The Drive

[climbingcue]

So, I'm sitting here on my couch. I had my outing planned, West Needles area, and I could not get off the sofa and pack my backpack. I kept thinking about the drive, 7 hours at best possibly longer with fire issues in Ouray, and I lost my motivation. This is not the first time I've lost my mojo facing the drive. The smoke forecast does not look good for the Gores and Elks and most of my remaining peaks are in the San Juans. It seems like the drive time is always greater than the actual hike time. How have others handled this? How have you worked through a loss of motivation? Do I just need to take a break this summer? Break this spell that the 13ers have over me and focus on lower elevation peaks closer to home? Repeat favorites, list checking be damned? Retire and move to southwest Colorado?

Looking at what you have left makes it even harder, you have a number of backpacking trips and two of the hardest 13ers on the ranked list. Keep chipping away, you are making great progress. I am happy that I have completed all the hard 13ers as well as a number of the backpacking trips, I think we need 3 more backpacking trips in the San Juan's to clean up the area. I am not a backpacking fan at all. It will be very nice when they are all done.

[yaktoleft13]

I'm someone who has made "the drive" a lot over the last couple of years, focusing my efforts on the San Juans, after spending the years before that climbing stuff much closer to me out of convenience. I didn't want to end up in the situation where I had 150 peaks left and every single one was a 5 hour drive away.

I have not had "drive" fatigue. There's a few reasons for that, but one of the main ones is that I have a wife, a daughter, and a soon-to-come second kid. My opportunities to get out and climb are not as frequent as many chasing the ends of the 13ers. I get out every 2 or 3 weeks, and it's almost always just for one day. When I am not on one of those trips, I am fully off of mountain mode. I'm full time dad, husband, and member of the 9-5 workforce; so those opportunities that I have to get out I savor. It's why I pack as much stuff as possible into every chance I get; I relish the opportunity and understand the sacrifice by my family to let me get the chances I do. It would be a disservice to them to drive 10 hours and only climb one peak when I could have climbed 4; or drive out, decide "today's not the day", and go home. I'd be wasting the time away from them that they gave me.

The other thing is I ritualize the drive somewhat. Just about every trip to the San Juans is the exact same route until I reach Ridgway, so I stop at the same restaurant (Otto's, shoutout Otto's!), stop at the same gas station and get the snacks that I want, and save whatever podcast or music I've been looking forward to over the prior weeks for the drive (shoutout Armchair Expert and the new Olivia Rodrigo!). It makes it so the drive becomes part of the hiking experience, and an enjoyable one at that.

I can see how burnout happens, especially with the drives, but I think the balance in the rest of my life has staved it off for me.

I hope you find your spark again, and if you don't, perhaps skip a weekend or two. Maybe absence will make the call of the mountains stronger.

[69vette]

Two suggestions (I didn’t read through all the replies so may be repeats): 1. Find a place to camp nearby; there’s almost always dispersed camping to be found. Plus, if you’re in it for what it’s truly all about, it’s so rewarding to immerse yourself in the area and not being doing it just because there’s a list on your desk at home. Take advantage of the opportunity and enjoy the remarkable State that we call home! 2. Grab your favorite road-trip music (personally it’s Lord Huron, My Morning Jacket, John Butler Trio, etc) and own the Adventure! I come from IL and and I can tell you that you should feel so fortunate to have the OPPORTUNITY to drive across Colorado. Cheers!

[piper14er]

You are still young. I practically started 13ers in my 50's. Try doing it when you are in your 72nd year...

That being said the drive has stopped me the last few years some too. But like you I still have the 13er disease, am slower and have more aches and pains.

it's better to burn out than to fade away. Yay.

[two lunches]

as a self-proclaimed fair-weather hiker who purely climbs in pursuit of a good time, i think taking a break is the best thing you can do for yourself to combat burnout.

but the commentary in this thread reminds me that when things start to get stale in the hills it can be incredibly helpful to have company. i've met some amazing people through this site and a partner or two (or in the case of that one time for scott's purple snowflake gathering on quail mtn, 20) gets me far more excited for a climb than just going out by myself/with archer (no offense intended to my beloved furry companion). so my second recommendation would be to (as difficult as it can be to align schedules and checklists) find a little circle of people who have similar objectives and see if you can tackle a couple together.

otherwise, yeah- a good audio book, geo's podcast/other 14er adventurecasts (or 7 hours of taylor swift) can be a wonderful distraction for me on "the drive"