Redondo![]() Each step was more laborious than the last. The thin air seemed to take more out of me even as my lungs sucked to bring it in. At 11,000 feet I was within sight of the mountain’s peak. The final stretch was a dangerous scree slope capped in snow bringing Redondito to 12,000 feet. ![]() Like many other mountain chains, here the second highest mountain, Redondito, held more challenge than the highest, Redondo. Redondo had a dirt road that one could take to the summit. No such thing was possible on Redondito; an enormous heap of incredibly loose scree, several hundred feet in height crowned this "Little Round Top". I felt cheated by the air as I climbed. The thin, unsatisfying vapors refused to fill my lungs and yet the wind whipped about whistling through gaps in the stone; threatening to push me over. Dark clouds had begun to gather promising further abuse from rain, snow, or even hail. On all fours now, I climbed higher, despite better judgment urging me to turn back from the gathering darkness and dangerous rock slides. Perhaps the strange tricks altitude plays the mind pushed me further. Either way I still moved up even as large shards of volcanic rock crashed below me, sounding like so many broken plates. On the way down I looked back up towards the peak and its crown of trees. The rain has begun to fall and the descent holds more danger. The moment I had spent up there was trivial, hardly worth mentioning; perhaps only deserving a footnote at the end of the journey's account. ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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