The Mountain

WARNING: This post is really long. Only begin to read if you have 8 minutes.

I’m sorry it has taken me so long to get to this story, but things have been busy here in Monterrey. Only in Mexico can you have your gas service shut off after being two days late on paying a $30 bill. I bet if I called the gas company about a leak, they couldn’t even get here in two days. Oh well, the cold showers have been nice, as its been pretty hot around here, but I haven’t been able to make my award-winning spaghetti. I really hope they turn me back on today.

Okay, we rejoin our story two Sundays ago, on the 14th day of May. Nolan and I woke up very early, as we were planning on climbing a mountain, and a new friend had said he was going to meet us at 6:30 a.m. outside my apartment. After sitting on the curb waiting for him for about ten minutes, we decided to go back to sleep and get some more rest. It retrospect, it was the best decision we made all day.

After waking up at about 11 o’clock, I called my mother and sister to wish them a Happy Mothers’ Day. Nolan and I then packed our bags full of water, Gatorade, and snacks and took a taxi to the mountain. A friend of mine who had previously climbed this peak had given me directions for where we needed to begin to find the trail. This peak was much more remote than the one I climbed in February, and the trail was no where near as easy to find or follow. After a short search, we climbed into what appeared to be a garage on a residential street, and following it back found that it was a tunnel that led us under the neighborhood and onto the trail at the base of the mountain. We paused for a video update and then began our journey at 12:10 p.m. We had been told that the trip up would take us about 4 hours. I had my doubts.

The first hour was rough. It was all scampering over boulders and up steep slopes, getting stuck by cactus and other “vicious plant life,” as Nolan so-named it. The trail was often difficult to follow, and when we finally stopped for a break at about 1:30 we were exhausted. I was seriously concerned that Nolan might not be able to make it, as he sat in silence chugging Gatorade like Napoleon Dynamite. We got back on the trail, and after about an hour we paused for another break. Below is a picture of Nolan taking a short power nap.



At this point we were almost half-way up the mountain, and we were feeling much better. It seemed like we both had much more energy that when we had begun, and we were in pretty high spirits as the trail had become much easier to follow. We rested for about 15 minutes, and then got back on the trail. A short time later we came to several large rock outcroppings, where we paused to take a few pictures. The first shot is Nolan with part of the city in the background. The next shot is me with the peak behind, showing that we still have much ground to cover.



After getting back on the trail, we were quickly disappointed as we realized that the path quit going up, and began to wind its way around the side of the mountain. After walking for over an hour, we found ourselves no closer to the top than we had been at our last break, but now we were in the valley between two peaks. We were fairly confident that we were on the right trail, but couldn’t understand why the route was so round-about.

After walking up the valley for close to an hour, we finally began to go up in the direction of our intended peak. Our spirits began to rise as we realized the trail we were on was actually going to get us to our destination. Although we were pretty tired, we made really good time. Near the top we met a Mexican guy on his way down from the peak. He told us to hurry, that it was late. We charged toward the top, scrambling over rocks and climbing up small cliffs. We finally reached the summit at about 6 p.m.

Getting to the top was an awesome feeling. The view was unbelievable. The peak afforded a 360 degree panoramic view, with the city spread out far beneath us in every direction. We spent quite a while taking it all in, snapping pictures, and recording video. There was a small metal tower on top where Nolan and I wrote our names, and climb up to experience the view and the wind. Below is a picture of me on the antennae and also a picture of Nolan pointing to where he wrote his name. I don’t know why he put the date as 13-4-06. It was actually 14-5-06. Oh well, we were pretty tired at this point.



After a little exploration, we figured out why the trail to the peak had been so round-about. Pretty much every side of the summit, except the direction from which we came, had cliffs that dropped off several hundred feet. Below is a picture of me laying at the edge of one of these cliffs. It was a pretty awesome site.



When looking down at the city from that distance, it doesn’t even seem real. Here is a great picture of Nolan with Monterrey in the background.



In the next picture, if you look directly above my left hand (your right, my left) you can see the campus of Tec de Monterrey. The stadium is easy to find, as well as the big blue skyscraper.



Now that we were at the summit, we had a big decision to make. It had taken us nearly six hours to reach the peak, and we knew that it would be dark in about two hours. We discussed the situation for a few minutes, and then decided to spend the night on top of the mountain. At the time, we had several good reasons for this decision. One, we didn’t want to start down the mountain, only to be stuck in woods in the dark, getting eaten by mosquitoes and other insects. Two, we were pretty tired, and thought that the trip down would be much better if we rested and got some sleep, and then began our descent when the sun came up. Finally, we had plenty of food and liquids, had found a decent place to lay down, and the weather was pretty fair. After trying to call a couple of friends to inform them of our decision, we ate and laid down to get some rest.

At about 8 o’clock, with Nolan sound asleep, I was awakened from a light doze by the wind. I got up and noticed that the sun was setting, but looked much different than any sunset I had ever seen. I grabbed my video camera and yelled for Nolan to get up. We ran to the edge of the peak, and this is what we saw.



Before we had went to sleep, it looked like there might have been some rain way off to the northwest. Now, there was a huge thunderstorm over downtown Monterrey, and to the west we could see that we were just getting the front edge of it. We took several pictures, including the one below, but the video we have is what really tells the story. I hope to be able to post the video soon.



As I stood in front of the camera, explaining what was happening and doing my best weatherman impersonation, lightning and thunder were all around us. We weren’t getting any rain yet, but we could feel a light mist beginning to blow our way. We watch the events unfold below from the best seat in the house as transformers exploded all over the city and different sections lost power. As the wind became more powerful and the storm began to approach us, Nolan yelled to me that his hair was buzzing. I didn’t understand what he meant until lightning struck again and he covered his head and ran for cover. His hair was actually crackling from the electricity in the air.

