Personal Narrative: How Hiking Changed My Life

I’ve always wanted to be good at something. Writing isn’t one of them. Hiking however, let’s say I’m confident that I hover somewhere above the line of Intermediate. Good enough to survive high elevation glacier treks and overnighters at least. As a hobby or extracurricular activity, it’s probably my biggest passion. So much that I found that writing of them is like having the opportunity to do each one over again. Once upon a time I set forth a book project, a story telling, you might say, of all my treks including the ascent of five mountains. However, I lacked the confidence of presenting a way to share my stories of me being the key subject. Eventually the project lost steam and fell to the wayside. Even so, I enjoyed reliving each one while writing of them, and, I continued to set goals and hike. Putting myself out there in high open meadows or deep forest of the Cascades has given me a fresh perspective of my everyday world. Forget about football, baseball or sports in general. Forget about housework, yard work or for that matter work itself. Actually, my accommodating career generously facilitated this hobby that at times takes ample time and expense. Therefore, we can’t forget about work. Nonetheless, the introduction to hiking has gotten me off the couch and into the
The idea came to me after Tim, my hiking and climbing buddy announced a desire to climb Mount Adams a second time. The first expedition to the 12,276 foot summit in 2014 happened to be one of the ultimate experiences of my life. As a simple climb in the eyes of an avid mountaineer, it was a challenging two-day climb for the intermediate such as me. However, as a non-technical climb anyone could virtually climb the south spur route. The approach isn’t a glacier, there are no crevasses or snow bridges, and rope travel isn’t necessary. Ice ax, crampons, a strong desire and a lot of stamina is all you’ll