Jim's Penance

Jim had grouped the three metal buoys (with a combined weight of 30 pounds) together with a rope and tied them onto his backpack, and we headed up the mountain from which we had so easily descended hours before, sometimes standing briefly, but mostly crawling on our bellies up its approximated 114% grade (with a vertical change of 1500 feet and horizontal distance of a quarter mile, if rise/run = slope (the tangent of the angle) and slope x 100 = grade, and if we're using our trigonometry correctly). Ahem! (that was us discreetly clearing our throats). Jim was also carrying a heavy backpack (some of that volcanic rock we couldn't leave behind), and he was exhausted about halfway up the mountain. You may be wondering why Sarah wasn't sharing some of this load--to clarify: this was suggested but dismissed. We were resting every minute, but, to Sarah's astonishment, Jim kept putting his face to the ground when they stopped. Then he would grunt and heave and hoist himself up a few inches, but it was clear to Sarah that he was losing hope. And Jim never loses hope. This was serious. This video was made prior to Sarah's realization of the gravity of the situation, but at the time, Jim's climb was observed and accompanied (in her mind) by Ennio Morricone's penitent score from The Mission, a scene originally performed by Spanish mercenary-playing Robert DeNiro in that movie, but done quite well by Jim impromptu. Bravo.