Plateu Point

The 11th of November was a day for rest, and getting the gear in order for the upcoming hike that me and my friend Kiril had planned. It was around 20km in total through rough terrain with constantly changing elevation. Usually the trip to "Plateu Point" and back in a single day is not recommended, actually the rangers advise against it. People go down, and sleep in their tents, and then climb back the next day with their strength restored. Since we didn't have any tents or sleeping bags, we were doing the whole thing, but in order to get back before it became dark we had to start in the dark. And around 2am the next morning we were off. We had prepared a few sandwiches and i was bringing 2litres of water ( there is only one place to fill water and its 10km away). I had two layers of clothing and around 15kg of gear on my back, which included my backpack with all the lenses and my camera and a tripod.
         Flashlights on we walked to the head of the trail. It was pitch black and after a few meters we discovered that the trail was frozen solid with glossy ice! Knowing that i feel that i have to let you know that that trail is about 1.5m in width and has no guard railings, so if u slip and fall off, you will be falling for a very long time (700m in some parts, in others more..). Balancing the huge backpack and the tripod dangling behind me, while holding a flashlight is quite difficult believe me! We had to hold on to rocks and walk on the fringes of the trail in search of more snow and rocks and not so much ice. I don't remember ever being scared for my life, but that was the moment for sure. The ice was there for around 2-3 km of the trail, after that we picked up the pace, after all we had a goal at hand, we had to be at "Plateu Point" before 6am to catch the sunrise. We kept on gathering speed, and we were running before we knew it. The terrain was getting more leveled and i decided to close my tripod bag, because i saw that it was open, and without thinking i turned my head around and kept on walking...big mistake, the moment i took my guard off i got punished for it, i didn't see a step in front of me and sprained my ankle. Good thing i was wearing my "Bestard" mountain boots, i can easily say that they saved my ankle from snapping that day, and maybe more than that since the nearest hospital is a 3h drive away, and getting out of the bottom of the Canyon with a broken ankle wouldn't be easy.
     My ankle was hurting but the adrenaline was keeping me going, and after another 3km we were there. It was just breathtaking, you can hear the Colorado river which was around 600 meters under the cliff on which we were sitting. The moon was so bright it was casting incredible shadows through the clouds onto the face of the Canyon. At first the sky was purple, then pink and finally the sun crept up from the horizon and everything was bathed in golden light enhanced even further by the colors of the rocks.

On the way back the pain in my ankle was getting more severe, but the only way was forward and up, so i just gritted my teeth and kept on pushing. Because we came down in the darkness i wasn't able to appreciate the scale of things around me, and how much terrain we covered. When we started the ascend towards the Village we were able to see the radical change in height after every 500m.

The last 1.5km were the hardest, i was very tired, my ankle was in a bad way, and on top of that..the ice was back, step by step i got there, it was hard but it was so worth it!

"The heroes are tired" -  picture by my friend  Kiril