Three steps.
Longs
By Penguifyer
“That was back before they closed it.”
I looked at a picture of my dad standing on a rock with his arms out as if he was gonna fall.
“That’s Longs Peak, a fucking hard climb but there’s nothing like the view at the top. Plus, getting back to the trailhead was something else.”
“There are a few other fourteeners still open,” I responded.
“If you mean driving up to the top of Pikes, that doesn’t count.”
“The view shouldn’t be too different.”
“Yeah, but it’s not about the view.”
“But you just said the view was…”
“Yeah, I know, but it’s more than that. It’s what you kids don’t quite understand.”
“Come on, dad. I’m twenty-six now.”
“Yeah, but you still depend on that pony for sleep. You probably do more than that.”
“I don’t. I’m not lying.”
“Just because I can’t hear, doesn’t mean…”
“Shut up.”
“And why do you talk like that to your father?”
I paused. “Sorry, dad.”
“I guess I’m not keeping up with the times.” He sighed and pointed to the clock. “It’s late.”
“I know. “
I hugged him in apology before walking up the stairs to my room. Lying on my bed was a blue pony cuddled in the covers. I sat down on the edge of the bed.
“I heard you two from up here,” she said lightly as if dozing off.
“And?” I responded.
“He’s exactly what you told me he’d be like.”
“I don’t lie. I still love him even though he’s a little annoying.”
“That’s what you always say about him.”
“It’s true.”
She scooched over and rubbed against my leg. “How long are we gonna be here?”
“For a month, the new lease begins in September.”
“Fine. The air is too thin here.”
“I know, but I’m not paying for a hotel for a month and for as much as dad can be annoying, he’s still letting us live here. Also, they don’t call it the mile high city for nothing.”
She scooched back into the middle of the bed. “I wanna sleep.”
“I’ll lay down in a second.”
She covered herself in a blanket as I pulled out my phone and searched for Longs Peak. One of the pictures linked to an article on the 90 person death count of Longs and why its closure was necessary. I shut off my phone and cuddled up to my pony, wrapping my arms around her and placing my chin on her head. Neither of us wanted to deal with him as he wouldn’t shut up about that mountain. Yet, a part of me wondered why anyone would climb a mountain like that.
— — —
A couple of years ago, a company came out offering to make any pet or sentient companion. I, being a bit of a brony at the time, even though MLP ended over a decade ago, decided to order my own Rainbow Dash. After paying about 1000 dollars, I got a phone call from the company asking what mattered to me the most about my Rainbow Dash.
“Well, she’s supposed to be cute and I’m pretty sure you guys can figure out the personality by watching the show.”
“That’s the obvious stuff. How show accurate do you want her to look?”
“Pretty accurate.”
“How good do you want her to be at flying?”
“Pretty good. I mean, she’s a good flyer in the show.”
“We get that, just which one do you prefer?”
I paused. “What do you mean?”
“We’ve gotten a couple hundred orders like yours. The problem is that show accurate ponies are not conducive to flight in real life. For instance, birds have adaptations such as hollow bones and singular organs instead of organ pairs which both help reduce weight and make flight possible. Ponies, by definition, are mammals and are far too heavy to fly.”
“Could you at least make her appearance show accurate and internally make her able to fly?”
“We’ve tried and you still end up fighting physics in the end. There’s a reason birds have streamlined, lightweight, and aerodynamic bodies.”
I paced around. “Is there a best of both worlds somewhere?”
“Kinda, there’s a compromise solution where we remove all vestigial organs and make the wings a tad bigger but much fuller. She’ll still look very much like Rainbow Dash, just a tad more realistic.”
“And?’
“She won’t be able to fly for long or at high altitude. Even with extensive training, there will always be a limit to her ability.”
“How high?”
“In our experience, flight becomes difficult above six thousand feet and impossible above eight thousand.”
I paused for a moment. “Is that all you can do?”
“Anything else becomes a compromise.”
“I guess that’ll be fine, just didn’t think it’d be so complicated.”
“It’s what happens when you try to make dreams come true. There are always compromises.”
We went over a couple of other details just clarifying exactly what I wanted: a show-accurate but slightly more affectionate personality, show accurate body type, no sex drive for humans, and willingness to cuddle.
A couple of months later, a man showed up to my house with her asleep in his arms. Giving her to me, he told me to take care of her saying that although she was manufactured, she was still very much alive.
She was everything I ordered, cocky, brash, adorable, and cuddly. She even remembered all of her experiences in the show. However, the first time she flew she knew something was wrong. She never told me, but I could see it in her face every time she tried. Over about a month, she mellowed out losing her cockiness and intensity while becoming more cuddly and dependent on me. She wasn’t her show self anymore, she was my Rainbow Dash.
— — —
I woke up the next morning with her lying on her stomach on top of me. After giving her mane a soft scritch, I nudged her off and covered her with a blanket before going downstairs. Dad was already up making himself breakfast.
“Morning. I’m not used to making breakfast for three yet.”
“I’ll be fine,” I responded. ”What’s up with Longs?”
He sighed. “Usually when people argue over something, they don’t talk about it the next day.”
“I’m not fighting, but I do want to know why you keep bringing it up.”
He sat down at the table placing his breakfast on the table. “Because going up a mountain like that changes you.”
“How?”
“To be honest, not much. But enough to have no regrets.”
I poured out some cereal. “Explain.”
“Well, you don’t think you can get to the top until you do. Then afterward, you hear about how half of everyone who attempts the mountain can’t make it.”
I stared in the bowl.
He continued. “I know one thing about you. You cope well, real well. But there’s a part of me that doesn’t want you to cope anymore. On the mountain, I felt alive.”
I hated it when he said that.
— — —
I should be honest. I bought Rainbow Dash because I needed a companion. I wasn’t good at making friends, which made my involvement in school lackluster, which ruined my motivation, which made me not want to make friends. My dad called it a disorder. He said I should see the school psychologist since our money was tight at the time. But when we tried, there was none as the position was removed from the school. My dad yelled at the principal before storming out.
