07 Feb Why It’s Needed To Get Outside?
Why do some of us choose to get out and ski new powder ancient in the morning following a terrific snowstorm? Why do we feel attracted to the wilderness for healing, meditation, silent, and peace? Based on our own experiences, each of us probably have different responses to these queries. For many of us,getting outside carves out space for emotional clarity helps us feel alive, and activates a reset button, so to speak, which brings us back to real life ready to confront it head on back again.
A number of us proceed weekend ski for easy, fun diversion, while others make it a career pursuit by devoting a lot of the life to enhancing their form and gaining speed. But if you are Ben Saunders, you have spent so much time on skis in country that many do not even watch, and at great personal risk. But why? What is it all about setting difficult goals and working toward them that affects the landscape of our interior selves?
For Saunders, the point of getting outside is encapsulated in this idea: “If I have learned anything in nearly 12 years now of pulling heavy things around cold places, it is that accurate, real inspiration and growth only comes from hardship and out of challenge, from stepping out from what’s comfortable and familiar, and stepping out into the unknown. In life, most of us possess tempests to ride and sticks to walk into, and that I think, metaphorically speaking at least we can all benefit from becoming outside the home a little more often–if we could sum up the courage. I certainly would recommend you to open the door just a tiny bit and have a peek at what is outside.”
This is coming from a man who has trekked to the North Pole solo, a journey of 800 miles in some of the harshest weather conditions in the world. He did so while pulling a sled weighed down with supplies, eating 6000 calories per day, and sometimes skiing challenging all day just to realize that he hadn’t made any forward progress in any respect. (When you are skiing in addition to ice that is in perpetual drift, you might start your day off by discovering you are further back than you were the day before. #nobigdeal) Seems like a lot of fun, right?
So why?
Saunders has stated that while the times of calculating unknown wilderness the manner that John Wesley Powell did through the Grand Canyon may be over (we have pretty well mapped the globe), the chances to research your own possibilities and what you can do would be certainly not. This is a compelling observation and one worth considering–this idea that striving against the battle has value in itself by mirroring the job that must be done in life.
Remember George Mallory, the guy who may have been the first to Summit Everest? He’s the man who had been climbing with Andrew Irvine in June of 1924, and if they really summit the mountain or not remains an unanswered question. His body was discovered in 1999 in surprisingly good condition. Why did he and why do others–danger a lot to do exactly what they love? Here was George’s answer:
“People ask me, ‘What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?’ and my answer must at once be, ‘It isn’t of any use. There is not the slightest prospect of any profit whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron… If you can’t understand that there’s something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we proceed.” (emphasis added)
George’s comment suggests that always fighting your way up and forward, working against reverses, and finding pieces of yourself in the process are all things that are really rewarding. And it seems that Ben Saunders would agree. After finishing his trek to the North Pole, he decided to perform an 1800 mile trek from the border (shore) of Antartica to the South Pole, then turn around and go all the way back again. He did it with a friend, and though 9 people had attempted to make that travel before, nobody had actually done it. They did not see darkness for four months, and Saunders only changed his panties three times in 105 days. TMI?
But. What he had to say about that epic trip in which they endured hunger, hypothermia, and extreme weather is intriguing food for thought. He explained this: “If I’m honest, Antartica challenged me and humbled me so deeply that I am not sure I’ll ever be able to place it into words. …That I’m standing here telling you this story is evidence that all of us can accomplish great things through ambition, through fire, through sheer stubbornness, by refusing to stop– that should we dream something challenging enough…it will really come to pass. But I am also standing here saying, you know what? That cliché about the journey being more important than the destination? There is something in that. The closer I got to my finish line…the longer I started to understand that the biggest lesson which this very long, very difficult walk may be instructing me is that happiness isn’t a finish line– for us humans the perfection that so a lot people seem to dream of may never be genuinely attainable, and that if we can not feel content here, today, now, on our journeys, amidst the jumble and the trying that we all inhabit–the open loops, the half completed to-do lists, the could-do-better-next-times– than we might not feel it.”
Sure, most people clearly aren’t a Ben Saunders, ski intense journeys in difficult conditions and leaving the comforts of home the way that he does. But if you like to ski, there’s that “call of the wild” that you will understand–that need to get outdoors, hit the slopes, and visit jungle which appears uncharted, and absorb clean blankets of white in isolation for a while.
If this resonates with you, we’d love to help you make it happen! We specialize in group transport, and ski trips are something we like easing with our bus rental Maine. Whether you’re going with a bunch of buddies or taking the entire family for a week in the hotel, let’s be the people who get there!
The information for this article came from the following resources:
https://www.ted.com/talks/ben_saunders_skis_to_the_north_pole
https://www.ted.com/talks/ben_saunders_to_the_south_pole_and_back_the_hardest_105_days_of_my_life
No Comments