For Those About to Climb, We Salute You…

It’s always a little cooler inside.

And it has its own smell. Dankish and a little foreboding, perhaps.

It is commonly underestimated by the uninitiated but respected by its frequent visitors.

Your presence is announced to all by the metallic clangs and gongs. Boots on steel. Steel on steel. Canvas dragging; couplers banging. Slaps of gloves hands pleading with the handrail for assistance. A cacophony only outdone by heavy respiration and stained grunts.

The job is all work and the toil is amplified in this dark, vertical shaft. Hose lines pulled up along too many steps. Mannequins rescued from too high of floors. Its space is measured and fixed, not yielding regardless of your task. Tripping, stumbling, falling, or rather not doing any of them, becomes an added challenge.

Pleasantries are left in the house; there are no “pardon me’s” afforded. Wasted, precious air is all they would be. Control. In through the nose. Hold. Out through the mouth. Hold. Repeat. Screw that! Gasp! It is suffocating!

Legs become jelly, body fatigues, lungs burn. Muscles once forgotten, now called to hard action, rebel.

One.
Step.
At.
A.
Time.

Quitting isn’t an option. Not to those committed.

How many steps did the 343 climb?

I can do another.

There are 45 steps in my tower. I have to earn every one of them. But I fight.

I’m winning. 

And I’m surviving.

This is dedicated to the brothers and sisters attending the LLS Seattle Stairclimb. You each have your reasons… I’m honored to know you.