Adventure and Perspective

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Eli Boardman
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Re: Adventure and Perspective

Post by Eli Boardman »

Brian C wrote:I thought I was with you, but after reading this again I'm not quite sure I understand your point. I get that you think that Colorado stuff can't be classified as an "adventure", but I'm not sure I get what you consider to be a modern-day adventure. Are you thinking just high-altitude technical FAs? Do you personally care about experiencing a true mountain adventure, and if you do what would an example of that be?
My point was mainly to have some fun with sarcasm and stirring the pot over a subject I thought was interesting, which worked. As explanation of the OP, I would say that I come a across a lot of sentiments here and elsewhere to the effect of "I am super cool because I did something or another," and often I do say similar things myself. I wanted this to be sort of a reminder that while it is good to set achievable goals for oneself and be proud of one's accomplishments, it helps to have perspective, and one is rarely near the top of any given activity on a global scale. Instead of trying to one-up with "my event was more adventurous," I guess I wanted to point out that when taking our, or at least my, accomplishments in light of the greatest feats in the mountains, it becomes apparent that the only good course is to lighten up and have fun instead of fighting for some image.

As for what I would say a modern adventure is, I associate it mostly with the kind of peak that looks really cool in photos and has a wikipedia page that either only mentions its elevation or has only some cryptic info about trekking circuits around the peak. Rola Kangri is an example of an adventure I dream of going on.

Perhaps adventure was too broad a word, as many have pointed out, and the perspective focuses more on mountain climbing accomplishment solely.
______

Re: others:

It was a light-hearted troll post with a dab of my personal thoughts, something that some picked up on and others didn't. It's the internet, I didn't make you read it. :wink:
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BillMiddlebrook
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Re: Adventure and Perspective

Post by BillMiddlebrook »

Lol

Eli, how was Mt. Lindsey? I was the guy with the black Chevy pickup at the TH the night before.
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Eli Boardman
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Re: Adventure and Perspective

Post by Eli Boardman »

BillMiddlebrook wrote:Lol

Eli, how was Mt. Lindsey? I was the guy with the black Chevy pickup at the TH the night before.
It was pretty good--I knew the Blanca group had good scenery, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite as nice as it was. The clouds swirling up to the summit from the south were fun to watch, and the early morning solitude was welcome after a very crowded summit on Harvard the day before. I decided to "see something new" on the way down, so I descended the gully, which was the only bad thing about the day. When I signed out of the register, I thought, "that was Bill Middlebrook last night and I didn't even know it!" I'm glad to have met you, even if I didn't know it at the time, and thanks for the work on the site.
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AlexeyD
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Re: Adventure and Perspective

Post by AlexeyD »

Eli Boardman wrote:When I signed out of the register, I thought, "that was Bill Middlebrook last night and I didn't even know it!"
See, you had a CO 14er adventure and didn't even realize it!
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Re: Adventure and Perspective

Post by lkk8815 »

Eli Boardman wrote:It's the internet, I didn't make you read it. :wink:
The same thing could be said by the social media superstar whose lame-o Colorado 14er adventures triggered this rant.
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Eli Boardman
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Re: Adventure and Perspective

Post by Eli Boardman »

lkk8815 wrote:
Eli Boardman wrote:It's the internet, I didn't make you read it. :wink:
The same thing could be said by the social media superstar whose lame-o Colorado 14er adventures triggered this rant.
I think you mean Kredowski, but he didn't specifically cause this. Rather, the causes of this post were 3 fold: re-reading the aforementioned rockclimbing rant, getting my own Instagram a month ago and reading a lot of posts, and having some time off with bad weather in the mountains. I think your point is still valid though.
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Re: Adventure and Perspective

Post by Monster5 »

Aw. This was a lame flame war, despite the cop-out arguments focusing on age, or lack thereof. Perhaps the pigeon approach next time? Swoop in, sh** everywhere, then fly away.

Your post is titled "Adventure and Perspective" and you mostly delve into adventure; whereas, the replies have mostly focused on perspective. Eh.
Yvon Chouinard: "The word 'adventure' has just gotten overused. For me, adventure is when everything goes wrong. That's when the adventure starts."
See, I was never a fan of this likewise overused quote either, but at least Yvon prefaces it with "For me." I can relate to the sentiment though - adventures occur with either a lapse of planning (a la the Amundson quote) or due to unforeseen/unusual circumstances (i.e. I bet Amundson would be a good candidate to provide rescue analysis for ANAM).

Adventure, for me, is overcoming ignorance of one's mind, body, or environment.
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Re: Adventure and Perspective

Post by blazintoes »

All biases we have we project on all humans. Why should we care who posts what where or how? Perhaps because abusing social media is becoming offensive? When you say you climbed a Colorado 14er what you really mean is you hiked but it sounds more impressive to say I climbed and take pictures that look cool to post. And if you do Capitol in winter vs. Bierstadt in summer you are much cooler, but what’s the difference?

How about the Evolta robot that climbed up a rope for seven hours in the Grand Canyon on AA batteries, that’s an adventure and worth posting about. Just look how cute he is and how exciting that must have been to watch. How easy it is to anthropomorphize this accomplishment. We are all just highly evolved machines but subjected to a consciousness filled with ego and insecurity however in our electronic life when we portray how we want others to see us, most, but some aren’t fooled.

A climbing companion once voiced that what was the point of Erik Weihenmayer climbing Everest, he’s blind, can’t see anything. After some provocation and a story about the time I hiked Ouray with my husband on a less than stellar Colorado weather day and while on top with zero visibility he pretended to be a sports commentator and said, “Over here you see (pointing north) we have the beautiful Mount Shavano and to our left the great Colorado trail and sneaking up behind we have…” On and on he went and it was damn hilarious; put the whole experience into a mutual understandable perspective. I asked my buddy, while Ouray is no Everest what was the point of hiking when we couldn’t see anything? Adventure? Planning but not knowing the outcome ‘til the tasks complete makes adventure.

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oldschool
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Re: Adventure and Perspective

Post by oldschool »

Eli...if i may

What the f#*k does it matter to you what I (I shall repeat this word so there is NO confusion..I) call adventure?

It ain't none of your god damn business what i call adventure. NONE!

Go home boy....
"There's a feeling I get when I look to the West and my spirit is crying for leaving" Led Zeppelin
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Re: Adventure and Perspective

Post by spiderman »

Now that is what I call going old school! Very valid points succinctly expressed.
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Re: Adventure and Perspective

Post by rijaca »

From my perspective, it's an adventure every time I leave the house.
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the women 'round here start looking good"
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Re: Adventure and Perspective

Post by DArcyS »

rijaca wrote:From my perspective, it's an adventure every time I leave the house.
Especially when you're on the way to climb Dallas. Congrats on your recent ascent.
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