The Buchaille

-Day 5 of 31-

Back in May of 2010 I had just finished up my tour in Afghanistan.  I was headed home after an exhausting, but amazing six months in that war-torn country.  I count myself extremely lucky to have never seen actual combat.  The travels, adventures, friendships, hardships, loneliness, seemingly pointless efforts, dirty days, and the occasional views of beauty will never be forgotten.  I look back fondly on the majority of those memories of my friends - US, ISAF/NATO, and Afghan soldiers and civilians.  I pray each day that they are safe, especially my US friends that I know have gone back and for my Afghan friends that struggle to make a better life for themselves there.

I'll talk more about Afghanistan another day.  I took leave when I got back and went climbing in England and Scotland with my friend Alan.  It was an amazing trip on so many levels.  Physically, I was beat from Afghanistan and was struggling to deal with tendinitis in my elbow and shoulder.  The majority of what I did when deployed was work, eat, sleep, and hit the gym.  The gym became nearly an everyday thing as it was the best way to work off the frustrations and get your mind off everything else.  Tendinitis developed because of the constant workouts.  So Alan ended up leading most of the climbs on our trip.

I was also quite mentally exhausted.  It was an incredible shift over the course of a week going from Kabul, Afghanistan (over about 4 days of flights) back to Virginia and then on to London.  Over a couple weeks, Alan and I went to the Peak District (near Sheffield, England), Hadrian's Wall (border region), Western Scotland (Glencoe, Oban, Fort William), and finally down to Edinburgh, Scotland for a few days before heading back to London.


The picture below was taken by Alan of me on top of Buchaille Etive Mor (aka, the Buchaille) in Glencoe, Scotland.  This was near the end of an unforgettable all-day alpine climbing adventure and our last day of climbing.  The approach hike and finding the start of the climbing took us at least 1 1/2 hours.  After completing about six pitches of climbing we topped out on a large buttress and had to scramble down into a gully to start the next climb.  Three pitches later we reached another large ledge system.  We scrambled and hiked probably another 1/4 mile to reach the very summit.  It was an amazing feeling popping out onto that summit.  The sun had passed from us a few hours prior and the temperature drop was quite noticeable (it was May and maybe in the 50s most the day...40s, breezy and out of the sun later on).  Feeling the sun on my face again was quite nice.  There was still a patch of snow up on top and Alan secured himself to a nearby block with a short cord and then laid down to make a snow angel.  We both made some miniature snowmen too and just had a good time in this little snow patch.  

I didn't even know Alan had taken this picture till later on.  I remember realizing it was the first time in quite awhile that I just felt free...relieved...at peace...and really acknowledged that feeling.  I had just stopped and stared and thanked God for seeing me through to that moment.  Someone told me some news recently that made me just stop and think about what's really important in life.  It's so easy to get caught up in all the mundane details and BS of life without realizing and being grateful every day that you're still here...breathing, living and loving.  It made me think back to this moment and remember how thankful I was then...and how I should be now and hope to remember to be...every day of my life.