I recently came across this article on the internet...if you would like to read the entire article see
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t was a very popular place then; many adventurers made their way up the established route. There were those before us and among us - I one of them - who had searched everywhere on Earth for a more enjoyable, rewarding, fulfilling experience, but no place had ever rivaled this one. We would often make the trip in tandem - or in groups, for that matter - as the company made the difficult stretches pass by more quickly. Though it helped at times to have others along, for each individual, the journey itself was unique, as was the exhilaration at the top and the euphoria on the glide down. It's strange how there was only that one spot and only the one main route that led there, yet there were ten different experiences for each ten adventurers. Each would try to describe the experience with words, but it was something that could not be expressed. All those who were in the fraternity could do was share the common bond and respect with their brothers who had been to that place that no outsider could know.
The trek to the top, although a tough uphill hike, featured very few steep faces which required rock climbing skills. However, there was one vertical cliff near the very summit. This was difficult climbing and necessitated some practice on similar terrain closer to the bottom. Supplementary exercises were sometimes needed to facilitate the climbing.
Some participants had a natural gift for paragliding, borne of purely physical qualities which were innate and which could never be attained, although each individual's basic abilities could be cultivated through diligent practice. Most of the naturally talented ones worked almost exclusively on improving their rock climbing skills and on "muscling out" longer flights. They had found outcrops well below our summit point to which they could climb using the latest equipment and from which they could launch themselves. Because of their superior gliding talents, some were able to sustain rather long flights, but never quite as long as those of the best of our group, who took off from the true summit. They claimed the experience was the same, that no one needed to go all the way to the top, but we had all tried it many times in our less enlightened days (and even experimented with it still), and we knew better. Furthermore, the objective criterion of "hang time" belied their assertions. As a group, they all fell short of our group in terms of duration in the air. This was something they could never quite explain to anyone's satisfaction, yet they continued a vain attempt to muscle their way upward to catch those updrafts that could only be caught from our starting point.
What we never understood was why these talented individuals would not make the trek to the summit, where they could have used their natural abilities to achieve mind-shattering glides. Maybe they simply hated doing anything other than rock climbing and paragliding, and the prospect of a time-consuming, arduous hike filled them with dread and a sense of pointlessness. Maybe they felt that they would not have the energy or the desire to enjoy the glide down if they had to travel that winding path to the top, that the result would not be worth the effort. Perhaps they thought some crucial aspect of their flight would be compromised. But they were wrong. Those who did decide to make the complete journey were rewarded with stronger updrafts, a more panoramic view of the world around them, and the longest, most fulfilling rides of their careers. Few who made the journey even once regretted having done it, and the more they made the trip, the more they came to embrace it as an unparalleled experience, reveling in the hike up as much as they enjoyed the floating, soaring ecstasy of the flight back down.