Afterward, he sat down next to me. “If you have the option between one and two steps, take three.”
He paused as I looked out the office window.
“This is what happens when you take one.”
I managed to survive through high school and tried my hand at college, but didn’t last long. When I got home, I was desperate and saved up the money as quickly as I could for Dash. I needed something to live for.
— — —
I spent most of the day with Dash playing video games. At night, I pulled up Longs Peak articles from about a decade back. Even in pictures, it looked terrifying. Yet, something about it drew me. Dad climbed it and he’s not that athletic. If he could do it, why couldn’t I. Browsing through my near-empty calendar, I chose a date three weeks out and decided to at least show up.
The next two weeks involved morning runs, trips to the gym, and small hikes out near the foothills. I never talked about the mountain. Whenever dad asked me what I was doing, I said I was trying something new. I told Dash the same. My plan was to camp out at an abandoned summer camp for four days to adjust to the altitude. Once there, I would practice what the internet called “Scrambling” (which is like climbing but doesn’t require ropes and gear), take a drive through Rocky Mountain National Park, buy whatever else I needed in Estes Park, and wake up at three in the morning for the climb. I tightly grasped Dash the night before my departure. Online it said that I probably wouldn’t die, but the thought that I could nagged at me.
The day of my departure, I woke up at around eight, a couple of hours earlier than both Dash and my normal. After putting on a tight baseball cap, athletic shorts, and a tight long sleeve shirt, I went downstairs to leave. Dad sat at the table, sipping coffee with his phone in hand.
“What brings you up so early?”
I froze. “I’m leaving… when do you get up?”
“Leaving for what?”
I paused. He caught me. “I’m going to Estes.”
“Why would you go to Estes?”
Another pause. “I don’t know what I’m doing right now.”
He stood up and stared at me. “You’re doing it, aren’t you?”
I looked away.
He stood up and walked up to me. “You actually want to climb it?”
I nodded.
“How long are you gonna be gone?”
“Four or five days. I did my research.”
He nodded, a tad surprised. “I’ll be right back,” he said, walking over to the basement. I stood there embarrassed with myself. I didn’t know if I should ditch him right now or stay.
He came back up with a small backpack, unzipped it open, and handed it to me. “See here? There’s a water bladder inside and a tube that comes down the right shoulder strap. I used it back when I went up the mountain.”
I grasped it, threw it around my shoulders, and realized he saved me thirty bucks. I turned to leave when dad called again.
“Oh, one more thing.” I turned back toward him. “Longs is not an easy mountain. You can die on it, and people have. I still want you to come home alive, even if you don’t make it to the top. Be especially careful coming down, since that’s when you get lazy. But if you do make it all the way up and down, well, come back and tell me all about it.”
He opened his arms for a hug. I accepted, gripping tightly. “Be a badass up there, Joseph.”
“I will,” I responded.
I left the house more focused than ever. However, dad’s warning lingered in my head. This was real danger now.
— — —
I routed myself to Estes Park through Big Thompson Canyon. The plan was to drive there, eat, drive out the abandoned camp center, and set up camp inside whatever they had. The ride itself was gorgeous as the road followed a river through the mountain. Sheer cliffs of rock stood on both sides as the road wound through the foothills of the mountains. About five miles in, I pulled the car over just to get out and enjoy the view. Stepping out of the car, I stared up in awe of the rock when a voice spoke behind me.
“Joe?”
I looked behind me and saw Dash tumbling out of the car with shaggy hair and dirt all over her fur. I stared at her perplexed. “What the hell are you doing here?”
She shook the dirt off of herself. “I don’t know.”
“How do you not know?”
“I-I just… I don’t want you to leave me.”
“What?”
“I snuck in the car as you and dad talked.”
“You what?”
“You’re doing it, aren’t you?”
I sighed. “I made a promise to my dad now. I’m not going up for a few days though.”
She relaxed her body and sat down. “I guess I got time.”
“Luckily for you, I’m not stupid.”
She sat down. I sat down next to her. “I’m sorry.”
I let the moment pass, easing the tension of the moment. “You need me, don’t you?”
She nodded.
I stood up and walked to the car. “Let’s go. You hungry?”
She followed. “A tad.”
We drove into Estes Park and stopped at a McDonalds. I thought about stopping somewhere more interesting, but we both needed a break. After grabbing some food, we headed south down highway seven. She looked out the window the entire ride before breaking the silence. “Which one is it?”
“None of the peaks around us. I’ll tell you when we can see it.”
We continued on, passing through several winding curves and cliffs until we found a lake. Pulling over, we got out of the car. In the distance were two towering peaks, one of them slightly taller than the other. Both of them covered in grey shadows as the evening sun lowered.
I pointed to the two peaks. “See those two peaks way back there? The right peak with the notch at the top is it, Longs Peak.”
She hopped out of the car and stared in awe.
I continued. “I’ve heard dad brag about it over and over but I’ve never seen it in person till now.”
“And you still want to climb it.”
“Yup.” I pulled out my phone and took a picture before walking back to the car.
Further down the road, we found the abandoned summer camp with a couple of cabins sitting right beside the road. Driving up to it, the main sign remained bare while paint chipped off most of the buildings. Most of the cabins showed little damage, although a few had rotting walls and broken windows. I parked the car in the back of the campus behind a building just in case anyone snooped around.
As I shut off the engine, Dash looked at me. “You really are doing it.”
I shrugged. “I’m at least gonna try.”
“Try? Is that how you’re gonna put it?”
“I don’t know. How else should I put it?”
“Maybe some reassurance would be nice.”
“Reassurance?” I paused. “That’s a big word for you.”
“Shut up, it’s not like I have much else to do when you’re away.”
“Wait, what do you do when I’m gone?”
“I don’t know, go on the computer, watch TV, maybe even go outside and try to fly.”
I mumbled, “Fuck.”
“What? Is it a problem?”
I sighed realizing she wasn’t too different from me. “Yes and no. It’s not your fault, but I can’t keep living like that. I don’t want you to either.”
“What choice do I have?”
