Sucking down oxygen

Hello SANARA fam!

We cannot believe that July is already here and how fast this summer is flying by! We love to see so many of you still carving out time for yourself with your practice and we love meeting so many new faces in our space too!

We just returned from a trip to visit Jason’s adult son, Dakota, and coincidentally to also attend the Telluride Yoga Festival for the first time. On our first full day in Telluride, Dakota took us on a planned climb that we had been talking about for six months. Maybe you already caught that we said talking about, not planning or preparing for. 

We set out at 4am and drove to Ouray County to climb Mount Sneffels - a “14er” with a Class 3 rating set in the unbelievably gorgeous San Juan Mountains. If you have ever seen a Colorado drivers license - this beautiful mountain is in the backdrop! Spoiler alert - we climbed for over four hours straight and although we were thisclose to the summit of 14,153 feet - we did not make it to the top. We were so close that we could taste it, but the hardest and most dangerous parts were still ahead and we were out of both juice and time. Side note: Dakota is the ultimate trail guide and boss - prepared, patient, and a rule follower - all just like his dad. So he would not mess around with the potential for incoming afternoon storms with all of us at that altitude. We had been traversing through snow and jagged boulders and loose rock and stopping (all too frequently) to suck down cans of oxygen while ascending Mount Sneffels for over four hours. Once Jason peered around the next boulder on the ridge line - and got sight of yet another high and treacherous cliff and what was still to come - the unanimous group decision to turn back was made. 

Now for some truths. Were we excited? Yes! Were we naive? Yes! Had we adequately trained? No. Had we adequately prepared? No. Were we adequately acclimated? No. Were we adequately rested? No. Were we adequately fueled? No. It was a massive disappointment not to summit, but we also know deep down inside that we did not actually deserve to. The climbers who pop their tops on cold heavy bottles and enjoy that summit view with all the bragging rights (ahem, Dakota) do not just show up and happenstance to the top. Most of them are on a second or even third attempt amidst the unknown and harsh conditions each time, and yet they try again. We did find out later that it would have been rare to summit our first 14er, so of course this information has made us hungrier than ever to try it again. Had we actually made it to the top that day, on our first attempt, we would have no appreciation for the enormity of that climb and likely no reason to ever return there again. 

When we think about this new life experience in terms of the amazing business of SANARA that we have been entrusted to steward, we cannot help but think of how ill-prepared and ill-equipped we feel most of the time. If the summit were coming easily, the actual climb itself would be lost. If every decision we make is the right one or it all happens too quickly, will we find a rich celebration in that? So we press on and we wake up every day knowing there is a summit in sight to all, but most importantly a cold, hot, windy, rocky, snowy, jagged, slippery, treacherous route to get us there. Before that climb, June felt really heavy from a business perspective. Like we might actually run out of the oxygen in the can at times. After the climb, it now feels like whatever July brings - we will not only survive, but learn something from it - with or without a summit to rejoice about. 

And you thought we would write all about the time we spent at the Telluride Yoga Festival?! Well the truth is that we still are still processing what happened there on so many levels, so we will save that for next time!

We pray you enjoy the deeply robust summer month of July and that you safely and joyously get to celebrate this amazing country we get to call home. May we never take for granted how blessed we are to live with this kind of peace and this amount of freedom. 

Hugs from the ascent,

Jason & Rachel