The mountain is you ⛰️

Hello beautiful people,

My creative energy tends to come in bursts. I have so much video footage waiting to be edited that it sometimes feels like a mountain of its own.

But today, I’ve got some great adventuring news: my latest YouTube video is live.

This one takes me back to Slovenia last summer, just days after finishing the Camino. Four years before, on that same camping trip, I climbed a mountain called Mangart… and I was sure I wouldn’t make it down alive.

It started out fine. I love a Via Ferrata (iron way in Italian, for those of you not familiar with climbing terms. It is usually a steep mountain pass that has iron rods sticking out for you to climb up. You’re hooked in with ropes from one to the next.) because I’m hooked in the entire time, the views are amazing, and it gives me a sense of adrenaline while not fearing for my life. The first part of the Mangart climb has a Via Ferrata. The second part, however, I was told, was less challenging than the first. 

Easy peasy. Little did I know that physically challenging was different than mentally challenging. 

About a third of the way up, the ropes ended. No more hooking in. No way to turn around. Just you, that mountain, and hundreds of meters of rock below you. The only way was up. 

My meditation techniques I had practiced on and off for years before really came in handy. Especially at the moment when I was basically straddling a boulder trying to get to the other side, arms and legs outstretched, trembling with fear. 

A rock came loose below my feet. Don’t look down, do NOT look down, Holly. I looked down. And down, and down, and down. 

I don’t know that I had ever been so happy to be alive when I reached the top of that mountain, covered in sweat and sobbing when I saw my friend who had climbed up the other side. 

Maybe this sounds dramatic. Maybe it was. But it was by far the most challenging thing I had ever done in my life up until that point. For the following four years, I recounted the adventure to anyone who would listen. 

Now it was time to face that same mountain again, and I was terrified. 

Would I let my fear and overthinking win?

Sending you all love from India. I’m settled in and am getting on great with my host family. More on that at the end of the month.

I hope you can make someone smile today,

x Holly