“I know, it’s just that’s why I want to go up the mountain. I want to do something different.”
“Yeah, but what if you fall?”
I stayed silent.
She persisted. “I know you want to go up, but if you get hurt or something, what about me?”
I let the tension of the moment die down for a second. “I know, but I have to try.”
“Please don’t.” Her words stuttered with a hint of tears.
“I have to.”
“Please.”
I looked at her. She leaned against the car door with her muzzle pressed up against the glass. With the sun falling behind the mountains outside, her tearing eyes stared at her back. I looked out my window and at Longs in the distance. An idea popped into my head and I decided to roll with it.
“Well if you’re gonna be like that.” I hopped out of the car and headed down the road. According to the GPS, the Longs Peak trailhead should’ve been a half of a mile or so down the road. It’d be suicide to climb the mountain this late, but that wasn’t my intention.
About a quarter-mile down the road, I heard her voice behind me.
“Wait!”
I turned around as she lunged for my leg and clung to it.
“P-please don’t go.”
I shook my leg but her weight kept it still. “I have to do this one way or another.”
“No, please…” She cried. “At least not yet.”
I dragged her a couple of steps before stopping. “You know what?”
She looked up at me with puppy dog eyes.
“I’m fucking terrified of this mountain, but I don’t want to chicken out anymore. If dad did it, then I at least have to try.” I paused. “There are so many things I regret not doing. I have to change.”
She clung tightly to my leg. “Please, even if you just wait one more day.”
I took another step. “Nope.”
“Stop.”
I took another step.
“Stop!”
I took another step.
She bawled on my leg, her words fumbling out of her mouth. “What if I go with you?”
I stopped. Turning around, I knelt down beside her. “Will you actually go?”
She sniffled. “If it gives me one more day.”
I hugged and squeezed her as hard as I could. “It’ll give you three.”
Her crying stopped as we spent a minute holding each other. Once she settled down, I let go and led her back to the camp.
We picked out a cabin in relatively good shape and unloaded the car. The inside was furnished with bunk beds and a dresser but no bedding. A note laid on the dresser reading, “Maintained by past climbers and a few sneaky volunteers. Keep it clean for the next.”
That night, I let her curl up to my chest as I rubbed her to sleep. I did not expect her to come with me. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized her life was defined by me. She went wherever I went, and without me, she had no reason to exist.
— — —
As my phone buzzed the next morning, I gently pushed her off of me trying not to wake her, but she shuffled anyway. “Ugh, why so early?”
I stood up and turned off my phone alarm. “The morning we climb the mountain, we’re waking up at three in the morning. Better get used to it now.”
“Come on.” She plopped back in bed.
“This time of year, Longs falls into a cycle of clear mornings and afternoon thunderstorms. It’s not supposed to happen three days from now, but it still could despite the forecast.”
She buried herself in the covers before grunting in protest.
“Come on, it’s like nine o’clock.”
She didn’t respond.
I gave up and let her sleep for another 30 minutes. Pulling out my phone revealed no cell service bars and a data roaming error. Putting the phone down, I walked outside, sat on the steps to the cabin door, and watched the sunlight emanate out from behind the twin sisters peaks east of the cabin.
After waking her up again, we had a quick breakfast sharing some donuts I packed. I told her we had to go back to Estes later anyway since I only packed food for myself. We spent the morning exploring the abandoned camp to its fullest. South of the main campus was a small artificial lake along with a shed of kayaks and canoes. North of the campus was the road along with a few cabins across, all abandoned too. Throughout the campus were fixtures of crosses, sometimes painted and other times embedded into the structures themselves.
“What did this place used to be?” Dash asked me.
“I don’t know. Christian summer camp maybe?”
“Wonder what it was like here back in the day?”
“Don’t know, but I would’ve liked to see it.”
“A little sad, you think?”
“Yeah.”
Morning turned to afternoon and I strapped on my backpack.
“I’m gonna go for a run at the trailhead. Wanna come?”
“I thought you said we weren’t climbing the mountain yet.”
“We aren’t. I’m only gonna go a mile up and down. Need to acclimate to the altitude, and I suggest you do the same.”
We walked for about half a mile down the road to the Trailhead. Everything from the bathrooms to the signs to the faucets all looked clean and well maintained. Cars were even parked in the parking lot.
“I thought you said the trail was closed.”
“The trailhead splits off to several different trails along the way. They only closed the peak.”
She walked up to a sign as I followed her closely. “This is what we’re doing, right?”
I studied the sign. It was a Longs Peak guide detailing the route. First was a five-mile hike on a rocky trail, after that the Boulder Field leading up to the Keyhole, followed by the Ledges, the Trough, the Narrows, the Homestretch, and the summit. A hastily applied “closed” sticker nearly peeled off the sign. The pictures were faded and worn, but the sheer cliffs they portrayed worried me. From everything I read online, the mountain got real after the Keyhole. “Think so.”
The trail itself remained well maintained being nice and flat with only a few divots here and there. The signs along the route even showed the path to the summit. Rocks occasionally jutted out of the dirt creating ankle rolling hazards, but I expected much worse.
The altitude didn’t affect me too much at the trailhead, but the constant uphill strained my lungs forcing me to stop every so often. However, Dash kept up right behind me the entire run, breathing fairly easy the entire time.
“How do you do that?” I asked her.
“Do what?” She stopped, perplexed and staring at me.
“I don’t know, not feel like your lungs are dying.”
“That? I don’t know. I just keep running and it’s fine. Legs are a little sore though.”
“What are you, like, sixty pounds lighter than me.”
“Something like that.”
Twenty minutes up and we turned back. At first, I couldn’t figure out why she handled the altitude so well. Her weight definitely factored in, but I realized she still had some flight adaptations. They might not get her in the air at this altitude, but they counted for something.
— — —
The next day we drove into Rocky Mountain National Park and along Highway 34 (or the Trail Ridge Road) to the tops of some twelve thousand footers. Above the treeline, the mountains rose up from the trees as grey ridges across the terrain. Small glaciers dotted the ridges as stratification lines encircled each peak. Far in the distance stood Longs, higher than any peak in sight. I averted my eyes whenever I saw it. Dash kept an eye on it throughout the whole drive.
