The Tetons are among America's most rugged and beautiful mountains.

Time is Short

The rest of the hike back down the mountain was uneventful, a slog taking hours. Shortly before reaching the parking lot, we caught Tom and Richard. Mark and Christian preceded us down the mountain to buy beer to greet us at the bottom. Our first group reached civilization and the cold beer about 6:20 p.m.

Harry staggered off the trail and into the parking lot next. He was babbling something about donating his organs to the poor and how, at the end of the hike, he had mistaken mosquitoes for space aliens and had begun to run. He was sweating, bleeding from a cut on his arm and incoherent - but funny, as always. The beer seemed to revive him.

Brent arrived next and we headed for home and bed. We tried calling wives on cell phones from the car, with little success, but I did reach my wife, Teri, who was at a wedding back in Texas.

“We made it,” I said. “Everybody's down and safe.”

“Great, and what did you think of the climb?”

I didn't really know what to tell her. It was too soon.

In the packed Suburban on the way home from Houston, I asked Tom what altitude sickness felt like. He paused then told us quietly and in detail. I was glad I asked the question because up to then we had not really confronted the fact that one of our group was excluded from the ultimate moment of the expedition.

In the van we agreed our next adventure would be at lower altitudes. Losing one of us to altitude sickness was predictable, but it's not a thing we want to repeat. The relationships are more important than the climb.

We'll find adventure closer to sea level.

These things I do know: We're better friends now than we were before. We pushed our collective envelope; we learned much, took some small risks and got closer to our rock-ribbed Earth.

For months after my heart attack, I was able to ignore its meaning. After all, I had simply fallen off the edge into a painless darkness. I woke up and went back to work. Outwardly, not much changed. I did not endure what my wife did - looking on as someone I loved turned purple in the dirt.

Yet no matter how much I denied it, the heart attack brought recognition of a thing we all deny daily - that our time here in the light is short.

So, coming home, I thought maybe it's this simple - people throw themselves at mountains and walk past their fears on tiny ledges to defy death and affirm life.

Human beings look up and aspire as naturally as the sun warms the mountains each morning. The ancient people of Wyoming did it, building stone altars in the sky. We are still doing it, marking the moments digitally, not with stone or fire. At the summit, we feel the sun on our faces, we breathe the thin mountain air and offer a silent prayer of thanks.

Maybe God is not dead and still listens.

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By Dolph Tillotson
August 7, 2005

Introduction

Climbing Teton
Chapters

1 - Just Have Fun
The Kilimanjaro climbers decide to take on Teton.

2 - The Climbers
Six friends who work well as a team. They don't ask why.

3 - Tuesday
Go slow to go far: Learning to walk and climb in the snow.

4 - Wednesday
Hidden Falls, rappelling and the Bat's Wing.

5 - Thursday
Pitching to the top of Baxter's Pinnacle.

6 - Friday
Hiking up The Grand: Sunny hillsides, wildflowers and boulders.

7 - Summit Day
Altitude sickness, the Belly Roll and the Crawl.

8 - Time is Short The relationships are more important than the climb.

Resources

Grand Teton
in Wikipedia

Grand Teton National Park

Exum Mountain Guides

See also

Climbing
Kilimanjaro