What did Her Royal Majesty call it, “a bumpy year”?
I can empathize with that characterization in many ways, and yet, despite the bumps, it has also been an almost epic year of personal transformation. Last April as I crested the fifty mark in my life, I publically declared the next ten years of my life to be my “Decade of Adventure”. Little did I know how much that would come to pass.
Since June of last year, my son and I have completed twenty-eight outdoor climbs together, many of them with our now dear friend Tim Taylor. The year culminated with our first ice climb on Crescent Falls a week ago. The last six months have provided the foundation for the evolution of my own identity, which now includes that of a mountain climber. Who would have thunk it?
Having embraced this aspect of my evolved identity, I have found it necessary to alter my behaviour to align with this new facet. In short, I needed to get in shape, because climbing mountains, even hiking to the base of the mountain you want to climb is damn hard. To that end, in August of last year, I began a new training regiment based on the philosophy outlined in the book Training for a New Alpinism. Without getting into the details, I essentially spend a fair amount of time each week hiking the river banks of Edmonton, just east of where we live. While I am out there hiking the single track trails, I take the opportunity to listen to audiobooks - killing two birds with one stone. Most recently I have been listening to Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Near the end of his book, James outlines the need to endure boredom as an element common to those individuals who eventually come to master a skill. This notion struck me, as I am not naturally predisposed towards suffering boredom (I have passed those genes onto my kid too). I bore easily, and when I get bored, I typically disengage. Surprisingly, I have managed to stick with my training program for five months now (more or less) as the long-term goal of being fit enough to climb in the Bugaboos in July has been a powerful motivator. Our culture has largely served up a lie via social media that those individuals whom we admire and follow have simply gotten to where they are by natural abilities and good luck. If we pause for a moment and think about it (exercise some common sense) we quickly can surmise that this just isn’t possible. Anyone who becomes a master has put in countless hours of training and suffered boredom for hundreds if not thousands of hours. There simply isn’t a substitute for putting in the time (at least outside of the Matrix).
Having hiked the trails behind my house now for five months, I must admit that they are becoming a bit too familiar. The bends and rises are starting to lull me into complacency. I am at the point, perhaps even beyond the point where I normally check out in boredom. And yet, my newly adopted identity of mountain climber requires me to align my behaviour, despite my boredom, to that of an active individual who spends time trudging up and down hills. I know that I will never become an amazing mountain climber, nor do I even have the ambition to become one. But I do want to be competent, and I want to develop into someone who can pursue this life of adventure well into my 70’s, hell, why not my 80’s? I have experienced the powerful force of transformation that spending time on the mountain facilitates. I know there is much more to experience in that regard, and I know that I want to share it with as many others as are willing to give it a go.
And so I am learning that part of my decade of adventure will also require me to embrace a decade of boredom, where I put in the time, fighting through the drudgery so that my body and mind can measure up to the tasks looming ahead on this journey into adventure.