Driving back down from the mountains, we took a detour and stopped at the Alluvial Fan. Boulders and rocks of all different sizes covered the nearby meadows and followed a river upstream. It looked like the sight of a catastrophe that occurred far into the past.
“What happened here?” Dash asked as I hopped onto the first big boulder I found.
“Some sixty years ago, all of these rocks formed a sort of natural dam upstream. Somehow, the waters upstream knocked it loose and sent all these rocks down the valley along with millions of gallons of water which flooded Estes Park downstream.” I hopped to another boulder. “Now it’s a great place to scramble.”
Dash hopped on after me but slid off before she could get on top of the boulder. I chuckled. “That’s why we’re here, you know.”
“Shut up,” she yelled back, climbing up a rock beside mine before jumping onto mine.
I smiled. “At least you figured that out.”
“What?”
“There’s a phrase for it: if you have the choice between one and two steps, take three.”
“And you just hopped up here?”
“Yeah, but we’re only five feet off the ground.”
She stared off into the peaks. “When did you get this wise about mountains?”
“I did my research, plus dad.”
We hopped from boulder to boulder as we traveled upstream, refining our technique and footing. The longer we scrambled, the less she slipped, trotting from rock to rock like a dance. I got better too, but not nearly as fast her. We stayed there for a good hour or two before heading home as the sun went down.
We spent the next day in Estes Park. Neither of us were fond of the touristiness of the town, but it still was fun in a way. We stopped in some outdoor gear shop and bought another “hydration” backpack for Dash.
“What’s that for?”
“Dad gave me his from way back before we left. It’s a lot more convenient than a water bottle, plus it holds two liters.”
She grabbed it, sat down, and strapped it on herself, struggling a tad. Her body contorted and squeezed in an adorable way, reminding me of why I ordered her.
That evening and back in the cabin, I organized everything we were gonna bring. The two backpacks, a first aid kit, four protein bars for each of us, full water bladders, a filtered water pump, two headlamps, and my phone. Dash eyed all of the gear spread out on a table.
“I know you wanted to pack light but that’s really light.”
“Our backpacks don’t have much space. Also, anything you bring weighs down on your back. We’re doing this in one day and should plan accordingly.”
“One day? How long will it take?”
“My dad said he did it in twelve hours, but his brothers did it in seven a couple years before. No idea how long it will take us.”
“Any guess?”
“Probably twelve.”
Evening came as we settled down at night in order to wake up early enough. Dash cuddled into a ball by my chest as I wrapped her in my arms. She spoke as the last light faded outside.
“Is there any chance that you'll change your mind?”
“I want to, but I'm tired of changing my mind. Dad said he learned a secret up there. I have to at least try.”
“I guess.” She pressed her head into my chest.
I laid there and focused on my breathing, gripping on to Dash. A whisper of coyote howling echoed outside. I closed my eyes and tried to dream but the mountain seeped into my every thought. I gave up and focussed on our breathing.
— — —
A buzz tingled my ears shooting my eyes open. It was time. I gently jiggled Dash awake as I slid off the bed, threw on a long sleeve shirt and hat, and poured some cereal for myself. Dash rolled out of bed and silently joined me. After we ate, she spoke.
“We still doing it?”
“Yup.”
After double-checking our gear and filling up on water, we drove over to the trailhead. Walking up to the sign and the trail behind it, I paused for a second. Dash walked up beside me.
“What’s the holdup?”
“Yeah, it’s just Dad always bragged about this, but I never thought I’d do it.”
“Heh.”
I glanced over to her and smiled as she stared into the trail too.
Our headlamps cut through the dark forest as we retraced our steps from a couple of days prior. We hiked a tad slower than before due to the darkness but still made good time on the dirt trail. Our path traced more switchbacks than we could count and glanced against a river twice before crossing it. We stopped on the wooden planks that acted as our bridge and took a break. Down the valley, the sun slowly rose from behind the twin sister peaks, illuminating the trees above us. A slight haze covered the landscape.
“Bet you haven’t seen this before,” I said to Dash.
“Neither have you.”
“Well, there’s a first for everything.”
“Come to think of it, this is kinda what Equestria looks like.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah, if it existed. I’m not dumb enough to not realize that.”
I looked down, not knowing what to say.
After a short break, we continued up the trail. The spruce and pine trees towered above us, but slowly dwindled in size the higher we hiked. Every so often we came across a clearing covered in grass and wildflowers, which became more frequent as we ascended.
Eventually, the trees lowered to my height and deformed beyond belief. Entire halves of some trees were bare while others resembled low lying bushes. Some trees looked like flags as their branches only formed in a row on one side of the tree. Each tree looked scarred from the harsh alpine climate.
Dash spoke, trailing me by ten feet. “That’s from the wind, right?”
“Yeah, the winter winds blast the trees only allowing branches to grow where they’re protected by the trunk.”
As the trees deformed, so did the trail as rocks littered the dirt causing countless opportunities for rolled ankles. After passing through a few more turns, the trees gave way to tundra as we got our first close look at our destination. The mountain stood like a giant pyramid with a flat, diamond section facing us. Stratification lines circumvented the mountain as a few glaciers dotted the sides of the peak. It stood majestic, foreboding, and taller than any peak around. I stared at it, trying to discern a route to the summit.
Dash walked up beside me. “We’re going up that?”
“That’s the plan.”
In all of my arguments with dad, I never thought I’d find myself on the path up the peak. His cautions echoed in my head as my hands trembled.
We continued on, passing many piles of rocks along the path, some with chipmunks on their tops claiming the rock piles as their own. About an hour later, we reached a trail junction overlooking Chasm Lake at the base of the mountain. Just off the trail were a few open-air bathrooms, which I pointed Dash to when she asked for one.
“Seriously, is that it?” she scoffed.
“There’s no way they’re installing plumbing up here. I’m surprised they even have those.”
