WHAT IF THE JOURNEY WAS HARDER…?

A four hour hike with Nick this morning, sure made lunch taste ama

We've discussed the use of tech in fitness before HERE.   Today I was listening to a podcast discussing the topic, and there was a fascinating story about extreme skiers.

The use of helicopters to get up to hard to access peaks has revolutionised the sport, much like jet skis did for big wave surfing.

However, recently there has been a resurgence amongst these athletes, to go back to climbing the slopes under their own steam.

We're talking up to a week in some cases!!  Hiking backcountry snowfields, dangerous cliffs, carrying a ton of extra gear, and expending a ton of extra effort.

Why do this when they can whiz to the top in 30mins??

Apparently it's more fun the old way.....

Not to mention, that taking their time on foot over the intended route of descent, provided them a lot more insight about what they had to deal with, obstacles, hidden dangers, better lines that they wouldn't have seen from the air at 100kmh.

As a result, the ride down was more enjoyable.  It was savoured, every detail about it.

Something else we talk about here is enjoying the journey over the destination.

What's interesting in the case of these skiers, is that although the downhill trip IS a journey of sorts, it's really the destination for them.

The journey is getting to the top.  Putting in the work.  Bypassing easy for some good old, honest effort.

And despite these folk getting the chance to enjoy the 'destination' many times a day if they wanted, with the help of aviation...they instead prefer to arrive only once....after a journey that made it much more worthy.