Ponderings: On Alpinism and Life
Last December I went through one of the most both frightening and enriching experience of my life. Bowen Island rests north-west of Vancouver, right between the city and Victoria Island. Hordes of deer freely roam the island free as the cold winds that slay the shore and human population is formed by no more than four hundreds of kind as only Canadians may be.
A hike to the zenith of Bowen Mountain takes around 5 hours and my day started late due to the inevitable distraction of drinking coffee on my cabin´s porch and watching the things deer do or don´t. Two hours within my trek I met a local hiker who was already on her way down. After Canadian small talk (she literally asked how my parents were doing) she told me sun would start hiding soon and she would advice quite much heading to the peak at that time, but I´m an ascending Taurus and head there anyway. To make a long story short, I did get to the top. The view was nothing short of breathless and the cherry in the pie was the sun setting beneath the pined mountains of Victoria Island. Yes, I repeat: the sun setting while I was at the mountain top. The next moment a snow stormed thought it would be a great idea to fall at that same moment. At that moment, scared as you can get, I remembered a great quote from Tarantino´s Reservoir Dogs that said: “At situations like that, the only thing that can be done is shit your pants and dive in to swim” and that exactly what I did. To make a short story even shorter, I arrived to a desertic highway in the middle of nowhere, where after a short walk, an old couple gave me a ride to the town´s local restaurant for the best beer and clam chowder I´ve ever had.
Gladly, life brings learning with every challenging situation. I was able to meditate in life and deal with adversity with serenity and wisdom which gave me great learnings and here they are:
- There is no ONE good way to go: No one man is the same, and no one size fits all. Wonder, listen to your heartbeats, follow hunches, make mistakes and go again. You´ll sooner or later find YOUR way.
- Doubt everything, except your next step: Doubting is the best way to get a broken ankle. Never take no truth as absolute and let your curiosity be infinite, but when you are in the moment, when you need to take immediate action, there is no room for doubt.
- When you think it can’t get colder/harder, remember IT WILL: This is probably the best mental hack to face adversity. “OK, this is horrible, but I better enjoy THIS pain, because it´s not as severe as it will be latter.” It helps you get the best of every moment, especially from the bad ones.
- Music makes everything better: As simple as that.
- It’s OK not knowing where you are going, just never forget where you came from: I haven´t figured out whether it fits better for alpinism or for life, that´s why I like it so much. Keep humble. If you know yourself, your past and your principles you don´t need to know where are you heading, you´ll always be in the right track.
- Consistency is the name of the game: “Turtle steps” one hiking guide used to tell me all the time. It´s not about the speed of your feet, but it´s about their ability to keep moving. If you want something, there is no better way of achieving it getting everyday a step closer.
- If lost, close your eyes and follow the sound of the river: OK, there was actually no river, but if you have read Herman Hesse´s Siddhartha you´ll get it, if not, close this tab and go buy it.
- Don’t get there for the view, go there for the way up: Believe me, you don´t want to be a millionaire because of the million dollars, you want to be a millionaire because of the person you´ll be once you get there. The finish line is the smallest part of the race.
- When falling in a pit of mud, there is only one of two ways: Either you suffer it, or laugh it out: Yes, at the beginning I said a couple of things about that mud pit´s mother, but I was wet and muddy and it didn´t matter what I said or felt, I was still going to be wet and muddy so I figured I´ll just have to laugh it out.
- Never get scared, it’s useless, get worried: Fear is like tequila, it makes you do stupid shit. Fear wraps you into the situation, wariness lets you oversee it with objectivity. Never step into fear, always step back to get the real big picture.
- Nature is not only good, but necessary to remember how small and ephemeral we are: Nature, especially that massive, virgin, awing raw nature makes us land our feet in the ground. Yes I can have many luxuries or many problems, but that tree over there has 300 years here, and probably other 300 more to go, so yeah, we are just here for a brief while.
- Follow the trails, take advantage of previous wisdom: Yes, I previously said there is no ONE good way to go, but there are time you don´t have to be so Taurus and just follow the trails… many people have already tried and failed and left their learnings on the way. Use them.
- Being dry is like being healthy; we give it for granted: Mentally throw yourself a bucket of cold water and then remember the precious moments when you when you where dry. Then do the same with illness and health and do it every day.
- Hitchhike; we are all in the need of help sometimes: You´ll never regret asking for too much help, but you´ll do regret not doing so. It´s OK not to be superman´s.