She pouted and wandered off as I sat down, looked at the mountain, and took a bite out of a protein bar. Longs peeked from behind mount Lady Washington, almost as if hiding from us. The morning sun cast shadows over the base of the gully between the three peaks as Longs stood in full sun above the other two.
At this point, everything the mountain presented had been manageable. Although the hike was long, with solid footing and a focussed attitude, it was just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other.
Dash trotted back up and sat right next to me. I poked at her. “Quite a view, right?”
She hesitated. “It is.”
“Feeling alright?”
“Yeah, don’t see what your dad what talking about.”
“We’ll see.” The Keyhole flashed into my mind.
We continued down the trail after staring at the mountain for a minute or two. Rocks replaced what little dirt remained as the trail devolved into loose stone. Trees and bushes were replaced with moss and low grass growing between countless rocks.
Dashed looked east away from Longs to two smaller peaks poking out of the morning mist. “Those are the Twin Sisters, right?”
I followed her eyes to the peaks. “I think so.”
“We’re higher than them.”
I nodded and looked back at Longs. “And still got a ways to go.”
Hiking past several switchbacks and over a hill revealed the trail leading to an orange mass of rocks along the ridge of the mountain. The rocky trail further devolved as it lost any definition, our only markers being piles of rocks beside it.
About a mile or two after the Chasm Lake junction, Dash stopped in front of me. “How high are we?”
“I don’t know, ten to eleven thousand feet, maybe higher.”
She extended her wings and flapped them, feeling the air around her, before retracted them again. “When I breathe, I don’t notice it. But when I flap my wings, they cut straight through. I can’t scoop up air like I’m used to.” She paused, looking down. “How high am I supposed to be able to fly?”
I didn’t want to tell her. The mountain loomed behind her; lies could get us killed. “A few thousand feet below here.” She nodded as my gut wrenched. She already knew, but telling her still hurt.
We stayed silent for the next mile as the flora disappeared and larger rocks took its place. Eventually, the trail disappeared as we hopped from rock to rock. Another set of bathrooms sat at the base of a slope as boulders littered a wide ascending slope that narrowed to a ridge. At the top was a tiny hole in the jutting rock of the ridge.
I stood on top of a boulder looking over the slope as Dash hopped on after me. “Welcome to the Boulder Field. There’s no trail from here on out.” I pointed to the hole in the ridge. “See that? That’s the Keyhole. That’s our next stop.”
I sat down as a sign about twenty feet away caught my eye. Sliding off the rock, I walked up to it as the words “Safety is your responsibility” and “Don't climb if unprepared” stuck out. Dash followed me as I stepped aside for her to read it.
“‘Narrow ledges, loose rock, steep slopes, high winds, lightning, rain, hail, snow, freezing temperatures, ice covered rock, etcetera. A slip, trip, or fall could be fatal. Rescue is difficult and may take hours to days.’”
“‘If you have the option between one and two steps, take three,’” I interjected.
She paused. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Hundreds of climbers used to summit this mountain every year. Only about eighty people have died. Plus, we’re prepared, for the most part.”
“I guess.” She looked toward the mountain. “What do they mean by ‘a slip could be fatal?’”
“From what I’ve read online, we’ll learn at the Keyhole.”
We hopped from boulder to boulder and slowly ascended the slope. Every so often, I’d step on a loose rock or boulder and lose my balance over other boulders jutting out with sharp edges as I caught myself. Looking over to Dash some fifty feet beside me, she hopped from boulder to boulder nearly with ease. I looked up to the Keyhole. We were only a quarter of the way there.
The scrambling continued for some half an hour. No single rock presented a challenge, but the assortment of stable and unstable rocks required route planning and the occasional foot test. The higher we got, the steeper the slope became. Dash lead me by about twenty to thirty feet throughout the field. She still stumbled every so often but exhibited much more control on the rocks.
“When did you become a mountaineering expert?”
“What, me? I don’t know. Just comes naturally, I guess.”
I nodded back in jealousy.
I stopped checking my phone within the Boulder Field, so when we reached the Keyhole, I had no idea how long it took us. Rock from the ridge hung over the gap in the wall, creating a sideways but incomplete hole. Beside the Keyhole stood a small stone shelter which blended in with the rock face, presumably made of rock from the field itself. I climbed over to it, noticing a plaque in its wall. Dash, hopping over a few rocks, walked up beside me as I read the plaque.
“‘This shelter commemorates a colorado mountaineer conquered by winter after scaling the precipice January 12, 1925, and the one who lost his life in an effort to save her.’”
She sat against the rock, breathing a tad heavy. “What about it?”
“This mountain kills people. Be glad we’re not going up in the winter.”
“I don’t know, hasn’t seemed too dangerous yet.”
I climbed up over to the Keyhole, gripped the rock, and looked through it. The mountain circled around for miles to my left forming a large basin 5000 feet below. Rocky greys topped the mountains shifting to oranges down the sides and then greens and blues down in the basin. I felt as if I stepped into a painting, but now I could go and see what world existed in the picture. Dash climbed up from behind me. She stared motionless at the sight as if she couldn’t process the picture.
I continued. “Now this is a view.”
She sat down. “It’s like Equestria again.”
“Yeah, about that.” I nodded back before taking a breath. “Just watch your step, ok?”
“What?” She took a couple of steps forward and looked down. “Holy shit!” Panting, she backed up from the edge. “Okay, I didn’t know we’re gonna climb the side of a cliff.”
I pointed toward her left along the mountainside. “See the yellow dots? That’s our path from here on out. I’m pretty sure this is the Ledges.”
We rested for ten-ish minutes at the keyhole. The lack of any remotely level surface meant I laid on an inclined rock while Dash wedged herself between two rocks. A lingering soreness brew in my legs but not quite strong enough to slow me down.
When ready, I inched over to the first yellow dot. A glance to my right revealed a sheer drop, falling at least 4000 feet. I averted my eyes, sitting down and wrapping my arms around a rock as my anxiety skyrocketed. Dad didn’t tell me about this. The only picture he had was of him at the summit.
