Climbing Mt. Whitney (example memory)

Fourteen miles round trip, over 6,000 feet of elevation gain, and a 2am start so we’d reach the summit before the afternoon storms rolled in — that’s Whitney for you. Somewhere around mile nine, legs shaking, we both separately questioned every decision that led to this.

Then the sun came up over the ridge, and every bit of the questioning stopped mattering. We reached the summit a little past 9am, signed the logbook that’s been up there for decades, and sat for twenty minutes just looking at the whole Sierra Nevada spread out below us, higher than everything else in the lower 48.

The way down hurt more than the way up, if we’re honest. Worth every step anyway. This page is only an example of what a big physical challenge can look like as a memory — the exhaustion and the view, both saved together.