Climbing Coração

To me, there were no real distinctions between the volcanoes that Scott and I climbed and attempted to climb, nor between the moments exerted on a snowy peak and those relaxed in the valley.

Instead of calling them separately Pinchincha,

Pasachoa, Illiniza Norte, Quito and Cotopaxi,

I decided to give them one name:

Coração.

 

The climb to me is never about the summit; in fact, I feel that the summit tends to detract from the experience.  Each life form,

rock formation, wind gust and dewdrop along the way has something important to teach. Climbing for me has been a way to connect with the wisdom of my environment.

 

Coração means "heart" in Portuguese, but it also reminds me of a French word that I used to hear very often in one of the refugee camps I worked in two years ago: courage. I feel that the name really embodies my reasons for climbing -- to commit with heart-based courage to creating the best collective experience possible, even if it means abandoning traditional notions of progress.  

 

Cotopaxi's summit remains ever elusive in an otherworldly and unforgiving environment, which can only be accessed relatively safely in the earliest hours of the morning, when the glacier has not yet begun to melt. We notice that each step, however higher, brings us farther away from everything we care about.

Volcanic rock crumbles beneath our feet, we gasp for air between

careful steps, the frozen wind howls about us, the clouds hover thousands of feet below us, and the city lights sparkle in

the distant valley.

There are no signs of plants, animals, or life in general. No view of sparkling ice crystals, crevasses, and snow caves. Only a dark, unfathomly cold impression of a summit looms above us. Each step is a struggle because the end is the only point of fixation. 

Sometimes the means belie our reasons for being somewhere, or doing something. If we only have a goal in mind then we tend to push ourselves anyway to do something that feels wrong yet seems "right" in our minds for what we have set out to achieve.

The ends do not justify the means.

The ends are the means.

The Great Climb does not start at one point and end at another:

It runs through all of the peaks and valleys that we travel.

What do we call the mountain that has no summit?