3776 meters. Since I had been in Japan, I hadn't seen a shooting star. As we made our final ascent to the top in the dark hour before dawn, I must have seen 20 of them. With no city lights to dwarf the light that had traversed enormous time and distance to get to my eyes and from a vantage closer than I had ever been to the stars, it felt like looking into forever. Although, these spiritual revelations can probably best be attributed to sleep deprivation, physical exhaustion, and lack of oxygen. Respiratory difficulty tastes like god.
