8 Lessons Learned From a Failed Mountain Climb

Steve headlamp

So, I failed.

We didn’t even come close.

Last weekend I flew into Boston and headed up to Baxter State Park in Maine with seven friends; we had the intention of summiting Katahdin, the tallest mountain in Maine and 2nd most difficult ‘climb’ in New England.

Welp, things didn’t work out quite like we had expected.

Fortunately, I managed to survive and learn quite a bit in the process.  Today I’m going to share with you the eight lessons I learned from failing to climb a mountain, and how you can apply these goals to level up your life.

Being prepared is crucial

Steve-Idiot

I hate preparing for stuff. I hate details. I hate planning.

I’d rather just show up and figure things out along the way.  Whenever I travel to a new country, I generally show up without having anything booked in advanced and figure it out as I go.

Fortunately, for this trip, I did my best to adequately prepare for a few days in the wild. 

Although I was new to camping, I did tons of research and made sure I had the right gear to get me through the weekend without being miserable.  Now, I might have looked like an idiot park ranger, but that’s nothing new.  I survived my weekend with no sunburn, minimal bug bites, and actually enjoyed myself!

So far so good…which brings us to the “walk” to our campsite.

Due to the fact that we booked our adventure incredibly late, all campsites near the mountain were booked up.

The only option available to us was a campsite on a lake “a decent walk” from where we parked our car. Well, it turns out a “decent walk” meant 4.5 miles.  And by “walk” they meant “hike up and down hills, over rocks, across streams, through swamps, and more.”

They also should have added: “Oh, and don’t forget the black flies and mosquitoes  They’ll try to eat you alive.”

It took us a solid 2.5 hours to get from our car to the camp with all of our gear: an adventure in every sense of the word.

I felt like I was in the Lost Woods:

Woods Hike

Throw in a six hour car ride, a mountain climb (which is supposed to take 12 hours…after hiking the 9 miles to/from our car), and we knew were already way in over our heads.

Moral of the story: Do your best to know what you are getting yourself into. If you are about to enter a gym for the first time, read up all about it. New to squats? Do your research! The last thing you want is to get completely blindsided and end up injuring yourself…or getting lost 4.5 miles deep in the woods.

I’m a big fan of NOT being an underpants gnome, but for some activities it’s important to at least do your research to make sure you’re safe.

Go with what got you there

Crazy lost woods

I wear Vibram Five-Fingers as often as possible, and have been doing so for about four years.

I work out in them, I go for walks in them, I go on hikes in them. I spent three days hiking through the Australian Outback in them, and last summer I wore them to climb up Mt. Killington in Vermont.

However, with Katahdin being incredibly difficult, I was advised against wearing them.  I still brought them with me, but I had a back up pair of hiking shoes that I’ve owned for a while that I brought as well.

For my first afternoon hike from the car to the camp site, I decided to wear the hiking shoes to try them out and see how things went.  Within two miles, I had a nasty blister on the inside of my second toe, which made each step a pain in the ass toe. Concerned about the climb the next day, I wrapped up my toe, took some aspirin, and wore my Vibrams, worried about how they’d react.

They were great.  

My toes stopped hurting, I felt like I had more control, and my feet became the least of my worries for the next 20 miles hiked. Going up and down the mountain was an absolute delight (I felt like I was doing Mov Nat or Parkour!). I wish I had trusted myself to wear Vibrams from the very beginning (and switched IF necessary), compared to the other way around.

Moral of the story: go with what got you there.  If you train a certain way, or use a certain technique, piece of clothing, or whatever…sure it’s important to take feedback, but everybody is different and doesn’t know your body like you do.  I’ve built up my leg muscles, ankles, and joints for long hikes in Vibrams. Had I worn them the whole time, I would have come out of my weekend with just a bruised ego, not a blistered toe.

Think like a Rebel

MAP checking

So, when I say “we hiked 4.5 miles to our campsite” on the first day, I was lying.

What really happened:  Our group got split into two for the hike. I was in the second group, and we sent the first group ahead with the map and directions. Our group began our hike through the woods, and THOUGHT we followed the right path, but actually ended up on the wrong side of the lake: the south side of Lake Katahdin, rather than the north side.

