I am writing this time from an Internet Cafe close to the beach at Viña Del Mar, Chile. Thus, after having taken a night bus from Mendoza, my new destination is Chile. Two days have passed after returning from the three days expedition towards Aconcagua, I conclude that it has been one of the toughest but also greatest experiences of its kind in my life...
I want to use this space to write about some of the learnings, personal and practical going forward. The overall theme I guess is that our inexperience contributed greatly to the experience!
Climbing mountains is very similar to living life- you have up and downs, but below are some of the key discoveries the mountains gave me this time...
Appreciate the journey, but make sure to reach your destination. One of the things I am working on in my life is to always appreciate the journey, trusting that by mastering every single aspect of the journey, it will help me to reach the best destination. The mountains helped me to tell a new story, which I guess I have lived by in the past as well, but it was very clear up there - every step is important and matters greatly, however, never give up until you have reached your destination. Thus, the key discovery here is really the balance between the journey and the destination, trusting that each are equally important. In my case, as I reached the destination the first day, I collapsed, not being able to move in 4 hours because of complete exhaustion The reason for my collapse was too heavy luggage in combination with a stomach problem leading up to the trip. The collapse wasn't at all dramatic, however a physical strecth which I haven't experienced before. The air up there is so thin and dry so it really requires a fit body to at all cope in those conditions. A key learning - Every kilo counts, "keep it simple or light" . The food we brought was almost as heavy as a person travelling for 14 days towards the top of Aconcagua.
The Now - being present. One of the things I am working on every day is to connect my heart, mind and will in the space of the now. I do believe life is about balancing the past, the present and the future, where I try to learn from the past, live and act in the present because that is the only thing I can impact and get inspired by the future. However, I have never experienced a better learning environment for practicing the power of now, than in the mountains. Every time my mental space was disconnected to my physical space, I twisted my foot or was close to fall. I did injure my knee and hip a bit (nothing serious), only because of few disconnections between my mental and physical space. Coming home, I was physically exhausted, but so refreshed. It was three days of presence, one of the strongest and longest experiences in my life in that space, incredible.The question I ask myself now is how I can recreate such a powerful learning environment, every day in my life. Without going through my practices, I will follow up on this point going forward at this space.
Power from within and the beauty of my relationship - another learning is the balance of finding strenght, power and clarity from within, but also be strong as two withins. Many people go up there alone, I had the pleasure of having my love enriching the experience. Activating strenght within yourself will only support 50 percent, in order to succeed you need to become one with your surrounding in my case with the nature and my relationship and then activate the power from within. My relationship thrived through this experience. The experience tied us stronger than ever before and it is with gratitude and respect I am looking back at this experience together.
The nature and the Stars - Incredible!!!! When I articulated above that this expedition is one of the strongest of its kind I am relating it to other strong natural experiences I have had. I am a regular skier, I love scuba diving, I have hiked in the alps and in general I love doing sports connected with the nature, but I have never experienced a stronger and more powerful scenery than up in Aconcagua. The heaven at night can only be compared with an experience I had in Milan where I visited an artificially created sky, thus, of course incomparable. I will upload a few picture of the general scenery in a few days, however, picture cant capture the beauty, it has to be experienced. There is an opportunity to visit Aconcagua, take the picture but not being in the nature over night etc. I believe that could be compared to the difference between snorkeling and scuba diving. As you snorkel, you look at something, a new world, the underwater world, however, when you dive, you become one with that world. It is the same here, as you visit the part you can look at the top of Aconcagua, however, in order to be one with the scenery and the nature, you need to hike towards it. Recognizing our experience, these three days where enough, even though I am looking forward to at some point returning to reach even higher.
It is with great respect I got to know climbers and how they care about the nature which has been created to what it is today for 1000s of years. People living for these and similar experiences. It was amazing to visit your life for three days and be truly inspired by your journeys. Also, it is with gratitude I am seeing how well you have treated the nature around Aconcagua. It is also with gratitude I want to thank Marcello, a man who could be a story himself. I chose to call him, "the mountain man". In short, he prepared a great dinner for us as the wind took our risotto.
Love the choice - All in all, every aspect of this experience is a choice and it has to be. For example, the water in confluencia, the first base, caused bad stomachs. Having a bad stomach as I arrived there, but being forced to drink 4-5 liters of water which taste really bad and is causing more stomach pain was a stretch, however, I had to chose to drink it, recognizing that it was key to at all cope up there. In the end of the day, it all comes down to the beauty of your choice. Or that the temperature at night became minus degrees and I had a sleeping bag managing 12 degrees plus, where just two examples where I could have chosen to give up and fly a helicopter back, but had to decide to live it through. A choice I have not regretted for a second, not at that time and not now...!
Above, some of the learning's from my hike towards Aconcagua under the theme of "our inexperience became the experience". After having taken the night bus to Chile from Argentina and spent 3 hours by the border, I ask myself, what consequences does it have for the relationship between Chile and Argentina that it takes three hours to cross the border? It is not in frustration I am asking this question, but out of curiosity.
Emanuel
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar