“I spent three months in Bolivia with my best friend in College where we did an extensive photo project documenting the country. For some reason, we got it in our heads when we were in La Paz to hire mountaineers and climb the second highest mountain in Bolivia named Huayna Potosí with a summit height of 6088 meters…It was a two-day climb, which by the way, started with a walk past the cemetery of all the dead climbers…Luckily I brought a mechanical Contax camera with me that could operate without a battery because all battery-powered objects stopped working about half way in due to the temperature…
When we reached base camp for the night, we had to quickly eat, sleep and wake up at 1am for the arduous trek to the summit…Sadly my friend and his lady did not make it to the summit and passed out…thankfully my stubbornness along with the help of a Scandinavian man pushing me along (because if I stopped, he had to), we reached the summit to watch the sunrise on the highest point I have ever stood upon…Watching the sun illuminate as far as the eyes can see while casting shadows in the valleys yet still revealed was a reminder of the delicate balance we all play in this world and of our own importance…
This photo is of our guide who actually saved my life…Coming down from the summit, I was not wearing my crimps because of the loose snow…my exhaustion has never reached that moment to this day…my foot slipped on a rock and he jumped on me…as we both flew down the steep slope like bobsleds, we buried our ice picks into the ground only to stop near an edge which would have certainly been our doom…”
041/100 of #100DaysofConfessions Instagram Project