71–80 of 83 posts
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Because everyone different. To you it might be narcissistic or foolish but for him obviously it is highly important and meaningful.
If I died younger, my parents would suffer a lot. If I died now, my husband and kids would suffer. I would not want my husband to risk that much for trip, because me and kids need him. It is kind of saying you don't have such people around.
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Hiking and camping in cold weather requires a certain fortitude that most people don't have automatically. It's going to take a bit of willpower to subject oneself to cold and misery. haha. It eventually becomes fun though.
I was almost going to not ask this, but I think in a place like this it's more appropriate than inappropriate -- guys, how are the toilet-stuff dealt with? I want to do hiking/camping, but the confusion about this whole thing keeps me away. What's the normal protocol? Any books/guides you can recommend for someone who's never done this before? In particular, I'm interested in hiking an easy mountain in the northeast…
The AT has alpine shelters along the trail, usually ~5-10 miles apart. If you have a good guide book, you can plan your route accordingly. And if you get lucky, there will even be an outhouse along a blue blaze, a quarter mile or so away from the shelter.
If you're not on the AT, then you pretty much just find a place that's not up hill from a water source and go to town. I recommend carrying wet wipes of some kind. Definitely worth the extra weight. If you're on a moderately trafficked trail though, it's very important to "leave no trace." That means you dig a hole, and you hike out any used toilet paper. I usually use a gallon ziploc bag for trash. This becomes especially important when it's below freezing and you can't really dig holes.
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If you need to be hiking all day for months to lose weight, you are ptobably going to gain it all back once you stop.
That's a rather defeatist outlook. I'd say that after all that hiking, especially on minimal food, your body would be accustomed to requiring less food decreasing your appetite and making it easier to maintain your weight over time.
Well then you'd be wrong. Weight gain is a very real problem for thru hikers after they finish.
The way I managed it after I got off the trail is something that I've since heard called the "warrior diet." Just limit yourself to eating once per day in a very narrow window in the evening. That's it. Your body will be in ketosis most of the day, which it's already used to from thru hiking. Anyway, it worked for me, and I've stuck to it ever since.
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I read this and thought that whoever tries stuff like this is just a moron. There's not really much discovery to be made if any. It's extremely costly and dangerous. The only benefit is vanity.
The same thing could be said for many costly (in terms of either time or money) journeys: hiking the AT, biking across the world, to name two. In these cases, others have made these voyages thousands of times before, but that doesn't stop people from making these trips. By the way, I think you're misreading the piece---I don't get the impression that these men are making these trips for vanity.
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I read this and thought that whoever tries stuff like this is just a moron. There's not really much discovery to be made if any. It's extremely costly and dangerous. The only benefit is vanity.
The same thing could be said for many costly (in terms of either time or money) journeys: hiking the AT, biking across the world, to name two. In these cases, others have made these voyages thousands of times before, but that doesn't stop people from making these trips. By the way, I think you're misreading the piece---I don't get the impression that these men are making these trips for vanity.
The closest I've ever come to getting a glimpse of what these two are going through is a 1100 mile trek through the Appalachian mountains one winter. It was fun, but I don't think I ever want to do that again. When the temperature drops below about 0* F, there are only two things you can do: Move, or get in your sleeping bag. After a couple months of 14 hours a day alone in the frigid darkness, you start to lose your…
Hiking and camping in cold weather can be an extremely effective weight loss strategy. If done with good nutrition, enough sleep, proper gear, it can even be a healthy weight loss strategy. I'm surprised no one seems to ever discuss this, with so much of our culture seemingly obsessed with losing weight.
The closest I've ever come to getting a glimpse of what these two are going through is a 1100 mile trek through the Appalachian mountains one winter. It was fun, but I don't think I ever want to do that again. When the temperature drops below about 0* F, there are only two things you can do: Move, or get in your sleeping bag. After a couple months of 14 hours a day alone in the frigid darkness, you start to lose your…
—The Left Hand Of Darkness
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Agree exactly. The thinking does not take into account at all the impact on anyone else. Plus we are not talking about 'well get over it I am not going to not ride the motorcycle because of you Mom'. We are talking about a highly unusual and risky behavior.
Everyone is different, not everyone care about the impact on anyone else. For these people they don't need to take this into account. To you this might seem to be utterly sad, but to them "sad" might not even register. For them not be able to do highly unusual and risky action is probably their definiton of true sadness. For this people, the only thing you can do is to support them.
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As discussed in the article, two men are independently making the attempt, at the same time. The grammar works out, but it catches your eye, which is often a goal of a headline writer.
Sounds like they'd have a better shot at it if they teamed up :)
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Everyone is different, not everyone care about the impact on anyone else. For these people they don't need to take this into account. To you this might seem to be utterly sad, but to them "sad" might not even register. For them not be able to do highly unusual and risky action is probably their definiton of true sadness. For this people, the only thing you can do is to support them.
Did you really meant to say that they are narcissists? Because I think that we can find plenty of explanations that don't boil down to "they don't care about anything except themselves". Because I really really don't think this uncharitable explanation is correct for most of them.