Of course, we didn’t realize this until we used our walkie talkies (which hadn’t worked until we were in range of one another):

  • Steve: Hey guys we’re at the lake but we don’t see you.  Did you guys cross a beaver dam?
  • Cash: Um, no. We’re at the camp. Where are you?
  • Steve: We’re on the south side of the lake.
  • Cash: Oh crap, you guys must have made a wrong turn…you’re a good three miles from us.
  • Steve: But the sun goes down in an hour, we’ll never find you.
  • Cash: Well, it looks like we a canoe…

So, we were stranded two hours from our camp, on the wrong side of the lake, with the sun setting and no hope of being able to hike there. Luckily, my buddies Cash and Eric hopped in the canoe, paddled due south across the lake, and picked us up.

Here’s a picture of the rescue mission taken by my friend Saint on shore:

sunset_rescue

I’m really thankful we had those walkie talkies and a canoe or we probably would have spent the night camped on the wrong side of the lake, with our friends assuming we’d been eaten by bears.

Moral of the Story: Think like a Rebel.  Whether it’s with your job, with a new fitness routine, or a decision made among friends in the middle of the woods at dark with a distinct possibility of becoming bear food, don’t be afraid to speak up if you’re concerned or want to make sure you’re doing the right thing.

Everybody else might be thinking the same thing but be afraid to say something too! 

We all assumed the other person knew the way to go, so we never bothered to check with each other to confirm. I was content with following the herd rather than asking “are we going the right way?”  It resulted in a 2-hour detour and almost sinking in a canoe with all of our gear.

Remember, we are Rebels. Sometimes when the herd is going one way, it might be YOUR responsibility to point out that everybody’s headed off the cliff.  Yeah, you might be the only one…that’s okay.

Halfway is still pretty damn awesome

Halfway up the mountain

As we were planning this trip, our plan was to do the big loop at Katahdin. Up Dudley Trail, across the famous Knife’s Edge, and down the Saddleback Trail.

We then learned that this takes at least 12 hours, and with 2.5 hours of hiking on either end to/from the campsite, that would be 17 hours of hiking in a single day…most of which would be through dense wilderness.

Not surprisingly, we decided this was an insurmountable task, and that we had to curb our expectations.

After an early morning rise, we hiked back out to our cars and decided to hike up the mountain as far as possible until the threat of darkness forced us to turn around.

We climbed with as much speed as our bodies would allow for close to 2.5 hours. We made it above the tree line, and realized we still had a LONG WAY to go to get to the top.

We never got to do Knife’s Edge.

We never made it to the summit.

The ONE goal I had for the weekend was to make it to the top, and we failed. Some of the guys in our group were bummed out – “if we could only get half way, why bother climbing at all?” they said.

I looked at it differently. Sure, we only made it halfway, but the view from halfway was freaking gorgeous, and it gave me a chance to find out what I was capable in that short amount of time.  We still had a fun adventure, we still got an incredible workout in, and we saw some amazing stuff.

photo_1

Moral of the Story: Halfway can still be awesome.  If you want to lose 100 pounds but only lose 50…YOU STILL LOST FIFTY POUNDS.  If you set out to run a marathon and have to give up halfway, YOU STILL RAN A HALF MARATHON.  If you can’t eat 100% Paleo, 50% is still WAY better than eating junk food.

Think about how far you came from doing nothing.  On top of that, you’ll learn a lot about what you’re capable of and how you can better prepare for the next attempt.

Halfway up a mountain is a million times better than not attempting to climb the mountain at all.

Disconnect occasionally

Joe Fire

As we arrived at Baxter State Park, cell phone reception disappeared and we were transplanted back to a time before smart phones.

Sigh, those were the days.

No tweets to check, no Facebook to update, no emails to answer, just eight dudes and the Maine Wilderness. Sitting around the campfire, we had no gadgets to keep us occupied, so we had to do the unthinkable: talk to each other.

Sure, most of the conversation was inappropriate and immature, but in between these moments there was some serious conversations to be had as well.

On our second night, one of my friends noticed that he had cell reception at our campsite, and within a few minutes the faces of all my friends were bathed in that eerie smartphone glow, as they quickly checked emails, sent texts, and made phone calls to girlfriends and wives (I considered calling my imaginary girlfriend, but we were in a fight at the time).

