The world is ice

Gray and blue and white

It surrounds me with its purity

Its quiet danger

Somewhere below me water flows

Carving caves into the glacier

Inexorable, steady

I dig my crampon into the ice

I pause, prying out one axe

Only to bury it deeply again

My arms have tired of the motion

Swing and pull and swing

I try not to look below me

Into the treacherous depths

But above is not better

The feet stretch into miles

I am not sure I have risen at all

Somewhere above me people call encouragement

A guide belays me, indefatigable

But all of that has faded

It is me and the ice

I am certain that if I do not climb

I will fall

The only thing between me and the abyss

Is my own tenacity

Axes and crampons crunch into the ice

It’s an endless rhythm

Primal, raw

Like the panic that fills my veins

But somehow I prevail

Pull myself over the ledge

Lie panting on the ice

There is so much of it

An ocean of pale blue

But I have conquered it

Or it has conquered me

Either way

I squint at the sun in triumph