Crystal Mountains

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Crystal Mountains

Fifty years ago, if he had been told that this place was going to be the site of his last adventure, no one would have believed him.

Before his eyes, today, as usual, another group of climbers ascends the steep and translucent slopes of this peculiar formation, as hundreds have already done, since his incident, without paying the slightest attention to his continuous and vigilant presence.

The Crystal Mountains, a series of eight peaks, bordering a crater one hundred kilometers in diameter, where once, several hundred million years in the past, a gigantic meteor impacted the planet, perforating its crust and making magma flow from the mantle to the outside, the huge impact caused the crystallization of the silicates that were expelled, giving rise to this peculiar geographical accident.

Its smooth walls, with a slippery surface, are the greatest challenge for any professional climber, which has made them so attractive, as a destination for this particular lineage, in the last thirty years, when the tourist industry has become stronger on the planet.

But his incident occurred long before they became a popular destination, on that occasion he, along with two other friends, had decided to travel on his own to this, then, little-known destination, and try to be part of the few pioneers who had achieved this feat.

They climbed the western wall of Peak Four, the highest of the eight, and also the steepest, almost like a glass pillar rising in the horizon, in the midst of the vegetation that populates the crater.

The ascent had been difficult and exhausting, leaving behind hundreds of hitches that today mark the route of other generations. A few meters from the summit, as they advanced the last stretch, the friction with the sharp wall, tore the rope that held him at the end of the row, he fell about four meters, before being stopped by the safety catch.

His two companions rushed down, but were unable to hold him before the hitch, which was hardly attached to the fragile surface, came off.

Today, from thirty meters below where the incident occurred, inside a deep crack, lay his already mummified corpse, which due to the complications of the terrain could never be rescued, lying down with his face observing the route, which he once helped to mark on the side of the mountain, seeing hundreds, who like him, ventured up its steep west wall.

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Previusly published in my Hive blog