The big day has arrived. I put my sleeping mattress on the ground and then I get myself into the sleeping bag and tie to the rope, so I don't fall of cause I turn over in the night. And then I just try to close my eyes, relax and kind of enjoy the view I have up here. That's it. If you spend the night on the mountain, you are part of the mountain and that is a wonderful feeling. The only thing I don't care for so much is these pre dawn starts. It's always so hard to get going. Actually the scariest move, especially for Daniela, who has short legs, was stepping off the bivouac ledge. It was my part to go off and I saw this big gap and I thought if I jump down there or if I trip myself and fall down there it would kill me. So this was when I really got scared and it was all dark still and I thought I have been training so much for this and I have put so much energy in it. It was so funny after this decision the sun rose and it got bright and soon after I was so happy I went on because this is for me, sometimes how life is.
You think something, it scares you, then you rethink it and then if you get over this boarder you have such great experiences. Our conditions were perfect on the mountain, almost no rock fall, just some little pebbles that fell occasionally. But nothing of substance. And we had good cursing conditions. It feels great to be at last in the middle of the wall, but while I am climbing everything is going very smoothly, everything is wonderful. Then when i sit and start thinking about the rest of the climb to come, then it is easy to start getting nervous again. So it is better to climb I think, than to sit around thinking about climbing. We hit the traverse of the gods which was perhaps the most memorable section of the whole climb because there's traversing back onto the main part of the mountain, now you are going back right again to reach the center of the wall. We are almost there. Only another 200 meters.
We are walking on this ridge that sometimes, it was just shoulders width. We'd do that carrying what; here they call your jumping rope. So you have some loops of rope in your hand and if somebody falls down one side you have to jump off the other side. And that is the protection so if you are willing to, well you have to be willing to jump because otherwise you get pulled off. Group hug. This is so spectacular, it is a fulfillment of a dream of my whole adult life and I'm just delighted for finally pulling it off.
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