Reaching the Summit

CHICKS ROCK! wants you to welcome our latest guest blogger, Sadi:

Sadi is in finance and enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She also loves dining out and listening to live music in the village, in NYC.


December 2003: my last vacation. Since then, I graduated college, worked as a consultant, started an events company, and dove into Wall Street. Throughout these times, I wanted to keep going and accomplish the most I could before letting go and breaking the rhythm.

Finally, I was at a stopping point – Bear Stearns collapsed; I landed safely at a Hedge Fund. It was time to get away.

I took my parents with me to treat them for their support, and we chose a place not many people we knew had explored – Quito, Ecuador. We centered ourselves in Quito but took 1-day excursions away from the city. Our first day, a tour guide picked us up early and by 7 am, we were on the road to visit Cotopaxi, one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. I asked the tour guide to bring bikes, letting him know we wanted to bike around the landscape.

We arrived in the middle of nowhere and all around us was greenery, rock formations, and the one and only, Cotopaxi. He took us to the summit where hikers climb to the peak and bikers supposedly cycle down the steep path 14,000 meters high. At the summit, the climate changed from sunny to snowy, and temperatures dropped. This is where the biking was supposed to happen. Since I hadn’t been on a bike in 10 years, I felt like curling up into fetal position -- my parents decided to stay in the car and “follow” me down.

Suddenly, I was going fast down the difficult path and there was no car behind me. My body was bouncing around and I looked up and shocked myself – I was the only soul to be seen in this enormous area. My adrenaline was so high and I finally let myself go, enjoying a new feeling of pure happiness, accomplishment, and peace.

And then, I crashed.

My parents found me tangled up in the bike, on a rock as big as my body – but with a smile on. The wipeout was not the negative part of the adventure – it was simply the snowcap on the peak.