There are people of all types out here. Size zero skimpily dressed young ladies, hot dudes, fat people, old people, kids... so whatever you need to look up to for motivation, it is constantly passing you up the hill. Olympians and military (there's a lot of both in town) frequently use this for training.
At one point, some girl passes us by pretty quickly, then stops about ten steps up to puke her guts out, then takes off again. Then some old, overweight guy that sounds like he only has one bad lung passes us. A 70+ year old guy has already gone up once and is passing us again on his second ascent.
We try to keep up, but have to stop every ten steps to breathe for a few minutes. After one particularly steep point, where you are using your hands to help climb, I start to see stars and get dizzy. For a moment, I have a mini panic attack, because if I pass out, I will roll back down like a bowling ball.
I collect myself and come up with a new strategy. To try and keep my flatlander heart and lungs under control, I will only take 3 steps at a time, then stop to regain my composure.
Here's the view looking straight ahead:
Another hour has now passed, and the view up is pretty much unchanged. It turns out there is a false summit, so you can't see all the way up from the bottom.
Jeebus.
).
