I doubt there are many people out there who have walked on a snowy slope to get to the top of a mountain. Well, at least I had never done so until last year. We did just that today, climbing Mt. Gassan, and probably walked over at least 200m worth of snow at that.

Sendatsu was just telling us to focus on moving forward if things get too tough, because if you stop and think about what you’re doing, you kinda get stuck. Between you and a long slide down a snowy slope, there’s only your balance and a thin rope to stop you. But I learned that we hold that rope not just for ourselves, but also the other people we are with.

If I didn’t have a good enough position that I could balance myself well enough, and if wasn’t holding the rope at the right moment, there was a good chance that one of the guys we were with would have slid further down than where we could still grab him. That was an experience to say the least.