5. Life for Life’s Sake

Life is replete with means to ends. A’s-to-B’s. Ambitions little and large. Though many of us take to the outdoors with a physical or psychological objective in mind, at some point the subtler effects of our activities are sure to occur to us, even if only in glimpses. When thoroughly engaged in our sport, whatever it may be, we place a set of parentheses in the midst of our daily, habitual pursuit of goals and longing to get somewhere. Between them, something magical happens, something I’ve found imperative to both my survival and my enjoyment of being human. For once I feel relieved of the grasping, groping burden of ambition, of purpose, and find myself doing not for the sake of progress or attainment, but for the sake of doing alone. This, some say, is leisure. Others might call it art. Others still, life…

The same student who asked me why I climb posed another pertinent question not so long ago. What would I do if a serious injury prevented me from heading outdoors? Although I consider the outdoors as having saved me from a life of what Whitman called ‘quiet despair’ and much else besides, I feel I can now say that what at first was a ‘coping’ strategy has become not only that but a means of flourishing and self-betterment. The mountains, nature, and the outdoors in general are a source of education and insight as much as one of relief and solace and pleasure. While I’m sure I’d find a way of getting back out and up there somehow, I like to think the lessons I’ve learned and the changes I’ve undergone as a result of my experiences in the outdoors have each taken me past a point of no return and are irrevocable. Whatever the future may hold, for this I shall be eternally grateful and forever in their debt.

If you would like more stories like this, please sign up for our newsletter below!