"Ali had never been part of an expedition, but felt herself immersed in the tradition of what they were doing. They could have been whalers setting sail, or a wagon train moving west. She felt as if she knew it all by heart. For the first ten days their joints and muscles were in shock. Even those hardy athletes among them groaned in their sleep and struggled with leg cramps. A small cult built around ibuprofen, the anti-inflammatory. But each day their packs got a little ighter as they ate food or discarded books that no longer seemed so essential. One morning, Ali woke up with her head on a rock and actually felt refreshed."