Cut the rope

A mountain climber, desperate to conquer the Aconcagua, initiated his climb after years of preparation. But he wanted the glory to himself, therefore he went up alone. He started climbing, time went by and it started to become dark. He did not prepare for camping but decided to keep on going.

Night fell with heaviness at such high altitude and there was zero visibility. Everything was black, no moon, and the stars covered by clouds. As he was climbing a ridge at about 100 meters from the top, he slipped and fell. Falling rapidly he could only see blotches of darkness that passed in the same darkness and a terrible sensation of being suctioned by gravity.

He kept falling and in those anguishing moments memories passed through his mind. He thought he would die. Nevertheless, he felt a jolt that almost tore him in half. Like any good mountain climber he had staked himself with a long rope tied to his waist. In those moments of stillness, suspended in the air he had no other choice but to shout, “Help me! Help me!”

All of a sudden he heard a deep voice from heaven. “What do you want?”

“Save me,” he replied.

“Do you really think that I can save you?”

“Of course, you can save me.”

“Then cut the rope that is holding you up.”

There was another moment of silence and stillness. The man eventually didn’t cut the rope but held tighter to it.

The next day the rescue team found a frozen mountain climber hanging strongly to a rope … only two feet off the ground.