Ain’t no mountain high enough. By @HFoenander
By Henry Foenander
Ain’t no mountain high enough.
During a stroll along Branscombe Beach yesterday, my fellow new year’s revelers and I spotted a cliff-side cave and decided making the treacherous climb would be worth risking our little lives for.
The cliff was steepish, not Everest, but if one of us had fallen we would have turned into jam. Luckily, some clever people had left a handy rope for us to cling on to, making the jam-ifying slightly less likely.
When it came to the ascent, my technique was lacking in all grace. But I discovered two interesting things whilst I was stuck to that cliff like Spiderman with vertigo.
The first, was that encouragement and advice are often the key to overcoming challenges. Without the rest of the group shouting encouraging phrases at me, I don’t think I’d have gone up, even if some of those phrases were more “whats wrong with you it’s only like, 10 feet?” than “Your doing great”. Also having a second pair of eyes telling you where to put your feet is handy when all you can see is your life flashing before your eyes.
The second thing I learnt was that desperately hugging the cliff, like your trying to make passionate love to it, won’t get you anywhere. You have to be a bit brave, hold on tight, lean back and look for the best route. Clinging on for too long in one place just prolongs the experience of getting stuck.
But I made it up the cliff, had a look in the cave, wasn’t that impressed, then slid back down on my bum.
I hope the links between the things I learnt whilst pretending to be a mountain goat and working on briefs are self explanatory. If not, at least I didn’t turn into jam.