As we tried to take cover in our “shelter,” a hard and heavy rain began to fall. We quickly put everything into our bags and pressed ourselves as close to the rocks as we could. We were sitting side by side with our backs to the mountain, our backpacks over our heads to try to block the rain, but getting soaked nonetheless. Pretty soon it was a torrential downpour, with the wind whipping all around us and lightning and thunder going off right over our heads.

I hollered to Nolan that the rain was killing my legs, to which he replied, “It’s hailing!” I looked out from under my bag to see hail almost as big as golf balls hitting me in the lap. I couldn’t believe we were sitting in the middle of this on top of the highest mountain in the area. After another minute or two of getting pelted by hail and getting soaked by rain, I found myself on Nolan’s lap, trying to protect him from the hail, with both of us pressed as close to the rocks as we could get, our backpacks over our heads to try to block the storm. We sat for a moment shivering in the cold, wet wind, finally looking at each other and saying, “We have to get off of this mountain!”

At 8:30 p.m. sharp we started our descent. I led the way, with Nolan right behind me. We went as fast as we possibly could, while still trying to be careful on the wet, slick rocks and muddy paths. As soon as we began we were praying aloud, asking God for His protection, and for some respite from the storm. As we were continually pelted by huge hail and blown by monstrous winds, we climbed, crawled, and slid down the mountainside. In several places there were long, large rock outcroppings that we had climbed up just hours earlier. The rain had turned them into natural waterslides and several times we had no choice but to slide down and hope for a soft landing. We shouted constantly, with a typical conversation sounding like this:

Nolan: Dear God, protect us…keep us safe…ugh…I just got drilled in the eye with some hail.
Josh: Nolan, watch your step here...really slick...Ouch! I just got hit in the ear…watch out...cactus right here…God, don’t let us get injured.
Nolan: I can’t believe this! This is crazy!
Josh: Yeah, but if we survive it is going to make a great story!

Anyway, we continued on like this for about a half hour before the hail stopped and we were somewhat under the protection of the tree canopy. At this point, we were still descending very steep rocks and we fell more times than I could count. It was amazing how God protected us and kept us from injury.

We continued without a break for about an hour and a half. When we stopped, we could hardly believe what we had been through, but we were still in a difficult situation. It was now night time, but fortunately the sky was bright enough to illuminate the trail. We were filthy, scraped, bruised, and wet, not to mentioned exhausted, but had so much adrenaline running through us that we weren’t about to stop. We paused for some water and started moving again.

We would go for a few minutes on the trail, lose it, and then find ourselves on the trail again. Fortunately I had packed a small headlamp that we used to light the way when we couldn’t see in the dark. I have no doubt that God gave me better vision that night than I have ever had in my life. I have no idea how we found the trail in some places. We continued moving for what seemed like nights on end, only to find that we had only been walking for another hour. After what seemed like an eternity, we were back in the valley between the two peaks. We stopped for another break and decided that we were going to walk off that mountain tonight.

Once in the valley, the going was much tougher. The trail was very difficult to follow, and many times we found ourselves simply climbing over huge boulders through an ancient creek bed. Every once in a while we would pick up the trail on one side of the creek bed or the other, but for the most part we just stumbled in the general direction of the bottom. Being in the valley was nice because we were protected from the wind and rain, but it was much darker underneath all of the trees and it was very tough to gauge our progress. On a few occasions the only path was to climb down huge rock faces that really tested our strength and teamwork. It is truly a miracle that neither of us were hurt.

After we were about four hours into our hike, we were so exhausted that we simple plodded along in silence, stumbling over rocks and roots and checking on each other after the occasional fall. I stuck my hands in the “vicious plant life” so many times that the poison caused them to tingle for two whole days. During one break Nolan put his head down on his arm and I felt myself starting to doze off while sitting up. We quickly got moving again, vowing not to stop until we were in civilization. Finally, about five and half hours into our excursion, we found a good, solid trail and were able to begin moving much quicker towards the bottom. We began to see the lights of the city getting closer, and we could see signs that this area was much more heavily traveled than were we had previously been. Finally, after close to six hours of challenge, we found ourselves walking along a high wall. Soon we were standing in the neighborhood where we had begun. We had taken a different trail back down (we knew this), but had ended up very close to our starting point.

We walked through the city for 30 minutes before sitting down outside an Oxxo convenience store to take a break and do a video update. We were so thankful to be safely back in the city, and could do nothing but laugh and praise God that everything had turned out okay. We finally got up and walked out to the main road, where three empty cabs refused to pick us up before we found one that would take us back to my apartment. I know we looked like we had been through a war, but it is so unusual here in Mexico for a cab not to aggressively try to pick you up. After returning to my apartment, we got cleaned up and I cooked spaghetti, then we slept for about 10 hours. I think it was well-deserved.

In conclusion, I just have a few suggestions for anyone wanting to climb a mountain.
-Get plenty of rest the night before.
-Take plenty of food, water, and Gatorade.
-If you want to spend the night, pack a tent.
-Make sure you have a light.
-Bring along a good friend that will have a great attitude in any situation.
-Take plenty of pictures, and even video if you can.
-Make sure you know Jesus, just in case you have to go through what we did. Sliding down wet cliffs in the middle of the night is a lot easier if you know you're going to heaven.

Well, that’s about it. If you have read all of this, you probably deserve an award. I tried to make it as short as possible, but a lot happened that day and night. I just want to thank God again that He protected us so well, and I want to thank Nolan for everything he did. There are very few people that would not have been completely miserable in that situation, and Nolan handled himself like the true warrior that he is. He can climb a mountain with me anytime.



By the way, the mountain is no longer calling my name. It just whimpers when I look at it. I think we showed it.