(HOST) Time spent in the mountains this summer is forcing commentator Vic Henningsen to rethink his hiking habits.
(HENNINGSEN) Huffing and puffing my way up a mountain trail recently, I found myself considering that complex relationship between mental attitude and physical ability that governs my approach to hiking.
There was a time when attitude counted more than ability. I was young and strong, and I had a good sense of objective hazards. Many seasons as a park ranger made me properly cautious of letting the gap between mindset and ability get too wide: helping other people get out of trouble gave me an incentive to avoid getting into it myself. I knew I could count on experience, and physical and mental toughness, to permit venturing beyond my ability level – to hike further, faster, in worse weather, over more punishing routes. That’s what’s called pushing yourself. Done right, it helps increase ability.
Almost forty years later, though, prudence dictates reversing the equation. I have to recognize declining physical power and tame that aggressive attitude, considering what I can do before what I want to do or think I ought to be able to do.
That’s hard. When I lace up my old boots and shoulder the rucksack I’ve used for decades, I’m mentally in my 20’s again, ready to go forth and conquer. Suppressing that exuberant instinct takes real work. And every so often I can’t do it – or won’t – with predictable results: I grind myself to powder halfway up. You’d think I’d learn, and I do – for a while. But it never lasts.
Other hikers tell me I’m not alone in struggling to strike a new balance between attitude and ability. Not surprisingly, most hikers and backpackers under 35 I’ve spoken with don’t think about this at all. Those over 50 think about it a lot.
A number of women suggest this problem is gender-specific – limited to males. Those discussing their husbands are most emphatic on the point. Surprisingly, at least to me, many men agree, though not quite so readily.
How, I asked, do those of us north of fifty subdue our instinctive – but increasingly delusional – youthful drive and adjust our attitude to fit our, shall I say, maturing ability?
Many responded: hike with a teenager! Guaranteed to instill physical humility and make us grateful for whatever wisdom comes with age and experience.
No teenager available? Well, that’s harder, but we could do worse than heed the wisdom of an older gent I met on a mountaintop years ago – well into his seventies, I’d say, by the look of him. "Keep it in perspective, son", he told me, "Change your goals. Slow down; focus on the trail, not the summit." "And remember," he said, fixing me with a glittering eye, "anyone who says he can still do something as well as he did in his 20’s sure wasn’t very good at it then."
Vic Henningsen is a teacher and historian.