Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Why Do You Hike or Climb?

Sounds simple, right? Pretty common responses: I (1) love the wilderness/outdoors, (2) love a challenge, or (3) gotta get outta the city! However, a couple of weeks ago I ran across a guy while hiking on the AT in the Blue Ridge mountains, and we got on this subject while staring at the next 1500 feet of elevation gain waiting for us.

He said that he had always loved fishing, but was never a hiker. Thought all hikers were weed-smokin', tree-huggin' hippies, and had no use for 'em. Only the occasional camper, and then only for fishing. As he became more and more obsessed with finding that perfect fishing spot, he had to venture further and further from the roadways. About 10 years ago he took a multi-day fishing trip out of state (Kentucky, Virginia - I can't recall exactly) that required a full-day hike to a remote area for that perfect lake, so he had his first backpacking experience. He said it changed how he looked at the wilderness, and over the years he's progressively done more hiking than fishing. Now hiking is his obsession, and fishing is a hobby. Four years ago he through-hiked the AT at the age of 54 and is thinking of doing the PCT or CDT before he hits 60. He still doesn't trust "hippies", but has more tolerance.

That got me thinking about why each of us does what we do. Why hike, climb, backpack? There's lots of other things we can do outdoors - why did we choose this? For me, it was a business trip to Palm Springs many years ago. I was born and raised in the city, and never gave a second thought to "the outdoors". The outdoors was that vague greenish-brown stuff way down below your 757 as you traveled. I was in my early thirties and had never camped a night in my life, nor wandered a trail that wasn't asphalt. On that trip I had a day to kill and drove up to Joshua Tree to see what a national park was all about (had never been to one before, even with the Smokies virtually in my back yard). By the time I got back to my hotel that night, I was well on my way to being an avid hiker. Bam! That quick. A simple 3-mile stroll to the Skull Rock area, and I was planning to buy my first backpack when I returned home. I have a nice framed print of JT over my office desk at home to always remind me of that day.

So, why do you hike/climb/pack? How did you start? Were you raised camping/hiking or did it come later in life? Was it a bolt out of the blue, or some transitional response to an event in your life? Did a friend or family member get you involved, or did you stumble into it? I'm curious now to hear what others' motivations were.

For me, it is part of a continuum. I grew up in a tiny town in VT, surrounded by woods, mountains and streams. We practically lived outside, and there wasn't any organized recreation so we made our own fun. In summer when we played together it was baseball, and in winter it was sliding on hillsides we'd helped the farmer hay during the summer. Solitary pastimes were usually fishing or being in the woods - we didn't call it "hiking", we called it "exploring" as there were no trails. Since it was tiny town (less than 250 people) everyone knew everyone else and we looked out for each other. If you got in a jam you knew you could knock on someone's door and they'd help you out. I'm not saying it was idyllic, but for all the shortcomings of living in an isolated town, that sense of safety was just how life was. The good news is that it continues in many small towns.

I can't recall exactly when I first climbed a mountain via a trail - was probably in college. Before that if we wanted to get to the top of a mountain we simply set out for the top and found a route. Of the two methods, for me I experience "nature" more when traveling off-trail, but it can be very much slower.

There was a 20-odd year window when I didn't do much much hiking - too busy raising a family/getting established, etc. But, a health crisis in my mid-40's demanded a regular exercise program, and I re-discovered the joys of hiking, particularly high-altitude, and have made it a large part of my life ever since.

As much as I've enjoyed the hiking/mountaineering, I have to say that the greatest satisfaction has been sharing those skills with others. For many years I was a hike leader/instructor with the major east coast hiking organization, leading hikes around NH and ME. I also organized trips to climb some of the peaks in the west, like Whitney, Hood, Shasta, Adams, etc. Another friend and I started a winter hiking series, and some of our "students" have become some of my closest/most trusted buddies, and a few have even gone on to peaks like Denali. Some of the best moments in my life have been getting an email in which the person says they just got back home from same major expedition, and wouldn't have done it without my help. I've gotta tell you, those kinds of emails make your heart sing. One of life's great joys, as any teacher knows, is watching the student's skill level exceed those of the teacher.

Mountains have always been a large part of my life, and I hope that will continue for many years to come.

Wow......GREAT STORY!

You are definitely on my "respect" list. Looking forward to all your posts.....and maybe someday seeing you on Whitney.

Roger that! Intriguing story Kevin, and I wholeheartedly agree with QS. That has to be incredibly satisfying. I hope to get some hiking done in Maine and Vermont some day.

