There are days we can not forget, the good, the bad there are plenty, but that mark a life, not it's not. was one of those summer days when the evening does not come until twenty-two hours, where the light stretches where I thought a kid, I was hoping that the sun forget going to bed one of these for the day when the heat that the earth has accumulated slowly rises into the sky, and as others go to the pool after work, there was much to be here. Two, three times a week every summer for several years, starting work in the morning, I loaded my bag and I dreamed all day, without shame, the promise of these few hours of pure pleasure.
There were, there are still, for all tastes, all levels, all ambitions. The choice is yours depending on his mood and can choose to be very sore fingers, sweating all over his body, feeling her heart more than search Instead, seek his breath, and then proceed slowly.
Dozens of lanes, proximity and easy access have popularized this wall. Five kilometers after leaving the national borders the highway, and after three hundred meters from a gravel path there is, it overlooks the "refuge" pompous word for snack bar car, instead of story all the exploits ... Must say, it goes for some climbers as hunters and fishermen: how have I crossed that these heavyweights in the evening in any shelter, you narrate stories unverifiable, unbelievable, make dihedral, overhangs of fifteen meters, peaks, cliffs, lightning, snow storms, ropes cut by a rock fall, relays wobbly, exhibitions terrible ... And the next day found folded in half at the foot of the wall, overcome by a sudden and inexplicable gastric disease, no doubt due to adulterated pie consumed the previous day and the forced death in the soul, to give today.
But not Marco. Him, no, it's not like that. Him, he climbed in Nepal, Peru, Yosemite Park, in the Dolomites ... Ah, those wonderful Dolomites! ... He has all the great classics Alps to his list of rock, ice, mixed ... Marco, we grew two blocks away from each other, our shorts worn in the same school, then our jeans in the same college. And then, and then after he did what he always said he spent the practicum trainee guide and the guide. Marco is the friend of good and bad moments but strangely little has climbed together. Must say that his spare time he spent with the other "templates" that I and its projects, achievements, me inaccessible. He nevertheless makes two invaluable gifts: the normal Dru and especially of the "Walker" to large Jorasses. "You see, he had said in speaking of this last of five additional breaking everything ...." Me or ... of course ... except that "five sup" in a race of seven or eight lengths is not "five additional" to the "Walker", the length of the track, the repetition of the difficulties its commitment, its dangers, stress it causes me to have made it extremely difficult ... And yet, I've only climbed in the second ... This does not prevented later skull suggest the west face of the Dru or the "American "... The same Dru With a small smile, he answered: "exaggerating ... we'll see. "
Marco, specifically, I just find the length of the third relay. I am not surprised more than that he is engaged in this 'down'. He often takes beginners 'advanced' to see. Is that this route has a peculiarity: the fourth wall length is changed. A vertical fault of forty feet cut in half. Therefore the de-escalation of about three meters, then go for a small plug left hand, palm up, up hips, down his right leg at the left to find a patina taken from the passages and free swinging back his left leg at the same time pivoting 180 degrees to reach the tiny platform at about 1.5 meters on the other wall. In fact, the gesture is far more impressive than technical means but many climbers on blocking this step: it is a little justice to know if .....
No, Marco I'm not surprised to find it here but his climbing partner, more exactly his girlfriend, then yes and then completely even. It's Caroline.
Caroline, his wife, his wife, the mother of his children. North Carolina comes from the suburbs of Lille and saw the mountain for the first time at age twenty, he already has eight. A mountain she immediately loved, like most people who come for the first time. This mountain where she met Marco. A meeting to Zian Mappaz and Brigitte in "the great rift" in Frisian-Roche. With the drama "The Gaillands rocks" as in the book, in Chamonix. She too, like Bridget, came strolling along the lake that adjoins the wall and take a look at the roped engaged in the tracks. Marco, who framed a group day trainees had inadvertently thrown eighty meters of rope on his head, relaying the latest recall ..... Well, on discharge, this relay, the bottom of the wall is hidden by a small forward and had, as we do every time, shouted "rope! "In the running ..... But this warning is for those who know ... It was then followed by trade unkind to both sides, which had not prevented, or more surely promoted the next day, then two days later, she was there. And, leading to another ...
Carolina, she accepted his passion, but deep within her, she did not understand. A passion, it is not explained, it does not make sense. She was seen and is subjected to others, to his relatives. He's gone so often climb abroad, it is so often missing with customers that it is she who supports the household. Times of drought, early years, it was she who was boiling the kettle and as she often said: "Woman as a guide, you're better off like pasta and potatoes and you learn quickly the art of accommodate with not much "... She did not know that in saying that, she paraphrased the wife of the great René Demaison. And, since all these years, she has always refused to try to climb ... hence my surprise at this relay.
arriving, I realized immediately upon seeing Marco finish installing a piece of rope over: it had jammed, and the latter due to the leap in the opposite direction, move in this direction rather than cotton, (I had to do it once and I did not forget) to come and put a zip line. Here
elsewhere who set off again for the other end of the rope. I saw he was not roped but his rope was attached to just one of the loops of his door hardware. Oh, I know that Caroline is unable to provide and then, Marco ... here it is ... even sneakers; this way, he had to do it a hundred times. One day he passed me to the second length, and then doubled in the last third of the sixth length ... So I'm offering him gently roped it and I assured him, the smile and the wink he sent me by way response is exactly what I expected.
He did not scream, or at least I do not remember. I only saw the rope coiled at the foot of the relay, start to scroll faster and faster, then crashing ... Cries there was, those climbers who use the trail at the foot of the fault, then mine and those of my climbing partner, and those of Caroline who understood well after all that had happened. I stayed with her in the relay, no way to leave her alone, and my climbing partner has been a reminder to see - the longest point of his life, he told me then, you never know ... The helicopter Emergency Preparedness arrived very quickly, he was returning from a surveillance mission but without a doctor on board, besides, there was no need of a physician.
Ranta
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