Twenty Things Only Adventurers Would Know

When you spend enough time in the mountains, you acquire a very distinct mindset; the way you think and see things start to change. Over time, we’re all the wiser through our experiences.

Here is a list of 20 things, I think we can all agree upon, only adventurers would know:

1. The 5 second rule is extended to at least 30 seconds when you’re outside and any food is dropped on the ground.

2. We’re not all a bunch of minimalist, vegan hipsters.

3. We’re also not a bunch of sodium crushing, nutrient processing, radical anti-government activists either.

4. We live and die by John Muir quotes; you know the ones:

– The mountains are calling and I must go.
– Going to the mountains is going home.
– In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.
– When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
and more…

5. Descending is often worse than ascending.

6. Finding bruises and scratches days after an adventure is quite normal.

7. No amount of bug spray will deter the bugs.

8. Shoulder season is a wet, grey-ish gap between all the winter snow days and all the summer epics; it can be stressful. To make it through shoulder season is to let go of the winter (or summer) that was.

9. TP is considered to be the eleventh essential.

10. There’s no such thing as getting lost, there are only shortcuts. If we happen to get lost, it has nothing to do with the shortcut.

11. The higher we go, the harder it gets; at the same time, the closer we get, the easier it goes.

12. Feeling down? We just walk, run, hike it off. A healthy dose of oxytocin, endorphin, dopamine, and serotonin is exactly what the doctor ordered; it can be found in the hills. Yeah, there’s a study for that [1].

13. ‘Glacier lake blue’ is an easily identifiable shade on the colour spectrum.

14. Regardless of financial status, there’s no such thing as too much gear.

15. And there’s always room for a summit beer.

16. There isn’t much variation between our outdoor attire and our normal/everyday attire. When going out for dinner or attending an event, we strongly consider whether or not a polyester t-shirt is appropriate.

17. A pair of jeans makes us feel fancy.

18. There are few things finer than the smell of campfire.

19. After a hard day in the mountains, we’re up for eating just about anything – even our least fave meal.

20. Off the pavement, we say “hi” to everyone we come across and we’re likely to engage in some sort of conversation. On the pavement, we rarely notice others around us.

Camping on Thunderbird Ridge, Grouse Mountain, BC.

If you have any you’d like to add, feel free to comment below!

– Ash 🙂

References:
1. Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P., Hahn, K. S., Daily, G. C., & Gross, J. J. (2015). Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation. PNAS, 112(28), 8567-8572. doi:10.1073/pnas.151045911