Chronicle of a heroic deed

It is quite common to jokingly tell someone you know to close the door when there is a gale raging outside. Hence the title of this chronicle. I can't think of a more appropriate way to begin the story of what we have experienced today.

Already during the night we could hear the constant howling of the wind. It was as if a giant had stationed itself under the window of our apartment in Sierra Nevada and had dedicated itself to whistling from the moment we arrived from dinner until we went outside to go to La Hoya de la Mora in order to begin the ascent of the Veleta. If that seemed like a bad omen, as soon as we set foot on the street, we realized that it really was, not just a bad, but a really bad omen. 

At 07:15 we had arranged to meet the  LuqueAumente at the fence of La Hoya with the idea of starting to walk at 07:30, the official time of sunrise in the area. Javier and his family were already there when we arrived. They had just taken the Joelette out of their van and were about to put Noni in it. The brutal gust of wind we received in the face as we got out of our vehicle almost took our breath away. The gusts were so beastly, you could barely breathe normally. We looked at each other in disbelief at first, and then with resignation. We were there to climb the 12 km that separated us from Pico Veleta, and that was what we were going to do, with or without air.  I do not know how to qualify the tremendous amount of physical strength required of us to get up there. Perhaps it can be understood if I say that there were times when we could not move no matter how much we tried to move forward. However, we experienced the most critical moments in the second to last curve before the summit. Several gusts of wind swept us almost lifting us off the ground. Luckily, we were connected by the harnesses to pull the Handbike, otherwise there's no telling where we would have ended up.

Two hours and three quarters after leaving, we reached the finish line. We barely managed to take a couple of photos and see the Luque family arrive, before starting the descent to the Veleta Positions, where Julio had left our van before running down to meet us. It all happened so fast that before 12:00 we were already leaving Sierra Nevada and heading towards Las Rozas, where we had planned to spend the night.  The speed of the Ascension meant that at 16:30 we would already be at the #UrbanCamp, where we would spend the night (thank you so much City Council of Las Rozas in Madrid). That perspective made us rethink the route and we decided to get to Vigo in one go. Said and done. At 23:15 we arrived at ALENTO Brain Injury Association to unload and store the van.

Yesterday's ascent to Mulhacén was wonderful and today's ascent to Veleta was hell. That's how things turned out, but we are very happy to have achieved our goal and to be back home safe and sound.

With Hospital Ribera Povisa, Ribera Salud, Termavi and Grupo Davila