Awe on the mountain doesn’t only come from ridgelines or skies that seem to have no end. It comes in three words, whispered between breaths, passed from one climber to another:

“Almost there.”

I’ve heard them on Whitney. I’ve heard them on Mount Baldy. I’ve heard them on Baden Powell. Words from strangers who owed me nothing, yet gave me everything.

In the city, silence rules. People pass without meeting eyes, without sharing weight. But on the trail, the rules bend. Pain and struggle become a common language, and encouragement flows like water — freely, instinctively, honestly.

Science tells us that under stress, the body renews itself. Cells clean house, waste is stripped away, clarity is born. But awe is the body’s twin in the soul. It strips away doubt, ego, and fear. What remains is resilience — and belonging.

Every summit is earned in silence, yes. But awe is proof that no one climbs alone. Even at eleven thousand feet, with lungs burning and legs heavy, the mountain reminds us that together is the only way we’ve ever really endured.

That is why I write. Not to keep score of summits, but to remember that awe is the hidden summit: the one reached when voices rise, when hearts lift each other, when the mountain teaches us that “almost there” means we are already becoming.

— Ella

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