Long ago and far away, on one of those
never ending death marches that used to be the hallmark of all true
mountaineering trips which you just sucked up and did regardless of
overly heavy ill-fitting packs and boots, aching shoulders, sore
knees, bad backs, extremes of weather, and the flatulence of your
tent companions and which, if asked, you would always say was "not too bad," I remember having a conversation with a very well known (and sadly now deceased) mountaineer about the “new
generation of climbers” who were coming of age on a steady diet of
easily available overly itemised route descriptions, GPS tracks,
guide-books that depicted routes with pictures, track notes, and
pitch by pitch or even move by move itineraries, long-range weather
forecasts, cell-phones, satellite phones, walky-talkies, and every
other piece of gimmickry that you can imagine. My companion was
lamenting the lack of skill exhibited by the new generation who
couldn't read maps, plan routes, route-find on a macro or micro
scale, and seemly to be successful by simply following overt route
descriptions that very quickly became yak tracks up all the popular
mountains/routes.
Morning SUP to Haycock Island
At the time I wasn't old or
curmudgeonly – I think I was only in my late 20's – and we didn't
think of more experienced mountaineers, such as my friend, as cranky
and gruff. We might have considered them somewhat eccentric,
definitely strong of character, and outspoken but, after a few trips
bashing around the mountains with them, we soon came to view those
supposed “character flaws” as essential for their success. These
old mountaineers aren't what I call “shiny happy people” and they
didn't have what Will Gadd refers to as the “Barney world view.”
If you screwed up, they would tell you about it. And screwing up
covered a wealth of ground. You might be too slow on skis, or in the
transitions between skiing and step-kicking, you might whimper for a
belay on ground they considered easy, make route-finding mistakes,
not break your share of trail or carry your share of the gear, fall
over while roped skiing, be inefficient at step-kicking, not be up
for one more climb on an already long day, or whine about the
weather, the terrain, how heavy your pack is, how sore your feet,
hips and back are, how tired you feel, or how scared you are about
what the next day will bring.
Three craft on Haycock Island
Now we live in the “me-generation”
where, if you didn't post about it on Crackbook it didn't happen. We
are all above average, and our fairly puny exploits are followed by
legions of loyal fans who, no matter how much we screw up, are
standing by to pump up our self-esteem with “bad ass dude”
comments and thumbs-up emoticons, all despite the fact that the trip
took three times as long as it should or was a total failure,
involved countless navigational screw-ups that we didn't recognise,
skirted close to the edge of disaster on multiple occasions, required
heavy use of all kinds of accessory tools, belays and devices that
aren't really necessary but make up for a continuum of poor skill, we
came DFL or was just generally average.
I've often wondered if the hubris
expressed by the new generation of skiers, climbers, paddlers,
mountaineers is a product of the “self-esteem” generation, which
has, by all accounts been an abject failure. Some people certainly
think so. If it weren't so annoying, it would be funny hearing
people talk about how impassioned they are about something they've
done half a dozen times when the weather was perfect, how much they
are giving back to the community by going out
climbing/skiing/paddling, what an inspiration they are to others, or
some other shiny, happy, feel good, Barney drivel.
Perhaps we should all admit that none
of our essentially egocentric activities does anything to make the
world a better place or to inspire another individual long-term.
Those people who want to climb/ski/run/paddle will find their way to
whatever activity they enjoy, and those who need outside
stimulation/inspiration will last only as long as the next fad. We
climb/ski/paddle because we want to and, contrary to what we want to
believe about ourselves, 90% of us are not above average, we turn
around when we get scared, we quit too soon or too easily, we make
dumb mistakes that by dint of our own incompetence we don't even
recognise, we seldom reach beyond our comfort zones, we are rarely,
if ever, making truly “life and death” decisions, and we never
make our decisions based on rationality or real evidence.
Sadly, despite what your Crackbook
friends have told you, you're not the Princess in the fairy tale,
you're the frog.
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