MY GOOD FRIEND RUSTY AND I LEFT OUR campsite at 4:45 in the inky blackness of the early morning and began our 4,000–foot climb to reach one of the most challenging and coveted summits in Colorado—14,156–foot Maroon Peak. After several hours of difficult climbing, we arrived at the 12,800 foot ridge. We felt encouraged because we could see the triangular peak now only an hour or two away.
When an experienced hiker sets out with his buddy on a difficult climb, he comes face to face with an even greater challenge that forces him to think more deeply about life.
From the ridge of Maroon Peak several poorly marked routes lead toward the summit, and we continued up one of them. Soon the trail all but disappeared, and we were left with only our guidebook to help us manage our way to the top. Shortly after we lost the trail, Rusty, who was in front of me, turned the corner of a narrow rocky ledge toward the summit, and then suddenly retreated to where I was standing. He told me that a fallen hiker lay on the ground just around the corner. The powerful message of Psalm 46:1, which I've known since childhood, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble," couldn't have had more meaning at that moment.
