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Precisely

My li two fingers in the tiny fissure, I find a better foothold and shimmy up the crack that widens with every twenty feet Until I’round, and I can fit my whole body in the fissure I do a split and shake out s

And I glance down

Akara and Banks are specs in the distance Wind whirls, but it’s not too gusty I smile up at the last two-hundred feet of ascent

What my dad once did

I blow out a breath and keep cli

Fear is nowhere to be found whenall reservations I push harder to round, and when I’ve reached the top, I pull e of the peak and stand up

Feeling how shest ledge Not afraid of heights, I look every which way

And I try to picture e “I did it, Dad” I’, when I know I should also be soaking in the moment My smile flickers in and out

I can barelyup at me

I wave down to them, but their voices are inaudible

And I look up at the clear blue sky I stare out at the gorgeous lance at the e for me at the bottom while I’m alone at the top

Cli four-hundred feet has never felt so far away before

It shouldn’t fucking feel like that

This was a goal I completed An achievement A pump-my-fist-in-the-air success

I hate this loneliness This was the exact opposite of what I thought I’d feel once I free-soloed So I stand up, grab my rope that I left here for the rappel down, and I step into my harness

All I want to do is run into their arms

43

AKARA KITSUWON

We’ve been on the road for hours, and Sulli’s mood hasn’t lifted much since she descended the rock Not even as we packed up all our gear and left Yellowstone I thought she’d be happy after free-soloing Rattlesnake Knuckle She killed it in under thirty minutes, and that half-hour felt like a full century

Banks and I were barely breathing Like ive her ain, I surrounded her first, and she looked like she was about to cry