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INSIDE A CUT DIAMOND, 1960 |
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During our fifth day on the Nose, Chuck led the Great Roof pitch and
brought us up to the spacey position at its edge.
The top overhangs were still a thousand feet away and the route
lay in a spacious recess between two huge buttresses.
The next day, our sixth, in that great dihedral, I found a place
on the earth that I loved. The
sun shone, cool breezes blew upwards, and seas of living granite
extended outward – east and west.
Earth below. Sky
above. A place for man here
- amidst expansive planes and their included piton crack, out of which
occasionally grew bunches of colorful wildflowers.
I have never forgotten this place, and the connection I felt with
it. Joe must have sensed my
enthusiasm for he gifted me his last pitch of the day.
Thank you climbing companions.
Thank you Mother Nature. Steve
Roper described this section: Midway
in this cleavage, at the magical ledge Camp VI, Chuck and Royal turn a
watchful eye to the scene above.
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