FLAVIO VALLENARI/GETTY IMAGES
Signal Peak
The play of light and shadow paints these iconic peaks: lime here, emerald there, jade toward their pinnacles. VIEWS BEYOND BELIEF
This proves to be a monstrous understatement.
Gros Piton looms dead ahead; Petit Piton hangs back like
So we climb yet higher, exiting the dense foliage and
a shy younger sibling. Gros Piton reminds me of a football
marching onto a viewing platform of weatherworn wood. I
linebacker; Petit Piton is graceful and svelte as a prima
feel like a spectator at a tennis match. My head swivels this
ballerina. Gros Piton climbs to 2,600 feet above the waters
way and that, my eyes trying to decide which angle, which
lapping the shores below; Petit Piton rises to 2,400 feet.
vista, is the most spectacular.
Towering cumulus clouds compete with the sun (and the
Then nature takes things up a notch. Winds rush down
Pitons themselves) for domination. The play of light and
the slopes of Gros Piton, clouds skitter across the sky and
shadow paints these iconic peaks: lime here, emerald there,
a sudden veil of rain passes over us. The sun returns but
jade toward their pinnacles. Some slopes are rugged and
now, beyond those peaks, a double rainbow floats over
bald, faces like wrinkled old men; some rise lazily; some,
the horizon. I suspect that when good people die they’ll be
sporting razor outcroppings of sheer stone, stab the sky.
treated to a vista just like this one.
We are standing at the crest of “The Stairway to Heaven.” The name would be hyperbole any place else. Not here. My wife is speechless. I tell Kizzy about my friend, Nisidi. Kizzy tells us to keep moving. “Really pretty up ahead.” 46
LBH20_040-48_LBH 19_Hike.indd 46
I don’t know how long we stand there, mesmerized. I don’t know if they take into account the length of your reverie when they calculate how much time to allot to this jaunt, but I do know the suggested time from beginning
LA BELLE HÉLÈNE
12/23/19 12:29 PM