Sometimes, for the big stuff, we wait too long. We wait for “the right time,” but it never comes. Or we wait for others to be able to join us on that special trip, but the calendars never align. Or they do eventually, but years after you wanted to go. Similarly, for us climbers, we might wait too long for someone to climb that big mountain with.
Now don’t get me wrong. Some climbs you should not do alone. Like Mount Rainier or Grand Teton. But when it comes to New Hampshire’s mountains, while it’s advised to have a hiking buddy—especially on the big ones in the Presidentials where people have been lost—you can certainly take them on alone if you can’t get someone to go with you.
Because waiting too long for others leads to one universal risk: it never gets done. The experience is never had. The beauty is never seen.
When You Have To
When I go climbing alone, which is often, it’s not because I don’t want to climb with anybody else (well, not usually). Rather, it’s because I want to see that particular mountain and if I don’t go now, it might never happen. Because that mountain might be someplace nobody else you know cares about. Maybe none of your friends even knew it existed or have any desire to climb it. In that case, do you wait for someone to magically appear who does?
The same goes for life. We all have a variety of goals and wishes, but some are more secret than others. Those ones we keep to ourselves because they may seem lame or inconceivable to our peers. But if we never take them on, what then? Those mountains gnaw at us and climb us, until we are buried under the weight of unrealized dreams.
Do It Now or Forever Wish You Had
My feeling is, you gotta go now. And if you are looking for a climbing buddy and can’t find a friend to go hiking with, there are tons of hiking groups out there that you can join. Facebook has a bunch and AI makes everything so easy now, you can ask Chat or Google to locate one for you. If there’s one good thing about AI, it’s that it can help you find answers to get away from technology a whole lot faster. Hey Chat, find me a group that wants to hike the White Mountains of New Hampshire together…
and away you go.
Happy hiking!
The Mountains Are Calling