Reader,
I wrote this at 4 AM this morning. I couldn't sleep. There's this energy moving through me - part terror, part excitement - as I finalize the details for Peru.
Wilderness Vigil. Sacred Valley. 12,000 feet above sea level.
Three days alone with nothing but your thoughts and whatever truth you've been running from.
I need to tell you something I've never admitted publicly: I'm scared every single time I do this work. Not of the mountain or the weather or the logistics. I'm scared of what I might discover about myself when everything gets stripped away.
And that's exactly why I keep going back.
See, here's what I've learned about transformation - it's not found in the comfort zone we spend our lives building. It's not in the safety nets or the familiar routines or the stories we tell ourselves about who we are.
It's found in the places that scare us most.
The mountains don't let you hide. The altitude will humble you before you even start walking. The silence will crack you open like nothing you've experienced. And when you're sitting alone at 12,000 feet with nothing but water and your journal, every lie you've been telling yourself becomes impossible to maintain.
I started running these programs because of a conversation with a friend three years ago. I was telling him about feeling stuck, about knowing I needed something but not knowing what. He looked at me and said, "When was the last time you put yourself somewhere you couldn't control the outcome?"
That question haunted me for weeks.
Because I realized I'd built my entire adult life around control. Around predictability. Around avoiding the very discomfort that had always been my greatest teacher.
So I went to Peru for the first time. Solo. No plan beyond showing up and sitting with whatever arose. I hadn't left North America in two decades, and this was my first travel outside.
I spent time in the jungle, and the desert. But it was in the valley where I discovered deeper truth about myself. Those three days alone in the Sacred Valley rewrote something fundamental in me. Not because anything dramatic happened - but because nothing did. Just me, the mountain, and the slow realization that I'd been performing my life instead of living it.
Every crack in my armor became visible. The father wound that convinced me I'd never belong anywhere. The addiction patterns I thought I'd healed but was still running. The way I used helping others to avoid facing my own shadows.
And in that seeing - that's where the medicine was.
Not in fixing or healing or transcending. In witnessing. In finally being willing to sit with the fullness of what it means to be human.
This isn't therapy. It's not coaching. It's not even teaching in the traditional sense.
It's remembering.
Remembering that we are animals who evolved in nature, not offices. That silence is not empty - it's full of everything we've been too busy to hear. That our wounds aren't obstacles to our purpose - they ARE our purpose.
The program runs seven days. Three phases:
Severance: We leave the world behind. Literally. No phones, no books, no distractions. Just preparation for what's coming.
Threshold: Three days alone. Water only (food modifications available). You, your journal, and whatever wants to emerge.
Incorporation: Coming back. Integration. How do you bring the mountain home?
I limit it to 8 people because this work can't be done in crowds. Because transformation is intimate. Because every person who shows up is both student and teacher for everyone else.
The logistics matter, but they're not the point.
Professional guides. Safety protocols. Wilderness First Responder certified team. Base camp support. We're not reckless - we're intentional.
But the real safety isn't in the equipment or the training. It's in the willingness to finally stop running from yourself.
Are you tired of performing your life?
Tired of the safety that's become a prison?
Ready to remember what you're actually made of?
Peru is calling. Not because it's exotic or Instagram-worthy. Because it's real. Because the mountain doesn't care about your story or your excuses or your plans.
It only cares about your truth.
March 15th through the 21st. Seven days. Eight people maximum.
Early registration: $1,799 (if booked by Dec 2025.) Standard: $2,199
Scholarships available for those who need them. Because money should never be the thing that keeps you from your edge.
Full details: radicaleros.com/vigil
Or just hit reply and tell me what's stirring in you. What's calling you toward something you can't quite name yet.
Your cracks are calling for gold.
The mountain is listening.
Are you?
Ish
🍵 x 🐉
