Mountains and valleys

What I like about valleys is that they feel safe. I feel like I have access to many resources, supplies and there are people around in case I would need guidance on navigation. They are also warmer and where I usually setup my basecamp. I also get to see an amazing exposure of the next mountain nearby. I cannot see all the corners and roads of the mountain but I can gaze at the peaks of it. It feels like valleys are not meant for long term residency though. I see them as a place to prepare for the next climb.

Mountains materalize many things for me. First of all, they seem so powerful. They are home to thousands of living beings. They don't provide access to their most important asset easily. In order to see that amazing exposure at the peak, they require a tough climb for hours. They don't hide their presence, they stay open for anyone to pass by but they challenge the climbers with various tests along the way. Mountains require strength, endurance and flexibility all together. While you pass through the 100th corner, they challenge your mental stability and as if tell you to go back. For every single pedal forward, they require you to push at least hundreds of watts with a stable endurance. At the other side of the mountain, they require one to prepare for a colder climate since the sun's no longer on the sky.

In order to climb to a mountain, one must reach the valley first. Sometimes reaching the valley requires hours of boring driving. Before one can see the silhouettes of the mountains in the horizon, lots of road has to be passed first. To start from the beginning, in order to reach to that peak, maybe one should start training months before, mentally and physically. Reaching to the valley might not be as hard as the climb, but it requires patience. The learning curve to the valley might look less steep. Basic knowledge and some training might bring one to the valley. What makes the difference lies at the last hour of the climb though.

This summer was a turbulent and very hardcore season for me on all dimensions. I started the summer from a very deep dark hole due to the places I found myself at. However, after completing around 120 various workout sessions since the beginning of the summer, I feel like I am ready for that road trip. I am feeling excited to climb that peak. But there has to be many preparations made first. I am adjusting my work schedule, my workout schedule and my other hobbies according to this climb. I am taking a week off and starting packing for the trip. I tell everyone that I am off to a holiday but in truth, for me holidays are never the holidays as one would understand traditionally. I don't like to distinguish a holiday or weekend from any other regular day. I also keep training at weekends and during holidays. For me training is part of my life and I just change places and that's what I call a trip.

After a long, almost twelve hour drive I am reaching at the basecamp. My choice of stay surprises me one more time with the architecture. I am feeling sorry to reach the valley after the sunset because I am not able to see the mountain silhouettes during the sunset. However the next morning I am waking up with an excitement to go outside and see where I am at. And my jaws drop instantly. The range of mountains look so amazing. I feel like I am at another universe. The weather looks optimal, everything feels so lively. First I am completing two swim workouts and two bike rides; each offering so amazing exposures. I am falling in love with the open swimming pool by the lake. I am feeling that lagom feeling all over again when I look at the people doing picnic at the green grasses and of course the mountains' silhouettes rise in the background. Each bike ride is offering such unique exposures and colourful hills over the mountains at distance.

Then my birthday comes, and my excitement peaks as I prepare for the biggest climb. I feel like everything I was trained until today was for today and that everything boils down to this climb. It feels alive and new. It feels the right day to perform this climb, as that one climb to remember, on my thirtieth birthday. I am starting the ride at the valley and for the first two hours I just warm up. I go through beautiful lake villages, few steep gravel roads in the forest, a couple of fountains but I am still far away from the Grosse Scheidegg passage. As the sun hits the highest point, I am starting the climb. My computer shows a 19 kilometer of a climb. I am estimating roughly that would take me three hours to get to the peak.

At the first twenty minutes, I go through lots of thoughts. Because of a really hot temperature I am starting to sweat harder and question why I'm doing all of this. Then I remind myself that probably at the second half of the workout I will have a feeling at the other side of the spectrum. I remind myself to not listen to all the thoughts and impulses. Then I see few other cyclists and think to myself, oh look at that, I am not the only one doing this craziness. At the every corner, I get amazed by the view. I take photos, drink hydration and pushing forward. While I go through each switchback turn, I don't know what might come across to me. It might be a cyclist descending with ~50 kilometers per hour speed, it might be a car taking the turn too wide or it might be a bus and I might need to step out from my pedal cleats. Then I remind myself that this uncertain feeling is why I am doing this.

Then I get scared suddenly. I make a scenario up on my mind. I am thinking to myself that probably I am the only person in the 2 kilometer radius. I wonder what I would do if a bear would step to the road from the mountain. Would I turn back to a descend immediately or how would I react. Then I am reminding myself that whatever might come across on the road will come and will pass. Every uncertainty at each corner will reveal itself within a short period of time. The road will become clearer as I approach and I will run into other voyagers here and there. I don't know how the peak will look like but the peak itself is never the only point, is it; I am thinking to myself. It's everything on the road to that peak, how I am changing my clothes, my food supplies and my thinking during that three hour climb. That's why I am here, aren't I, thinking to myself.

I feel like I am shaping my greed with that climb. I am looking at the nearby mountains rising up to 2,5 to 3 kilometers and I realize how small I am and how everything is so temporary. Then I am thinking all those miserable nights that I thought wouldn't pass. All those doubtful and dark passages I made through until that point. I feel like all the obstacles in my life become concrete with this majestic creature in front of me. It's showing me that I don't matter but my story matters. How I crawled through the curves of the mountain alters the mind. It shows me where I belong, at least which mindset I belong to and that that change mindset can only be found on the road and with movement. Then I look at the silhouettes of three strangers from distance who are climbing through a footpath with their walking stick and I say to myself; my kind of people.