eight women, according to the fund.

While working in the salon, Hall has tried to lift the spirits of numerous customers diagnosed with cancer.

“It doesn’t just play out in the salon. It’s the whole spa experience,” he said. “They get pampered, and they make themselves feel like they’re a woman again.”

Some come after being diagnosed, shattered. They need time to think and figure out how to deal with the weight that seemed to collapse on top of them.

After their first chemotherapy sessions, they come to the salon holding chunks of their hair that seem endlessly to fall from their scalps. They will not forget the dreadful experience or the stylist who shaves off this part of them, according to Thaddeus Golonka, salon manager and master stylist at the Woodlands Spa.

A year after the chemotherapy ends, they come for their first haircut, but a strange texture or color protrudes from their scalp.

“It’s a very deep and incredible thing,” Golonka said. “It’s like Samson. They lose their beauty. They lose their strength.

“They lose all of this stuff, and when it starts to come back, then the conversation is so deep and crazy and everywhere. They cry and we cry.”

During his free time, Hall rock-climbs three or four times a week, making frequent visits to Cooper’s Rock in West Virginia.

The avid rock climber of five years has challenged himself at Mount Zion in Utah, Red Rocks in Las Vegas and West Virginia’s New River Gorge.

Feeling that rock-climbing intertwines with mountaineering, Hall has had a growing desire to pit his body against a peak’s terrain. A few years ago, Golonka introduced him to Iris Lancaster, a breast cancer survivor originally from Dunbar.

Lancaster now lives in Cement City, Mich., and has participated in all but one of the Breast Cancer Fund’s climbing expeditions. She invited Hall to take one of the 40 spots this year, an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.

“In the beginning, he was intrigued with it because it was a personal best,” said Golonka. “It’s about what he can prove to himself.”

Each mountaineer had to raise at least $5,000 and cover the cost of travel and gear. Hall raised approximately $11,000. Maggie Hardy Magerko and Joe Hardy, who own Nemacolin Woodlands and 84 Lumber, sponsored him for $10,000.

Golonka gave him the time off he needed, so Hall could finally have his chance to take this journey. Before he left, Golonka told him that the man who went up that mountain would not be the same man to come down.

As Hall started his hike to Mount Rainier’s summit, he enjoyed the clear starlit skies above him, joking that the climbers needed to listen to the “Rocky” film soundtrack to inspire them throughout their journey.

Once his group made it to an area the guides referred to as “Disappointment Cleaver,” their ascent would become more challenging. Their rope groups would be completely exposed on the mountain, so the guides told them that if they did not think they could make it to the summit, they needed to turn back. Many did.

Hall said he fought against the altitude and thinning air throughout the final four hours to the summit. When his group finally made it, they collapsed on the soft snow, exhausted.

Hall had about 15 minutes before the group had to start the trek back down the mountain, which proved more difficult than the climb up. He struggled against a burning sensation running through his thighs. And, the sun had appeared over the horizon, its soft rays melting the snow and making it wet enough to threaten the climbers with less traction.

The small group held a seminar called “Strong Voices” after the climb. Forming a circle, they each took a turn telling the group their personal reasons for doing this climb. As one of the first few people to talk, Hall could only offer a few short responses.

“I don’t have any bouts in my family with cancer. Nobody has dealt with that,” he said. “I wasn’t climbing for anybody specifically, but I felt like I was there to support all of these women.”

The oldest women in the group inspired Hall the most over the week. One 65-year-old cancer survivor climbed the mountain in his group without one complaint.

Two of the women talked about their struggles with metastasis, in which the breast cancer has spread to their bones. One said the doctors thought she could only survive for half a year, and she has fought for approximately six years and climbed six mountains according to Hall.

“Every year, she continues to do these climbs just to say, ‘Look, I can still do this. You’re not going to get beat by the cancer,'” he said.

One by one, they shared how breast cancer has affected their lives and why they felt they needed to be a part of this expedition. While this experience emotionally drained Hall, he said it helped fulfill him spiritually because he became part of the family that evolved throughout the experience.

“It really helped me to understand what these women have to go through,” he said. “That helped break down a lot of walls that I felt I had built up around me. To let them in, I really absorbed a lot of their energy and emotion.”

Returning to Uniontown and his clients at the salon, Hall continues to process the many ways his fellow climbers have inspired him.

“I don’t think George knows yet the changes that have happened to him,” said Kay Maghan, the resort’s director of public relations. “When you do something like this, your whole perspective changes.”

Maghan relates to Hall’s experience because of the history of breast cancer in her family. Her late grandmother realized her greatest fear of having a terminal illness when she was diagnosed. Since then, Maghan wrestles with the possibility that she could develop it, as well.

As Hall continues to replay the emotional and inspirational experiences he brought home, he said a new desire stirs in him to continue actively helping this organization as well as others like it.

“It awakened me,” Hall said. “I felt like I’ve been in this rut and not moving forward with my life. Going out there was sort of a kick in the butt.”