Cima Abajo

We continue with the publication of the micro-stories of the FOURTH edition of the competition: High Altitude Storieswe let you enjoy with "Cima Abajo", by Juan Peláez Gomez.

Cima Abajo

-by Juan Peláez Gomez-

The peak below. Above, a valley. Far to the left, a climbing sun of the west. Sunrises that set. Blunt ice axes transformed into vine shoots. Crampons with slippery tips.

The whole world of mountaineering has been turned upside down. No shelters, no resting places. Frigid forests. Knife edges. Ibones without colours. Adhesions that do not hold me on the walls. Cat's feet, snails that slide. Mountains that I climb, always prodigious and overwhelming.

After the last climb, the last one, the river far below drank his fallen body.

Already the walls without my companion. Already the mountains with all their routes are filled with absences. They collapse, they silence, they hide val above dawns and peaks. They crush me, under huge gendarmes, beauties and joys. Those who sever ropes and regurgitate the safeties. Mountain ranges clutter my peaks. And already, in the east of the compass that guides my routes, only endings are born.

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