Pulse at the Base of Chimborazo

The barometer reading at the base of the Chimborazo stood at 20 inches and 1.5 lines on the 23rd of June, 1802, while the air temperature hovered at 18 degrees Celsius. This pressure gradient corresponds to the density of the atmosphere, which corresponds to the distribution of the Espeletia plants, which corresponds to the oxygen available to the lungs of the porters. My own pulse, measured at these heights, raced with a fervor that I initially mistook for the spiritual exhilaration of the summit. The blood beats against the temples not because of the grandeur of the view, but because of the thinning of the medium through which we move.

Enthusiasm is a heat that expands the internal volume of an observation, often at the expense of its density. In the humid forests of the Orinoco, the sheer variety of the Lianas creates a visual noise that suggests an infinite chaos, yet the clinometer reveals a precise geometric struggle for the canopy. The observer who feels the rush of a new discovery must treat that feeling as a physiological variable, a shimmer of light on the lens that distorts the true position of the star. I have watched the needle of the magnetometer quiver and felt my own heart mirror its agitation, yet the needle responds to the earth’s core while the heart responds to the hope of a significant result.

The correlation between the elevation and the species count is a rigid line, yet my notes from that afternoon are stained with the sweat of a man who wanted the line to be steeper than it was. The indigenous guides move with a rhythmic indifference to the vista, their bodies already integrated into the pressure system that I am only just beginning to quantify. Their lack of “wonder” is actually a superior form of calibration. They do not need to doubt their enthusiasm because they have replaced it with a functional equilibrium. To see the Naturgemälde - the great map of life - requires the cooling of the blood until it reaches the temperature of the ambient air. I will recalibrate the cyanometer against the midday sky to ensure the blue I recorded was not merely the blue I desired to see.