Challenging Death - My survival story

This is a recount of the craziest and scariest day of my life in Boulder, CO. A worthy first post, I think. Enjoy

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I cannot believe what a day I've had.

It started when me and my friend Tino decided to go hiking. I immediately went back to my dorm and rolled us a fat joint. As we were waiting for the uber to take us to the trails at Chattaqua, I dropped my phone and the screen cracked terribly. Uh-oh, I guess I'll just have to use HTC's Uh-Oh Protection™ plan.

Our uber driver, Chris, took us through back roads to get to Chattaqua. I didn't know Boulder had so much history.

We decided to go up the 2nd flatiron. But I think we ended up going to the 1st. We took the climbers trail, impressed the hell out of two stoners who watched us climb through a steep cave. Once we got through the cave, we climbed up one of the flatirons and smoked my joint on a peak. We got so high.

First off, the simple act of climbing off that peak was hard for me and Tino because we were so stoned. After we both climbed off, we decided to head down the path. We ended up bearing left and ended up facing an extremely steep trail that we weren't sure even was a trail. Two zooted fools, we literally started giving each other pep talks like frat douchebags, getting pumped because we knew what came next was gonna be hard ("It's not our time yet," "We can do this. We climbed through a cave," etc.).

I started down the trail with tino following. As we continued to climb down, my grip on the rocks was progressively getting worse. I just had to keep going down. At one point I actually lost my grip and recaught it a nanosecond later. That moment thrust me into full adrenaline mode. Realizing I couldn't even see Tino anymore, I just yelled, telling him not to even try this trail. I started booking it downwards. I had to get back to the trail.

Unfortunately, the way down was even harder. I kept expecting to find more handholds but less and less showed up. I was using my core strength to move down as carefully as possible. The climb was long though and I started to lose energy. The sun was also beginning to set. Things were getting frantic.

The decent route was taking a serious toll on my stamina and mental state...
I had fears of giving up and falling down the mountain, of surviving the accident but becoming horribly disfigured.

Then I got to a part with absolutely no grip. My hands felt for something but grabbed nothing and I started to slide. I slid down one rock, and started to slide down another. Finally, my feet caught onto a ledge. I stabled myself. I must had fallen 10-12 ft. Honestly, I was surprised I didn't shit my pants. When I lost my grip, I waged my life against death and prayed. I came out on top. Overwhelming feelings swarmed through my body, I was so grateful to have lived and made it out unscathed.

The night before, a 2 minute online chakra test I took told me my heart chakra may need strengthening. Maybe it was because I was high af, but I felt like my heart chakra had unlocked itself the moment I finally reached the trail. I had so much love for everyone. For my friends, my family, Tino, and myself. I was so grateful to be alive. I was grateful for life and what it allowed me to do. Looking back at the path I'd come from made me realize that I'd literally descended down the face of the flatiron.

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I challenged life today. I won. But death had to retaliate. Tino called me and said he was stuck up there. I could barely hear him and he could barely hear me when we shouted at each other. I called him and could barely hear him. I don't know why we didn't text. I wasn't sure if I should, or if I even could call for help. Eventually, across a multitude of static phone calls, Tino finally conveyed his location to me; he was at the top of the cave we had climbed through earlier. And it was too dark for him to see how to get down. I told him to climb back up and around the mountain, but he was too scared to go back up, especially at night. I feel him. I was legitimately scared that Tino was gonna fall and die. How could I live, knowing that I had set him off on the hiking trail that led to his death.

I decided that the only way I'd go down this mountain was with Tino, so in order to get down, I had to climb up, back to the cave. Tino needed me to shine a flashlight for him. I ran back up, through the snow, up the rocks, back to the cave. By the time I got there, Tino had already exited the cave. He climbed down the last few feet and finally felt stable ground. Me and Tino hugged, that's how relieved we both were.

We had split up and both of us almost didn't make it. We defeated death together.