The Mountains Are Calling
Thoughts
The Mountains Are Calling
October 20, 2016

I’ve always felt more comfortable on solid ground than in 3ft of water. I don’t love to swim too far from shore, or surf too deep or big swell. Some are super comfortable in the water, some in the air, me I love being on the ground. I don’t mind being 250m+ up the side of a cliff face hanging on for life, because I’m still on solid (ish) ground. But send me up into the mountains on bike or foot and I’m most at home. I understand my elements, my surroundings, the microclimates, the fauna and flora. They feel familiar, and comforting.

I might have grown up in flat coastal Victoria Australia, but stepping off the plane in Vancouver BC Canada at 18 years old, I was at home amongst the mountains. They constantly remind me of how small I really am, my capabilities, my capacity to grow, the temperaments of unpredictable weather and challenges I face in life, and most of all that mother nature will exist with or without me. So it’s up to me to adapt, to manoeuvre amongst what has existed long before me and will continue to exist long after this life.

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity” – John Muir

“It’s the rawness of being in the mountains, the sheer unpredictability of traversing through them and navigating foreign terrain, that is a direct reflection on how we are born into this world, the paths we choose and the attitude to which we deal with the weather of life.” – James Looker

Sometimes when it’s your birthday, you get Helicopters to get you to the top. 🙂

This is me descending from 11,500ft on 2-wheels in Utah, USA.