You must have
long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term
failures. Charles C. Noble.
After my resounding but humdrum failure
on Mount Shardelow yesterday, I started the drive home feeling like a
complete failure. An over-reaction perhaps, but I am one of those
goal oriented individuals who expects to succeed at whatever they set
out to do. And, truthfully, an ascent of Mount Shardelow was easily
within my technical and (arguably not yesterday) physical abilities.
My first thought, in fact, was, "I should have gone for Mount
Jeldness," even though one of the reasons I chose Mount
Shardelow over Mount Jeldness was because the climbing promised to be
slightly more interesting on Mount Shardelow.
As the years pass, either in response
to getting older, becoming a better climber, or just a process of
natural evolution, I have become more interested in climbing
interesting routes than merely slogging up the easiest route
possible. Admittedly at heart, I am still a peak bagger - one of
those folks for whom the summit is the goal, the route less important
- but simply checking off a new peak on the list is no longer as
fulfilling as it once was.
All these thoughts were rattling round
in my brain as I bashed my way down through thickets of alder.
Quality had, at some point, become more important than either
quantity or, more importantly, novelty. I suddenly realized that I
could have gone out for a nice steep snow climb close to home and
close to the road. I would have saved myself a couple of hours of
driving, interminable alder thrashing, and, as I suddenly realized,
actually been doing what I wanted to do, instead of being tied to an
artificial "list" of peaks to climb.
The middle of the year may not be the
traditional time for resolutions, but I hence forth resolved to go
climb fun peaks/routes with some challenge rather than mindlessly
going out to tick another name off an arbitrary project list.
Climbing Sentinel Peak in the Adamants
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