I gave myself another thirty seconds before moving on to the next dot. Although a flat granite slab gave me a path, I crawled on all fours, keeping my eyes buried in the rock. Reaching the dot, I sat back down and buried my face in my hands. How did dad do this? One wrong move meant death, and the length of the ledges gave plenty of opportunities.
I looked around. Dash wasn’t behind me. “Dash? Dash! Where are you?”
Her head poked out from behind a rock by the Keyhole.
“Are you gonna come?”
She stared at me for a bit before tapping the rock in front of her. A moment later, she took a step, tapped the rock again, and slowly inched her way to the first dot. Distress painted her face as she methodically tested every rock before each step, eventually making her way beside me.
As she wedged herself between me and the rock, I stared out into the basin before me. Dad’s words echoed in my head, that’s how he did it.
“Joe?”
I turned my head to her.
She continued. “I don’t think I can do this.”
“‘If you have the choice between one and two steps, take three.’ It can be done.”
I slowed stood up, allowing for Dash to catch herself. After taking several deep breaths, I braved a few small but quick steps while keeping my eyes glued to the rockface. Ten steps in and I knew dad was onto something.
With each step, I relaxed a tad trusting my ability more and more, the occasional scuff on the rock keeping the adrenaline rushing. By keeping my eyes focussed on the path and away from the ledge, I could keep the drop out of mind, allowing my nerves to keep calm. Still, every so often I peeked over the ledge only to avert my eyes after seeing a 4000-foot drop.
Dash trailed behind a good ten feet, stepping cautiously over every rock as we followed the dots nearly religiously. I lost track of time devoting all of my focus to the rocks below me. About halfway through the Ledges, we stopped for a break.
As I sat down, Dash sat down next to me with her side pressed into mine. I looked at her, a tad thrown off. “You okay?”
She didn’t answer, pressing into me harder. She really would go anywhere with me.
I basked in the view of the mountain. Ahead of us was a long gully of still rock running down the mountain which lead all the way up to a notch in the ridge. A small line moved along it. “See that?” I pointed at the line.
Dash leaned over and looked. “See what?”
A second glance revealed arms and legs coming from the line. “We might not be alone.”
We traversed the rest Ledges with little issue. Navigating the loose rock and jagged ledges became second nature as my footwork engrained itself into memory. The Ledges slowly merged with the Trough as the yellow dots traveled up the gully. I called for another break and waited as Dash inched up to me.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Getting there.”
I chuckled silently. “Understandable.”
She sat against me again and looked up. “Now we go up?”
I nodded pointing up the Trough. “See that gap up there at the top, that’s where we’re heading.”
She nodded before pressing firmly into me again, making it no longer a one-off thing. Alarmed, I didn’t know if I should bring it up. She only pressed up against me like that at night. I looked up the Trough and saw the other climber only halfway up.
We continued to the Trough a few minutes later. A motionless stream of loose rocks flowed down the gully as we climbed beside it on dusty, but sturdy rock. Even so, pebbles and small stones accumulated on our path as we fought the 45-degree incline. I looked over to Dash after she stumbled over a rock, catching herself quickly.
I called out to her. “Okay?”
She laid against the wall of the mountain panting before slowing her breathing. I scuttled over a few rocks and crouched down to her.
“You good?”
A tear grew in her eye, but she quickly wiped it away.
“Need another break?” I asked.
She nodded before sitting next to me again as I hugged her in return this time.
After about five minutes, we continued up the slope. The stream of rocks slowly thinned as we climbed, giving us more space to maneuver. Gushes of wind picked up periodically with the higher altitude, tugging on us as it blew past our ears. Out of nowhere, I heard Dash scream.
“Dash!?” I searched the surrounding rock, seeing her scuttling onto a rock below me. Climbing down the gully as fast as I could, I found her wedged in between two rock slabs. “What happened?”
She slowed her breathing, pulling herself out of shock. I kneeled down beside her as she stood up and brushed herself off, shaking a tad.
“You okay?”
She pressed her whole body into mine this time. “I tried to hop onto a rock and use my wings for an extra push, but then a gust of wind came and nearly pulled me off.”
I wrapped my arms around her as she buried her head into my chest. I listened to her breathing, making out a faint sniffle, amidst the howling wind around us. A bit later, and she pulled her head out and nodded.
We looked back up and continued climbing. Every time we looked up, the top of the Trough felt just as far away as before. Eventually, I stopped looking up, keeping my focus purely on the rocks. A little later, I stopped thinking entirely as my body climbed without input. The endless climbing morphed into a blur until I glanced up to see the end of the Trough some 50 feet away. Looking back, Dash was about twenty feet behind me. I had lost track of her as I lost track of everything else.
I shouted down to her. “Hey, look up!”
She paused and looked at me.
“See that? The end is just up there.”
She looked past me before scrambling at double the pace.
The Trough narrowed to a corner in the face of the mountain. Upon reaching it, a few giant slabs of granite blocked the path. To the side in the wall were several indents, each suitable as a hand or foothold. After finding a route, I gripped onto the holds and climbed around the slab. On the top, I sat down on the slab and watched Dash climb up. It occurred to me that all we had left was the narrows and homestretch. Looking around, it also occurred to me that we were higher than any surrounding mountains for miles.
As I lost myself in my own thoughts, Dash cried out to me. “Joe? I think… I think we have a problem.”
I looked down. “What?”
“How did you get up there?”
“See the notches in the rock to your left side? I used those to… shit.” I stood up and leaned over to the edge. She sat there with her hoof in an indent trying to push up against it. “You can’t climb up that, can you?”
She nodded.
I looked around for another path. The other side of the giant slabs showed a possible path if you were willing to prop yourself up between two slap and reach up. Problem was, the tips of her ears only reached a bit over three feet tall.
“Go to the other side, I think I can pull you up.”
She scrambled over a couple of rocks to a corner between two slabs of granite. “Here?”
“How high can you reach?”
She leaned against the wall with her forelegs as high as she could reach them. They missed the top by half a foot. Laying down on the rock, I reached for her leg and gripped onto both hooves. “Close enough.”
