GR translation: more steeply than the waking will ever need

[Mike Jing]

P227.38-228.7  They are standing among black curly skeletons of iron
benches, on the empty curve of this esplanade, banked much more
steeply than the waking will ever need: vertiginous, trying to spill
them into the sea and be rid of this. The day has grown colder.
Neither of them can stay balanced for long, every few seconds one or
the other must find a new footing. He reaches and turns up the collar
of her coat, holds her cheeks then in his palms . . . is he trying to
bring back the color of flesh? He looks down, trying to see into her
eyes, and is puzzled to find tears coming up to fill each one, soaking
in among her lashes, mascara bleeding out in fine black swirls . . .
translucent stones, trembling in their sockets. . . .

What does "the waking" refer to here?