Where's everyone else? How 'bout the ladies?

Hey Bulldog34, how are you? Great question, here's my story:

Oddly enough, there were two tragic events in my life that are responsible for my love of hiking so late in life...now at 44.

Ever since I can remember, I've always loved the mountains. My fondest childhood memories are of fishing and camping with my Dad at Huntington Lake (Western Sierras). The first time our family camped there I was in about 7 years old. I vividly remember getting up in the dark to go out on a boat to catch "our" breakfast while everyone else was asleep. It was always just me and my Dad since I was the only one in the family who liked to fish and didn't mind getting up early. I was a total Daddy's girl!
At 17, a month after I graduated high school, my Dad had a fatal heart attack... he was 46 years old. I was so completely devastated by his death that it took me a LONG time to gather the courage to go back up to the Sierras again. When I was ready, I went right back to up Huntington Lake, talked to my Dad, had a good cry, and made peace with the beautiful mountains that I had missed so much. Ever since that day, the Sierras have been a spiritual place for me. They give me peace and bring me close to my Dad again. I miss you Dad.

The second event took place when I was 11. My cousin Johnny (8 years older than me) was an avid hiker & climber. He was the one cousin that I looked up to and admired. I thought it was so cool that he went on so many hiking and climbing trips in the Sierras...some even by himself when he was 14 or 15 years old. He spent every summer hiking and climbing in the Sierras.
At 17 he went off to Nepal for 6 weeks and hiked to Everest Base Camp and the surrounding area (see pics below).


At 19, he was a member of the ill-fated 1976 American Expedition on Dunagiri in the Garhwal Himalaya. His first "big" climb ended up being his last. John and 3 other climbers died on the mountain a day before their summit attempt. The incident was written about in Tasker & Boardman's book, "The Shining Mountain" Chapter 9 -- Descent to Tragedy.


Every time I'm hiking a trail in the Sierras, I always wonder if I'm walking in his footsteps.
Stacy
ps I will dedicate my first Whitney summit to Johnny.

I have been wanting to respond to this question but since I am a slow, really slow typist I have been putting off telling my story.
I began camping with my parents as a kid. We (7 of family including Grandma and Grampa) took a camping trip from Los Angeles to Seattle for the 1963 Worlds Fair.We had a 1960 Comet station wagon pulling a open U-Haul trailer with all our camping gear.Our tent was a large heavy waxed canvas Army tent.The tent poles were 2X4's.It was a beast and easily slept all 7 of us with room for a dozen.We drove untill 4 PM everyday and set up camp everynight. We rose to campfire and coleman stove cooked breakfast. We broke camp every morning and hit the road.We did this all the way to Seattle where we camped in a Rain Forrest and daily went to the Worlds Fair.I was so impressed by the then futurist Space Needle.

When I was a senior in High School in 1969 I took my first backpacking trip on Thanksgiving weekend to the Sequoias with 3 other friends. We parked at the road closure near the dam at Lake Hume and packed down to the Kings River.I had a $5-$10 Gemco backpack, synthetic cheap work boots which gave me the large painful blisters. I packed and carried canned food. My pack was cheap,poorly padded and weighed over 50 lbs packed.I had no real BP gear and my bag was an old used snythetic mummy bag probably rated to 40-50 degrees. Our first night sleeping on the ground with 2 small 7lbs(light back in the day) BP tents. We were misserably cold and no one slept our first night as we all shivered and froze on a 15-20 degree night.The next day we gather 4-6 inches of leaves to put under the floor of our tents and slept like we were in grandmas down bed.We hike out due to rain on 2 days later on Saturday, and made it back to the car at Lake Hume Dam to a snow storm.We built a huge fire and fished all night in the rain/snow catching trout and cooking and eating them immediately all night.It was an absolutely incredible experience. I was hooked on backpacking.I spent the next 4 years BP'ing in the eastern Sierras as often as I could.

Then college,marriage,chiropractic college, and kids morphed our vacations back to car/tent camping. My family,wife,2 kids,mother father, and grandparents spent 20 straight years camping at Shaver Lake on the western side of the Sierras.
5 Years ago I decided to get back in shape. I began a 4 year rigorous workout program that included running stadium stairs at our local Jr. College football stadium.

