Trip down Memory Past

Let's see. This weekend was finally free as last weekend we lost both of our softball games (the first one by 3 and the second one by 2) and got eliminated from the tournament in a respectable third place finish. What I decided to do with my first free weekend was to go into the mountains and spend some time hiking around. Little did I know it would bring back such vivid flashbacks.

On Saturday morning at about 6am I took a bus headed for Coroico, and at a point where the mountains looked interesting, I asked the bus-driver to let me off. I told him I had plenty of food, and a tent, which appeased his inquisitive face almost instantaneously. He said what they always say, "que te vaya bien", and I was off. I had my compass, and what I knew was that I wanted to head North. My map, unfortunately, was up at the Baker's house, but I figured I would eventually hit a place that I knew (which turned out to be a correct assumption), or in the worst case scenario I could always just head West and eventually hit the Altiplano. You see, that's why I had my compass...

It started off as a hike down some valleys. Then I went over some passes that must have been 5,000 meters, or more. Then up another valley, and over another pass. Not too bad, right? Well, coming over this last pass, I came across a trail that looked familiar.....a little tooo familiar. My instinct told me to go back, and go back fast. But my mind reasoned with me and reminded me that the passes I just came over would be real difficult in the opposite direction. AND it said to me, what are the chances that this IS the trail, and that I will have to do it AGAIN.

Flashback: August, 2004
I had only been in Bolivia for 2 weeks. My body had not yet acclimatized, but Drew, Scott, and I agreed to go on a hike with Andy Baker. We had decided upon this at 2 am on a Saturday morning, and left two hours later without any sleep. I borrowed tennis shoes and clothes from Scott and Andy as there was no time to descend to the southern zone and get my own stuff. Our goal was to do this hike that would theoretically take about 8 hours. The bus dropped us off in the Zongo valley around 7am, and we started the hike feeling very adventurous, even with the relentless weather as it poured snow and rain upon us. At about 11 am, we ate our lunch in a cave, feeling very good about the distance we had made. Mind you, this was all the food we had with us, because the hike would only "take" another 4 hours. 15 minutes later we came across the most impressive mountain I had ever seen, Tiquimani (the guardian of the Zongo Valley). The weather cleared for about 20 minutes, and we just sat there and stared at it, before the clouds rolled back in and the weather worsened once more. The visibility quickly reduced to feet in front of us. At this point, Andy says to us, "well we either continue or go back, your choice". Scott, Drew, and I decide that there is "no such thing as going back", so we continue on our course. The only thing is we didn't continue on our course. We went way off course..... a good two hours off course.....in bad weather. At this time I developed the worst headache of my life, probably because of the altitude we were in. By the time we got back onto the course, we only had about 2 hours of sunlight left, and we had to find a pass that Andy had never been to. If we didn't find the pass, we would be there all night. We didn't have tents, and we didn't have more food, because this was only going to be an 8-10 hour hike. Well it got dark fast. We found out we only had one headlamp (again, because we were just going to be hiking in the day) and that the batteries were low (poor planning). We couldn't find the pass, and it was now about 7pm and completely dark. The only thing we could do was to keep moving to keep warm, so we hiked in the direction we thought was correct, using the one headlamp for all of us. We were hiking on the edge, and had no idead where we were. To the left was almost always a fatal drop(probably at the least 1,000 ft), and to the right was just a steep incline. By 2am we heard a river, and the clouds cleared for a second to reveal some peaks, that Andy recognized. We immediately climbed down to the river, which proved to be very difficult with only one headlamp. The river was fairly big, and it took us another hour or so to cross it safely. On the other side of the river is where we came across the most dangerous thing we did. It was an 80, maybe 90 degree in some places, ascent up a bank with nothing to hold onto but grass. My heart as never beat faster than when I was about 30 or 40 feet up and only holding onto grass that was tearing out like crazy. Probably about 50 feet up, it became level, and we were able to stand. Andy immediately recognized that we were on the Choro trail, and only "hours" from La Cumbre, where we could find transportation.

Relief. That's the best way to describe it. It was now 4am, and we had been hiking for 21 hours straight, only one meal. Well to make a longer story short, we got on this trail, and hiked up it (people only hike down this trail, but we wouldn't have gotten to a place with transportation going down for another day or so). Andy went ahead of us, and told us, "when you get to the switchbacks, you're done". About 3 hours later, Drew, Scott, and I hit the switchbacks. THE SWITCHBACKS WENT UP A HUGE MOUNTAIN, ANDY HAD LIED. You see, we were tired. We hadn't slept in 2 nights now, we hadn't eaten since the previous days lunch, we weren't acclimatized, we had been hiking for 24 hours, and we were extremely wet and cold from the weather and the river. Drew could only take about 10 steps at a time before he needed a break to vomit as we ascended the switchbacks, so Scott and I had to leave him because it hurt us too much to stop so frequently. Scott had to frequently wait for me to catch up as he was much stronger than I during this all. About 3 hours later, Scott and I finally summited "la Cumbre" where there was a Taxi. 27 hours straight.

Back to this Weekend
Sure enough, this was the trail. Obviously not all of the dread returned, knowing that I had food, sleep, energy, ya know everything you need for a hike. SO, I started to ascend up this trail once again. It seemed easy, as long as I kept my mind off of the last time. As soon as I would think about the last time, my legs grew heavy, my steps shortened and slowed, and I felt sick. It's funny the tricks the mind can play, because as soon as I would start to forget the past the extreme tiredness would go away. I was still tired, but just not in the same way. I made it up the switchbacks (which I think are 1,200 meters verticle) in about an hour this time. I got some pictures of Llamas and mountains along the way. Very enjoyable.

It made me think. Dwelling on the past obviously didn't help me, as I would start to experience some of the same pains of heavy legs, hungry stomach, and cold feet and hands. But remembering the past helped, because I knew where I was going, and what was coming up. Really, it's the same in life. Without remembering the past, we can't really continue to grow. Our past is what we need to draw on to keep making progress in the future. We must remember the crucifiction and resurrection of Jesus daily to remind us where we came from, the state of complete sin that we were once in and the sin that can so easily bond us again. We must remember, we must not forget. But we must not dwell. How can we grow if we are dwelling on what we once were? We are alive in Him, forgiven of our sins, and it is that freedom from sin that allows us to make progress in this life. We are no longer in bondage to it, as He tells us (dwelling on the past). Always remember, but never dwell.

This is why I am starting a Mountaineering Club for the students. We will learn together the truths that are so evident in the nature around us (Mountains and Valleys) and in our own nature. Next weekend I plan on taking 2 students and another teacher to plan the exact location of our first trip and spend time in prayer for the upcoming months and the direction we want to head. Until next time....

Peace and Love,
Jon