Finding my Edge

We set out for Imbabura amid lifting clouds in an camioneta. The driver brought us as high as he could on the cobbled road that switchbacked two thousand feet up the mountain's shoulder. From there we climbed through cow pastures and scrub to the high paramo. The trail followed a ridge and ascended steeply up a slope to gain the next. Though I am a strong adherent to staying on the trail to prevent damage to the surrounding area, the previous night{s rain had turned the foot path into a otter slide. Adjacent tussocks offered steps to climb the steep slope.

Paramo grasses gave way to a high alpine garden, which in the swirling mist, appeared like a Japanese painting. Occasionally the clouds parted to reveal our destination: a rocky crag impossibly high above us.

The path, while solid enough, snaked along a knife's edge ridge. The mountian fell away to the left and right. Sometimes we saw nothing, other times, windows in the clouds offered us views across to distant ridges and summits. Hummingbirds plunged down the slope or sprung into view only to hide themselves in a shrub. The diverse alpine garden drew me on, and the path drew me up, despite the tether of thin air which forced me to stop again and again and again sucking air.

The garden diminished and we moved up over exposed rock. My breath came in gasps from fear as much as from altitude. I was safe, and I knew it, but the effects of the altitude were insiduous. My mind, my heart and my gut longed to push on, to overcome my fear and acomplish something I knew I could complete. But my body seemed drained of all motivation.

We climbed on. Again I stopped, leaned against an outcrop, and again held court. The heavy mist around us solidified inot sleet. Above us a group who had passed us earlier were beginning to decend. I watched Mike scramble up to confer with them and I followed. "Fifteen more minutes" the assured us "y no mas dificil!"

Something in that last stretch realeased me. Already I had moved beyond what felt comfortable and into new terrain. I stood 50m below the sumit of a mountain 15,400 feet above sea level in a mix of sleet and freezing fog. I was on top of the world and it was enough.