September of 2006 I hiked to Nevada Falls in Yosemite so easily I said to myself I bet I could climb Mt Whitney.In January 2007 I was diagnosed with malignant prostate cancer.
I needed a challange and a goal.I needed a difficult obstacle to overcome as a metaphor for being able to overcome my cancer.
I decided to climb Mt Whitney. I tried in the Feb 07 lottery to get a permit but did not obtain one. I waited for the secondary lottery and still didn't get one. I began calling in May-June every week for a cancelation.I finally got 2 overnight permits for June 19th. On June 20,2007 I stood on top of Mt Whitney at the age of 54. My avatar shows my emotional moment touching the summit hut.I KNEW I had overcome a difficult obstacle and it was not only a metaphor for overcoming cancer,it was validation I would survive.

All my life I had been engaged in out door activities such as camping or fishing which is mostly relevant in fueling my interest in hiking once I had gone, my dad had been an eagle scout but he went 20 years without hiking and for some reason in 2005 or 2006 the idea of going backpacking came up so we went for a weekend, being out of shape and without any proper gear this first trip wore me out to a point I have never reached since, it's appropriate to say I hobbled out of the Sierra yet the extreme beauty was enough to want more, since then tragedies and other factors have changed every aspect of my life, I have no happiness other then when I can get back into the mountains, I have found a tranquility up there to where I can honestly say they are my home, to quote John Muir " they lead through regions that lie far above the ordinary haunts of the devil, and of the pestilence that walks in darkness", so that is why I hike, to spend as much time among beauty and peace as possible, away from darkness.

Wow - very intriguing stories! Not sure if it's relevant, but I see some common threads so far. All four who responded have been involved in the outdoors since a relatively early age (at least compared to me). Tragedy, or near-tragedy, involved in 3 of the 4 - that "response to an event in life" I had suggested as a motivator for some in the original post.

Since my curiosity was aroused (I'm really dangerous that way), I asked a few other hikers I ran across today the same question (I played hooky from work to grab a few miles of the Benton-MacKaye Trail before it starts raining again - for another damn week!). The 3 that I had a real conversation with all identified some event in their lives that caused them to seek the solitude and peace of the wilderness. These were the death of a spouse, loss of a career job, and a medical condition that required regular exercise. It just reinforces my belief that those of us who are drawn to these particular wilderness activities are a special breed - but we seem to be more molded that way as opposed to being born with/to it. Something to think about, anyway. I really enjoyed reading your responses, even if they were not always happy.

KevinR - What a life, man! I applaud you and wish you many more of those satisfying messages and e-mails.

Rogue - I envy you, dude. By the time you hit my age you'll be king of the Sierra! And happiness outside the wilderness will come.

Rod - You gave me a completely new perspective on your Avatar! I'll think of that every time I see you post. Really positive vibes for continuing health, my friend.

BiletChick - I read your post on WPS about Johnny, so it was nice having you share a more complete story. My sympathies on your loss, and I'll definitely pick up "Shining Mountain" now. It also especially touched me because I'm raising my daughter exactly the same way your Dad did you. She's currently a 10 YO princess of the outdoors who baits her own hooks, pees in the woods without complaint, and hikes with Dad all over the country (starting at age 4, by the way). She plans to be with me on Whitney next summer and can't wait to try what Dad did back in August. And re 44 being "late in life": my wife is 43 - nine years younger than me and never lets me forget it - and considers herself barely out of her teens.

Hey, I'd love to hear some more perspectives . . .

SteveC's Princess needs some pointers from your Princess.

Give the poor kid time, wagga - she's only, what? Four? Steve, meet us in Lone Pine (or Mammoth) in July and my princess will gladly give your princess pointers on peeing in the woods . . .

Thanks Bulldog,
QS AKA Joe and I shared a similar emotional experience touching the hut as a metaphor for conquering our cancer.

Simple: The freedom of the hills.

Rod, that's a very appropriate and striking metaphor - although most metaphors in life are much easier to come by than what it took for you and QS! Your and Joe's journey from "Will I see my next birthday?" to "Look what I did!" are truly inspirational. Wishing you both many, many more summits!

I knew I needed a very difficult but obtainable obstacle to overcome as my goal.My golf buddy and workout partner who I recruited to go with me on this climb called this my "Quest".He and my wife claim I am obsessed with Whitney now. They maybe right.So far it has worked out well. My marker to measure if I have any prostate cancer left is measuring my PSA.My PSA has been undetectable which is all I can hope for at this stage.It takes 10 years to be declared "cured" from prostate cancer.I have 2 1/2 years down and only 7 1/2 years to go. So far so good.