I stood perched on a ledge several thousand feet up the side of Mt. Mansfield and decided against my better judgment to cast my gaze downward.
Michael McLaughlin summons incredible courage as he details a climb at Mt. Mansfield in Vermont. This is second blog post from Mike on his 2013 Hike4Kids.
As I stared at the small trees far below, I got weak in the knees and almost lost my balance. I wheeled around to clutch the rock face behind me.
Perhaps this wasn’t so bad… after all, I was afraid of heights– maybe I was making more out of this than what it was. I decided to wait for another hiker to pass by and hoped they would scamper upward without giving it a second thought, thus assuaging my fears.
Mt. Mansfield, highest peak in Vermont. View of the summit, also known as the “chin”.
A couple of young, fit hikers soon arrived at the ledge. The woman looked down. “Oh my god,” she said. “This is treacherous.” I guess it’s not just me, I told myself.
Her male companion stared down for a moment, then said, “It’s nothing to be concerned about. Just a 600 foot drop.”
They cautiously scrambled up the rock face and disappeared into the glare of the sun above.
I knew I couldn’t do this. I was terrified, and I knew that it was at times like this that my fear would overtake me, with my legs turning to spaghetti as my body became overwhelmed with the sense that I was losing my balance. There was no way I could scramble up a nearly vertical rock wall with a lethal fall as the penalty for even the slightest mistake.
Every bit of reason I had was screaming for me to turn back and head down the mountain, that whatever lay at the summit wasn’t worth risking my life for. And just when I was at the point that I had almost convinced myself that I couldn’t do it, I dug my boot into a small groove in the rock wall, reached up, and began climbing.
After about the fourth time I shifted my boot up the rock face, I was overtaken with the sensation that I had lost my balance and my legs buckled underneath me. I strengthened my grip and dug my nails hard into the rock, feeling the pain course through my fingers as all my body weight was transferred to my arms.
Fight or flight kicked in and adrenaline coursed through my veins as I realized that letting go at this point meant I would go flying into the abyss below. I summoned the strength to hang on and then hurled an arm at a crack in the rock above and began pulling myself toward it.
I hauled myself up and over the ledge and again felt gravity pulling me downward. I scurried to a wedge between the rocks and planted myself there, temporarily regaining my strength and then crawling up the remaining rock face on my hands and knees until I was blinded by the sun whose rays soon encompassed me.
I was on the summit of Mansfield, the highest mountain in the state of Vermont. Moments later I was proudly displaying the flags of the organizations I’m climbing for, smiling for the photos, but knowing in my heart that the challenges were far from over. I had over 50 additional mountains to climb.
But the organizations I’m supporting climb mountains every single day with the important work they do, and it’s the least I can do to do this for six weeks. Tomorrow will certainly bring new challenges but we need not fear if we summon the courage to overcome them.
Photo credit: Mt. Mansfield in Vermont, Elevation: 4393 ft / 1339 m
