Maybe I went too far. Maybe I didn’t go far enough. Maybe I did just right. The point is that while I was doing it, I heard a voice telling me that disciplining myself from rock climbing and using a power drill on rock walls would prevent me from losing my health at some point. A voice that sounded like reason, and there was a reason to it, as the most compelling lies are comprised almost entirely of the truth. But that’s what it does. Cloaks itself in whatever it must to move you to action. And the more you deny its presence, the more powerful it gets, and the more likely it is to consume you entirely without you ever knowing it was there. Now, if you are to move forward, you must learn to know its presence well so that you may you use it, rather than it, using you.

For more than 10 years I had a mission to develop rock climbing routes in my home country Ecuador. For more than 10 years we worked really hard, sacrificed time, effort, body and resources, published books and movies and events, and blogs, etc, to make a lot of people happy and have fun by amplifying the offer of climbing options. For many years this was my entire purpose, not only a passion, with most of our endeavors concentrated in places such as Simiatug, San juan, Rodadero E35 and above all Tangan which I consider the most special place. Even paradise comes with a cost.

If you’ve used a drill to develop climbing for a while, you might want to talk to me.

I think it all started back in 2014, after a climbing event in which my performance was ultimately bad, I knew something was off. The first surgery I got held a diagnosis of nasal polyps (little cysts that block your sinuses), the reason these grow is still a mystery but it’s attributed to the exposure to the outdoors, allergies and other related common reactions of the body to the elements. In my case, the detrimental exposure was the constant use of a power drill to bolt (build) rock climbing routes. Back in those days we definitely abused of the use of the drill for many many reasons and purposes I will explain later. This plug of the internal sinuses also has direct correlations to symptoms in the breathing system and other body systems. When it comes to breathing, in the last 4-5 years only, I have been struggling to keep up, with an average lung capacity decrease of 28%. This is huge. What’s impressive is that even with this diminished capacity I have been able to pursue first ascents in high altitude of the Andes of Peru and Ecuador mostly. Many of basecamps there are usually are between 14k and 15k feet and the climbs go much much higher. Also Its impressive how I’ve been able to keep pushing significantly hard climbing on the 5.13 grade (8) and other projects that require overall cardiovascular potency and overall fitness.

I tried many inhalers, and meds, to help with the symptoms but mostly ignored and kept rolling with it, and as the years went by, I kept bolting and cleaning routes especially in the ecuadorian tropical forest. I kept going because I felt I had to, but also because it was so much fun and one of the most rewarding parts of rock climbing for me. Albuterol will increase my lung capacity from being 28% diminished to 16% diminished. Still pretty bad, being this one of the reasons I have been really struggling to perform in mountain environments such as glaciers, walls, and similar terrain of the Andes.

The cure: 10 years ago there wasn’t a medical term for this, now it’s called Samters. And some genius deviced a medicine that probably I will have to take for life in the form of a shot, every week. A couple of questions that arise are: if all the hard work we put up to build routes was worth it? and, could more of us have these symptoms already? The geochemistry of the rocks in Ecuador is different from other places that might have something to do with it, or not, and if this happened to me it might not happen to anyone else. But in general, I admit transparently the personal responsibility that I have overused a power drill and hand drill in remote areas, and this could be an initial warning for someone else who is barely started. 10 years of constant exposure to the temperature and geochemistry of drill dust have cost me another surgery, of immediate action, which will happen in the near future. If Tangan and Simiatug needed someone to lead crews and put in days of work, and bounce back with this cost, it’s only proof that even paradise (and paradisiac times) have a cost.