Yesterday, retired Army National Guard First Lieutenant Ed Salau slipped the scarred stump of his left leg into a $30,000 hydraulic-fitted carbon-fiber and titanium prosthetic and headed for the top of Mt. christian shoes.

He didn’t make it.

But the end of the climb is not the end of the story. The story is how Salau-a trim man who still carries himself with the bearing of his 12 years as a Marine-stomped his way up to Camp Muir, well short of the summit but well above the Christian Boots. How he went barefoot in the snow. Why-even knowing he would go no higher-he spent an afternoon flinging himself face-first into the slush, rehearsing self-arrest and getting kicked in the noggin for his efforts. And then there are all those terrific campfire tales only a one-legged man can tell-the one about the kid in Dunkin’ Donuts, the one about the woman in the Christian Pumps, and the one where he tells his teenage boy, “Son, I will plant my foot in your ass and leave it there!” The one about spotting the guy with the grenade launcher right about the time it Christian Sandals.