Summit PH

u are around them or that life slows down a bit. All that I can tell you is that after spending time surrounded by them or climbing them you will feel the urge to come back. Climbing a mountain is the furthest thing from easy. Long stretches of constant vertical climbing can be the most exhausting and hardest thing you do. Not only the physical difficulties but also the mental difficulties will also test you. Exposed and tricky climbing and route finding can get the best of your mental abilities. The classic quote that tells you “not to look at the whole mountain take it one piece at a time” is something you will come to understand. You will learn to never give up; to know that the reward will be worth the work it takes. It may take you several months, attempts and hours but you will take the time and you can achieve the climb. Once you make it you will realize what all the fuss is about. It is like reaching a goal, achieving a dream and figuring out that you can do anything that you set your mind to. It’s an addictive feeling that no one can properly explain and one that you have to experience. you have negative thoughts about climbing a mountain it is probably your one-way ticket to failure. Telling yourself you can’t or that it is impossible don’t help in any way. If you are positive, even if the climb is impossible at the moment, you will continue to try. I always tell myself I must have 120% determination to achieve this climb. If you don’t believe you can climb the mountain than you probably never will. You can do more than you think you can and you just have to trust yourself, believe in yourself and take it one bit at a time, before you know it you will be standing on the peak. A grueling six hours of vertical in the heat and you stop for water break. It will probably be the best water you have ever tasted in your life. We overlook the small things in life that we take for granted, like water. When you reach the peak but forgot to bring your extra coat you will realize how cold the wind can make you and how important the little things are when they are not there. We learn to become more prepared and to respect comfortable things, like not sleeping on hard rocks in the cold for instance. I always find that every mountain I have climbed has taught me at least one important lesson. One rainy climb I learnt that cameras are not waterproof! Another climb taught me to be better prepared at finding the route (more research etc). Whether they teach you to bring a bivy in case you have to sleep overnight or teach you that proper shoes are essential, you always learn something every time. Mountain climbing can be the greatest and the worst thing you ever do in life but in the end of it all you usually end up wanting more of it no matter what.