I crouched and yanked her leg as hard as I could, only to hear her scream. Slowly lowering her back down, I poked my head over the slab. “What happened?”
“That rock…” she brushed off her stomach, revealing several scratches “…is sharp!”
“Shit.” I analyzed the rock again. “Hey, there’s a smooth section over to the side. Let's try that.”
She nodded in return.
Again, she leaned against the rock as I grabbed her forelegs. This time, I throttled my force and pulled her up the slab. She dragged up the rock as I fell back, pulling her up and beside me. We laid down there for a minute panting before she stood up and walked toward the narrows. “Give me a sec, I’ll be right there.”
She stopped and plopped on the granite, curling up into a ball between two slabs of rock along the path. I sat up and watched her eyes tear up. “You okay?”
No answer. Her chest pulsated as faint sniffles whimpered out.
“Dash?” I sat up and crawled beside her.
Still no answer. A tear fell down her eye.
“What’s wrong?”
She sniffled. “Everything.”
I hadn’t seen her like this. “What?”
She wiped her tears. “You don’t get it, don’t you? I shouldn’t be here.”
“What do you mean? Knowing you, I would expect you…”
“For the love of god, I’m not fucking Rainbow Dash!”
I shut up.
She panted for a second, slowing her breathing. “You know what sucks? Slowly coming to realize that your memories lie, that your pride is false, that your passion is fake, and that you’re entirely dependent on someone else. I have no purpose outside of you. If something happens to you, I’m screwed. Fuck, I can’t even sleep without you.”
I leaned against the rock beside her. I thought about leaning up against her but decided against it.
She continued. “I’m a mock-up of a hero, Joe. I’m the shell of something I can’t be.”
I sat there silent and let her be. She needed space and I didn’t have anything good to say at the moment. A couple of minutes went by before I came up with a response.
“I know you didn’t ask to be made, but then again, none of us ask to be born. We’re all products of those around us. I guess most of this is my fault then. I probably should’ve asked for you to be more different, more unique. But then again, I didn’t know what I wanted back then. Hell, I don’t even know who I am right now.” I took in a couple of deep breaths before continuing. “That being said, thank you for being there for me, even if you hated it.”
I paused looking out toward the mountains in the distance. We were higher than any other peak I could see. Just being up here was worth it to me. “Dad always said there was something therapeutic about mountains. Though I didn’t expect this.”
I listened to the wind as it rushed across the face of the mountain, gradually fading in and out. The mountains in the background no longer loomed but stood below us, no longer as obstacles. I fought a growing tear in my eye as I realized the mess I got us in, but also how far we’ve already come.
“We can go back if you want.”
She raised her head and looked out with me. “How much more is left?”
“Just the Narrows and the Homestretch.”
She stood up and wiped off the dirt and pebbles from her coat. “Might as well finish this then.”
I nodded.
The Narrows, although extremely narrow and obstructed by a few boulders at first, slowly widened to a comfortable four-ish foot of ground. A quick glance to the right revealed a beautiful landscape, and a look down revealed certain death. I didn’t look down much. Despite that, the Narrows only took fifteen-ish minutes, ending in escalating steps of boulders.
We took a quick break at the top of the steps and eyed down the Homestretch. It began with a small rocky path before devolving into inclined slabs of granite running all the way to the summit. My excitement returned as I realized we could actually make it to the top.
We continued up following a crack in the granite. About halfway up, nearly any other cracks, boulders, or ledges disappeared and leaving us with just the crack. Yet, with solid footing, the crack was enough to climb with. The closer we got, the steeper the slope became until it reached a near forty degrees. More and more slabs jutted out of the rock face as we approached the top, giving us more footholds.
I looked up and saw the summit only 50 feet away. “Holy shit, we’re almost there.”
Dash, only five feet behind me, responded. “Shit, you’re right.”
I picked up the pace and scrambled on, making sure Dash didn’t fall too far behind. Kicking my feet into the cracks while stabilizing myself with my hands, I shimmied up through the last stretch. Then, the path narrowed to a couple of feet with the summit ten feet ahead. Fueled by adrenaline, I pulled myself past the last cracks and onto the summit before sitting back down and relaxing my body. Dash followed by close, pulling herself onto the summit right after me.
She panted. “Holy shit, we did it. I climbed a mountain.”
“We both did,” I responded.
She looked out into the distant mountain ranges. Every mountain stood below us, fading into a mystic haze as their peaks touched the horizon. Glaciers sparkled in the mountain ridges, dotting the scars in the earth. “You know, I have images like this from those fake memories. But I never remember actually climbing the mountains.”
“What about it?”
“I don’t know. I guess I didn’t think much of those views before. This view, though, it’s amazing.”
I looked out with her. “It is.”
The summit of Longs is actually a flat boulder field nearly the size of a football field. The highest point is just a boulder that’s taller than the rest with an altitude marking of 14,259 feet. Leaning against it was a man, probably in his late forties, smiling at us as we stood up and approached him.
“Looks like I'm not alone, huh?” he said.
“Yeah, sorry about that. Was hoping we'd be alone too,” I replied.
The man laughed. “You see, ten years ago, probably a hundred people would summit this mountain on days like today. There's a small group of us that still climbs, but not many.”
“There is?”
“Yeah, park rangers barely even bother us, too. They know why we’re here.”
Dash walked up right next to me. The man looked at me a giggled. “Is that one of those… um…”
Dash completed his sentence. “Artificial live ponies you can buy off the internet. Yeah, I’m aware.”
I looked away, scratching my head. “When you put it that way…”
“It makes you look desperate. You just confessed that a little bit ago.”
“Not exactly.” I should’ve been offended, but I was too tired. “But you’re not wrong either.”
The man laughed. “That’s the mountain speaking.”
That was the kinda thing dad would say. “How so?”
“Welp, on a mountain, you don’t get mad; you get things done. Getting mad just puts everyone at risk.”
I looked over the horizon and realized how high up we were. “I’d believe it.”
