…split-seconds in which I had time to think — between eying and finding holds on the mountain — that I wasn’t nearly as worried as I should have been. I wasn’t worried about my own well-being, that is. A strange state of calm came over me. My mind grew clear and Zen-like with a detached, all-consuming concentration. That’s the thing about the prospect of death — it invokes an immediacy of focus, a presence of mind. There’s not much time or space for the mind to wander when death could come of every step. What I was worried about, though, was seeing my brother and good buddy fall to their deaths. I tried not to look at them, focusing only on my own movements across the landscape.