A Fear Examined

I’ve felt fear before

But not like this

Thirsty

I placed the little paper cup

Beneath the spout and chunks of frozen water tumbled out

The Mountain Climber’s Mantra

Step up

Step up

Without a Bear in Sight

This hike started out like most others, except that my hiking friends from Calgary ventured south for warmer, dryer weather. I had already climbed Table Mountain three times because it’s in my area, but I should have known with them along, it would be a whole other hill of rocks. They, of course, decided to take the alternate route, something I was unaware existed. Silly me, I thought that dusty, fairly well-worn trail was the way up, but they had other, more risky plans. After slogging up a field of slippery scree feeling like a drunken elephant, I arrived at a chute, a rocky ladder the others were already shimmying up. Once I had hoisted my perceived elephantness up this irregular ladder, someone bothered to mention to me, with a smirk, that I could’ve avoided the chute, that there was a way to walk up. As is often the case, there was a chimney to greet me coming off the chute. I decided to bypass this chimney in favour of the trail to the right, after watching one of our shorter guys place his leg in a most unnatural position trying to climb it.