In the shelter of the rock.

• Author: Brando, Aldo
• Position: Vertical rock climbing from the US Western states to Colombia's Andes - Cover Story - Illustration

Halfway between sky and earth, we felt our steps inching along the sheer, immaculate granite wall over three thousand feet high. We had already been climbing for two days, suspended with all the strength we could muster, looking for relief as we took turns working our way along on the 160-foot intervals of rope that connected us. At the tail end of those ropes was our camping gear, which would allow us to recover during the short nights that separated each infinitely long day from the next.

We had hoped to cover the remaining portion of rock over the next thirty-six hours. Strict adherence to our food and water rations would in the long run determine the success of a plan that allowed no leeway for happenstance. But, just as in life itself, there is no way of predicting what can happen on a climb like this one.

Stretched to the limit between living and survival, and subject to the implacable law of gravity that governs the climber, everything becomes a frank and unexpected confrontation of intimacies--of our own uncertainties and those of the other climbers, of real and imaginary problems, of complex questions with simple answers, and of a range of emotions sparked by every step that overcomes the void below. Reaching the summit is no longer the paramount aim.

Several days--or even a few moments--in a vertical position suffice to make it clear that the most important revelations come to us along the way, not at the end of the journey: To show us, among...