For a few minutes that bonding disappeared and each person became quickly absorbed in the four-inch screen in front of them.

Fortunately, everybody quickly realized that we should be spending our time enjoying the outdoors and each other’s company: we put our phones away and got back to playing a rousing game of Shoulders (my favorite rule? instead of starting with #1, you must sing the first two lines of Circle of Life).

Moral of the story: don’t be afraid to unplug.  Despite what Apple tells you, people are what matter, not gadgets.  When you are hanging out with friends, put your phone away.  If you are at dinner with somebody, stay present in the conversation.

It can help you be more productive too.  Put your phone in airplane mode at the gym.  Close the Gmail tab on your computer. Stop doing five things at once and instead focus on ONE thing.

Never leave your wingman

Tent Lookout

After too many rounds of Shoulders (and perhaps too much whiskey), a few of our friends had a rough morning and really struggled through the two and a half hour hike back to our cars.

Fortunately, we knew we couldn’t leave our wingmen, and we divvied up the gear from the dehydrated so that we could all make it back in one piece.

Yeah, it sucked carrying extra stuff, but we decided that we’d never leave our wingmen – we saw what could happen with a simple wrong turn, so we all stayed together and made sure everybody got to the car.

Moral of the Story: Never leave your wingman.  There’s a reason this is one of the Rules of the Rebellion. Take care of those around you – not because you expect the gesture to be reciprocated in the future, but because it’s the right thing to do.  This behavior is contagious…but so is apathy and selfishness.  Choose wisely.

We have a community full of supportive Rebels that are always willing to lend a hand.  We’d love to have you!

Do it for the story

Phil mountain top

I saw this tweet from a friend of mine that I absolutely loved:

Jeff Goins: “Don’t edit the stories you’re telling. Edit the life you’re living.”

The thought of camping in the woods without water or electricity didn’t sound like much fun to me. In fact, I was legitimately concerned and scared about the adventure.

I love having a bed, running water, and a Playstation 3.  But, I told myself that I had to practice what I preached here at Nerd Fitness, and that the stories that would result from the weekend would be well worth the temporary discomfort.

I certainly had moments of “I wish I was home” while on this adventure, but looking back, I’m so glad I did it.

I wanted to prove to myself that “roughing” it in the woods was something I could enjoy, not just endure. I wanted to live vicariously through myself.

Whether it was a trip to live like James Bond, biking down a mountainside in Peru, hiking through the Outback, or guest lecturing at Google, I tend to make as many decisions as possible based on one question:

Does this have the potential to give me a great story?

If the answer has a potential for YES, then I take the risk and roll the dice.

Moral of the story: Level up your life, and don’t be afraid to do something that scares you.  Adventure is out there, and great stories are waiting to be told…but it requires you to get off the couch.  Rather than learning to become a great story teller to make a boring life sound interesting, why not start doing interesting stuff?  The stories come much easier!

Watch this video about life and stories. If this doesn’t inspire you, nothing will:

A Story For Tomorrow Video

Failing is important part of leveling up

Tree Line Photo

I try to be an eternal optimist.  

Life is too damn short to spend time complaining about what could have been or wondering what could be. Instead, I do the best I can with what I have and where I am.

Yeah, I’m bummed I didn’t reach the peak of Katahdin.  I’m sad I didn’t get to scramble across the knife’s edge.  This blister still hurts, and these bug bites won’t stop itching.

I’m tired, worn out, and happy to be back in my bed.

But I’m also glad I got to spend time with friends I don’t get to see very often.

I’m glad I got to see a view of Maine from halfway up the highest peak in Maine. It was beautiful.

I’m glad I learned that it’s okay to fail at stuff, and that lessons can be learned from such things.

I’d love to hear from you:

What’s the last thing you failed at?  

What did you learn from it?

When’s the last time you did something for the story you’d get out of it?  Tell me that story!

-Steve

PS: Speaking of Epic Quest, I reached Level 11 the other day! Ding! I was at the World Domination Summit and took part in the World Float, in which we set the world record for “World’s Longest Floating Human Chain!”  An official from Guinness was on hand and everything!

On to Level 12!

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All photos were taken by my buddy Cash who is a much better photographer than I ever will be.  

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