Stuck between a rock and a hard place, between life and death

Slowly making my way up the last incline of the mountain, I could not stop shaking.  From my knees buckling to my hands fluttering there was no controlling my imbalance. I couldn’t tell what exactly it was from; whether it be my nerves, excitement or flat out dehydration, my body could not stay still.  This was making me nervous as I neared the edge of the mountain knowing I was hundreds of feet above sea level.  Slowing down my pace just made balancing even more difficult.  As I was a few feet from the edge, I decided to crawl closer trying to ensure greater stability.  As I look over to the right, my friend Martin was dangling his feet over the edge of the mountain.  For the entire trip thus far, he had been jumping and climbing the rock structures.  It came easily for him because of his rock-climbing background experience but to sit so close to the edge made me extremely anxious. 

            I finally got to the edge of the mountain and sat up.  To believe I climbed up so high and long to get to this point was unfathomable.  To my left and right, there were other mountain edges sticking out from the foundation we climbed.  There was also a location called the Pinnacle, which was more narrow of a rock to climb up to overlook the valley but had a railing to hold onto.  For me, it was completely lacking any sort of boundary.  Looking out, I could see the area of Halls Gap.  There were rolling hills with trees and colors everywhere.  These colors were a change from most I have seen thus far.  With most grass turned to straw and rock of terra cotta, the rolling greens of emerald were refreshing.

          Taking a minute to sit and breathe, what seemed so scary was not as scary anymore.  The breathtaking view and shot of adrenaline had mixed together to leave me with a sense of sweet serenity.