The Edge
Angel’s Landing (Zion National Park)
On the edge, where the air thins and the path narrows, your mind spins in
dizzy deprivation until it is completely lost from you. The mind ceases to
grip the rational, and all you have is the next step. The next shaky step,
guided only by fatigue and a haze covered ambition that only the deep spirit
in your own will can slightly comprehend.
This is where you see reality distort itself. This is where death tickles
at your flesh. This is where the drop is shear and tempting. Yet still, you
push on. You push through the annoying fear that you may fall from the great
cliffs to achieve an intangible goal.
You stretch to reach an edge higher than you’ve ever been. You do it.
That’s all. You do it only for you. There is no gain but that of your own
tempering, your own courage. You gain what is felt only in the depths of
your isolated, stirring belly. At the highest point, as you gaze out upon a
view few have had the strength to see, you will grow within yourself. You
will spawn the grandiose character that is only found atop the edge. And
when you are there at the peak, all there is to do, is go down.
This article of "The Edge" was inspired after completing a hike to
Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park, in the southern portion of Utah. The
hike begins at the valley floor, approximately .8 miles down from the Zion
Lodge. For 2.5 miles an adventurer can climb 1500 vertical feet, until one
reaches a twenty foot wide area which over looks the rainbow rocks of the
park. People, cars, everything below scurries about like tiny beetles. The
climb is fairly well traveled. Most of the trail is covered in a concrete
clay and is about four feet wide, until you reach the fork in the trail that
actually makes contact with Angel’s Landing. At the fork, the remainder of
the climb is .5 miles, but you are climbing. I found this section actually
easier than the other two miles previous, which was primarily steep
switchbacks. But the section is narrow, and if you have a fear of heights,
it is a sure adventure. There are chains bolted into the rock which climbers
use to pull themselves forth. It is very tiring, especially after a previous
week of strenuous hiking. Your body will be pushed well on this hike. The
hike is timed at four hours, my partner and I completed the climb in an hour
and ten minutes. At the top I wrote two articles and my friend took some
marvelous pictures. I give the hike an 8.3 on inspiration.
Stephan Pacheco-Founder of LibertyCore |
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