“Anyway, I gotta head out. You two shouldn’t stay up here much longer either. You don’t want to get caught in a thunderstorm up here.” He pushed off from the boulder and grabbed his backpack. He pointed to a tube lying within the crack between two rocks. “In that tube is a piece of paper where you can write your names and the date. A few of us still maintain a record of summits, even after the mountain closed.” He strapped on his backpack and headed for the Homestretch. “I’m off. Best of luck to both of you on and off this mountain.”
Dash and I waved and yelled goodbye before finding the metal tube and peaking within. Inside was a PVC tube with a screw-on cap that held the paper. The paper itself was just printer paper with dozens of names scribbled on to it, many dated within the month. I jotted down my name and the date and handed the paper to Dash.
“Wait, can you even…”
She tossed the pen into her teeth and scribbled her now down before spitting the pen back out. “Yes, but it isn’t that good. I don’t have much of a reason to when you’re around.”
I nodded, remembering earth ponies and pegasi in the show writing like that. I didn’t think it’d transfer to real life.
We lied down on a couple of rocks for about twenty minutes before suiting up and heading back for the Homestretch. The fear from earlier left me. My only thought was to get back down.
— — —
Every part of the mountain felt shorter than on the way up, except for the Trough. The Homestretch breezed by as my eyes and feet scuttled me down. The Narrows was just hiking once you got over the certain death cliff beside you. The Trough still sucked, but by the end, it felt like I left a well-known friend.
Dash either stayed right behind me or ahead of me, her four legs and low center of mass making quick work of the rocks. She even hopped from rock to rock on the Trough with control and grace, which she pointed out to me with a smirk every so often. I hadn’t seen her like this since I got her.
Partway through the ledges, Dash called out to me. “Joe, we got a problem!”
“What?”
She skipped across a couple of ledges as she hopped over to me with the tube from the hydration pack in her mouth. Spitting it out in front of me, she gave the news. “It’s out.”
“You know, you drink quite a bit for your size.”
She walked up to me as I handed her the tube to my bladder pack. “Shut up, asshole.”
We laughed as she took a long sip from my bladder pack.
“Don’t worry, we can refill at the Boulder Field.”
“That’s a relief,” she said after spitting out my tube.
We continued on through the keyhole and down the boulder field, filling up with water from between the rocks at its base. I did appreciate being able to see the glacier up the mountain that supplied our water.
The rocky trail after the boulder field felt like child’s play after the Trough and Homestretch, and we made quick work of it. The only thing slowing us down was our increasing exhaustion. Somewhere halfway between the Chasm Lake junction and the treeline, Dash walked up to me. “So, did the mountain teach your lesson?”
“We’re not all the way down yet.”
“I know, but I’m still curious.”
“I’m actually asking a question right now.”
“Which is?”
I looked behind me at the summit, shielding my eyes from the sun with my hand. “How the hell did I do that?”
She snickered. “Like hell do I know.”
Once we hit the treeline, our chatter and cheerfulness waned as the exhaustion overcame us. The last mile was a zombie walk with no word spoken between us. Only the sight of the ranger station broke our silence, which ended up being me mumbling “holy shit.”
She heard me. “Yeah, holy shit.”
I smiled. “We just climbed a mountain.”
We drove back to the cabin a little after reaching the end of the trail. Walking inside, Dash plopped on the couch and curled up, hugging a pillow. I smiled and laid a blanket over her before grabbing a snack, lying in bed, and closing my eyes as the exhaustion took me.
— — —
I sat at my computer working on a CAD assignment for class. Unfortunately, SolidWorks wouldn’t let me display the specifications for a part in a blueprint key, leading to much frustration and many expletives. I deleted the key and tried again before running into the same
issue. As I drew in a breath to scream, my phone rang. Thanking god, I grabbed the phone from my pocket and swiveled my chair away from my computer.
“Joe here, whatcha need?”
A cocky voice shot back at me. “I don’t need shit from you, Joe.”
“Wait, what? Oh! Hey, Dash. Been a while since I heard from you last.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, sorry about that. I’ve been really busy climbing lately and I usually don’t take my phone with me up the wall.”
“Don’t worry about it. How’s Yosemite treating you?’
She burst out in excitement. “It’s amazing here. The walls are ginormous and people the stupid crazy. The other day, one of my friends took me slacklining off of a cliff face. I wasn’t too bothered by it since I could glide down with those wing extensions you made for me. But my friend, he was fucking terrified!”
“Yeah, how are those working, by the way?”
“They’re a lifesaver. My friends who free solo and solo base are so jealous since I can jump off and be miles ahead of the park rangers if I need to.”
“Just don’t land yourself into trouble, please.”
“Hey, if you climb here, you have to break some rules.”
“Yeah, I’ll look into that.”
“So, how are you holding up? Keeping up with school and therapy?”
“I’m keeping up. I absolutely hate this CAD assignment right now, but apart from that, massive improvements in therapy.”
“That’s good.”
“Yeah. You see, when my mountain high wore off, I didn’t immediately search for the next one.”
“Shut up.”
“You should try it sometime; it’ll do you a world of good.”
“That reminds me, I’m coming back on the train in a couple weeks. Winter is moving in and I don’t feel like being stupid.”
“Train?”
“Hey, flights are expensive, and I ain’t making much money here. It’s not like I’m in a rush either.”
“It’s all good. Maybe you can give me a good cuddle again when you get back.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know you miss it.”
“Don’t lie to me, you do too.”
“Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I’ll see you in a couple weeks then. Chilly weather is already coming in here.”
“See ya later, Dash.”
“Bye.”
She hung up on me as I placed my phone down and relaxed. It had been over a year since the two of us climbed Longs. Whenever I look at the mountain or even just a photo of it, I still wonder how I got to the top. Yet, knowing I climbed such an obstacle made other obstacles seem possible.
I pulled up my email and typed up a message to my professor about the SolidWorks issue. Attaching a screenshot to it, I sent it along and sat back in my chair This kind of bullshit would be with me till I died, but it didn’t mean there wasn’t a way through it.