My friend, Dany, just turned 80 years old. While a few of us were talking at a restaurant last month, she decided that she wanted to walk el Camino de Santiago, “to welcome the last chapter” of her life.
So we will — Dany at 80, me at 72 (I’ll turn 73 mid-Camino) and Margie, also my age. We’ll start in France, walk up and over the Pyrénées (the mountains that separate France from Spain) and on to Finistère on the Atlantic, west of Santiago de Compostela, Spain — a total of about 500 miles.
In 1973, while teaching Spanish in Brooklyn, NY, I learned about the Camino, the pilgrimage trail to the religious relics of Saint James (one of the Apostles) on the coast of Spain. There are actually many Caminos (Ways), since pilgrims have walked there for over a thousand years from all over Europe. Intrigued, I knew that one day I’d walk in those pilgrims’ footsteps. People walk it for all sorts of reasons, not only religious; I wanted to experience walking across a whole country. Life intervened, and it remained a dream for decades.
This year, the dream comes true — thanks to Dany.
Since I’m the only one in our team with any outdoor challenge experience — see my About page; neither of them has any experience confronting nature on her terms — I’ll be the one to set our training schedule and locations. Yesterday, we did our third training hike together.
I had no idea what to expect. On flat hikes, the others can go and go for miles. But on the Camino, we’ll have to walk up and over the Pyrénées Mountains as well as other smaller ups and downs here and there — so I wanted to introduce them to the concept of elevation gain. Dany is originally French, so the three of us speak French together; Margie and I also speak Spanish, so we’ve got the whole distance covered, linguistically. So off we went yesterday to learn about elevation gain, or as Dany thinks it, dénivellation.
And gain, we did! Objectively, not much — about 250 feet, from river’s edge to the top of the bluff, but very abrupt and rocky. And there had been rain that week, so the grasses on either side of the trail were slick and slippery. (Photo of our ‘mountain,’ from last summer.)
When I began climbing with my son (Alex Honnold, of Oscar-wnning Free Solo), about 15 years ago, I had to learn how to talk myself through moments that I ‘knew’ were impossible. Growing up, I had always been an outdoors kind of kid, but nothing organized or serious; climbing a granite wall up to an unimaginable peak was definitely not part of who I was.
So I had to change who I was. Or rather, grow into it fully.
On the hill yesterday, I helped both of my partners, showed them where and how to place their feet, how to use their body position and angles to their advantage. But there was nothing I could do for their fear. That, they had to work out for themselves.
And they did. Dany talked to herself — to “her brain,” she said later — all the way up. Tears weren’t far, I could see, but I could also see the determination as she swatted away my offered hand.
Thats what gets you up the hill. Or the wall.
We’ll do fine on the Camino.
If the world followed this story, millions of couch potatoes our age (and all ages) would realize that too many potatoes won't keep the body and mind youthful and strong. I'm going to craft a hit country song for this jounrey, 'Elevation Gain'. I'm looking forward to following this adventure..
You and Alex are hero's of mind. (not a typo)