Saturday, March 25, 2006
I like mountains
I figure I should write something here so that people with too much time on their hands have something to read.
I'm going trekking in India largely because I really like mountains. Some people think I'm a weirdo because of it (Krysta, I'm looking at you). I may as well explain what's fueling this obsession.
My first mountain trip was in 2000, when I went to my dojo's Rocky Mountain Training. In a nutshell, a crew of us went to Jasper National Park. We trained in the morning and went hiking in the afternoons. It was an absolute, total and utter blast. I loved it. Two years later I went on the next Rocky Mountain Training and again had a blast.
Back in the spring of 2004, my friend and fellow karate-ka Kevin, who's now a philosopher in Alaska (no better place to think really hard about stuff) was in Toronto and gave a slideshow of his recent trip to climb Aconcagua, which just happens to be the biggest mountain outside of Asia and the tallest thing in the Western hemisphere. Aside from being a philosopher, Kevin also runs the University of Alaska Southeast's outdoor studies program. Kevin's done some pretty hard-core mountaineering, too - including a ski descent of Denali. I was pretty impressed. I thought... "man, that's cool!"
Anyhow, later that summer, I was trying to figure out what to do with a bit of time I had between the end of exam and the start of my next work term. I ran into Kevin at the Bruce's Mill Training (another dojo favourite) in July and mentioned that I was looking for something to do in lieu of the Rocky Mountain Training, which didn't run that year. The conversation went something like this:
Alex: "I'm looking for something to do for a week or so in August"
Kevin: "Why don't you come to Alaska?"
Alex: "Hmm...."
I thought for a while. The thought concluded with "why don't I go to Alaska?"
I went, and spent a little over a week hiking in Juneau, surrounded by mountains, glaciers, ocean and rainforest. One of my proudest moments of the trip was getting to the top of Mt. McGinnis, a 4200ft peak, in about 4 or 5 hours. I was alone. Because of bad planning, I also had had no food or water. I sustained myself on blueberries and ate snow. But OH MAN, it felt like an accomplishment.
Hanging out with Kevin for that week got me thinking more & more about climbing and mountaineering and being more outdoorsy. Being in a mountain/ocean/glacier/rain forest paradise like Juneau was as incredibly relaxing as it was physically demanding. I liked it so much that I went back the following year to do even more of the same: climbing, hiking in the woods, hanging out on glaciers, being away from the rat race. It was probably the best vacation I've taken to date - certainly the most memorable.
There's something liberating about being in the mountains. Maybe it's the clean air. Maybe it's the fact that everything is a lot bigger. Maybe it's the fact that when you're on the side of a mountain, what you're doing is so exhausting that you don't have the time or energy to think about anything other than putting one foot in front of the other. And mountains are definitely great to look at. One way or another, though, being surrounded by peaks seems to make me happy.
Am I superstar outdoors guy? No. Am I a mountaineer? Not a chance. But that doesn't matter - I'm willing to invest in doing more of those things, learning more about mountaineering, rock climbing, glacier travel, etc. Since I despise hypocrisy, I'm putting my money where my mouth is and taking a very mountain-themed vacation as a way of celebrating being done University. After all, being outside and being physical has made me happy before - I'm hoping the trend continues, only on a bigger scale.
More later.
I'm going trekking in India largely because I really like mountains. Some people think I'm a weirdo because of it (Krysta, I'm looking at you). I may as well explain what's fueling this obsession.
My first mountain trip was in 2000, when I went to my dojo's Rocky Mountain Training. In a nutshell, a crew of us went to Jasper National Park. We trained in the morning and went hiking in the afternoons. It was an absolute, total and utter blast. I loved it. Two years later I went on the next Rocky Mountain Training and again had a blast.
Back in the spring of 2004, my friend and fellow karate-ka Kevin, who's now a philosopher in Alaska (no better place to think really hard about stuff) was in Toronto and gave a slideshow of his recent trip to climb Aconcagua, which just happens to be the biggest mountain outside of Asia and the tallest thing in the Western hemisphere. Aside from being a philosopher, Kevin also runs the University of Alaska Southeast's outdoor studies program. Kevin's done some pretty hard-core mountaineering, too - including a ski descent of Denali. I was pretty impressed. I thought... "man, that's cool!"
Anyhow, later that summer, I was trying to figure out what to do with a bit of time I had between the end of exam and the start of my next work term. I ran into Kevin at the Bruce's Mill Training (another dojo favourite) in July and mentioned that I was looking for something to do in lieu of the Rocky Mountain Training, which didn't run that year. The conversation went something like this:
Alex: "I'm looking for something to do for a week or so in August"
Kevin: "Why don't you come to Alaska?"
Alex: "Hmm...."
I thought for a while. The thought concluded with "why don't I go to Alaska?"
I went, and spent a little over a week hiking in Juneau, surrounded by mountains, glaciers, ocean and rainforest. One of my proudest moments of the trip was getting to the top of Mt. McGinnis, a 4200ft peak, in about 4 or 5 hours. I was alone. Because of bad planning, I also had had no food or water. I sustained myself on blueberries and ate snow. But OH MAN, it felt like an accomplishment.
Hanging out with Kevin for that week got me thinking more & more about climbing and mountaineering and being more outdoorsy. Being in a mountain/ocean/glacier/rain forest paradise like Juneau was as incredibly relaxing as it was physically demanding. I liked it so much that I went back the following year to do even more of the same: climbing, hiking in the woods, hanging out on glaciers, being away from the rat race. It was probably the best vacation I've taken to date - certainly the most memorable.
There's something liberating about being in the mountains. Maybe it's the clean air. Maybe it's the fact that everything is a lot bigger. Maybe it's the fact that when you're on the side of a mountain, what you're doing is so exhausting that you don't have the time or energy to think about anything other than putting one foot in front of the other. And mountains are definitely great to look at. One way or another, though, being surrounded by peaks seems to make me happy.
Am I superstar outdoors guy? No. Am I a mountaineer? Not a chance. But that doesn't matter - I'm willing to invest in doing more of those things, learning more about mountaineering, rock climbing, glacier travel, etc. Since I despise hypocrisy, I'm putting my money where my mouth is and taking a very mountain-themed vacation as a way of celebrating being done University. After all, being outside and being physical has made me happy before - I'm hoping the trend continues, only on a bigger scale.
More later.
# posted by Alex Perel @ 9:55 PM 
