Quote:
Originally Posted by booter
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this kind of ego is so silly to me, the mountains dont care about you and it'll get you killed one day. maybe ask yourself why you feel this way
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No need to ask, I am ultra competitive in anything physical. Always have been. I think it goes back to being a little kid and having my dad constantly ingrain in my head that if I was doing some physical activity, I had to be the best. This expanded into training 6 hours a day over the summer as a kid doing martial arts, wrapping ourselves in trash bags and running laps around the park in the summer with some kids getting heat stroke. Or how my dad rigged a cup of water with straps around my head to make sure my form and head movement was perfect when doing forms. I was one of the only kids who sparred adults, and nothing like taking a full on kick from an angry 35yr old man who you as a 10 year old kid just kicked in the head to make the hits from other kids feel like pillows
So I know how I am and why I am like that. Would I want it any other way? Probably not, it’s 90% of what keeps me going. I don’t think I would even continue to exercise at all if I wasn’t comparing myself to others. Just like how when I played mmorpg’s, my entire focus was getting better gear to be able to kill other players better. Then when rated pvp came out, I had to be the highest rated team on the server
Nature vs nurture, and I guess nurture won
This hike, while labeled “extremely difficult” is far from alpine hike difficult. It has at any time on a weekend close to 150+ people on it. There are spots where a clump of 10ish people all get bottlenecked waiting for someone’s kid to get over one of the only spots to continue on
This means that there is near-guaranteed to be someone around if someone needed help. I have reported various things like injuries and heat stroke to the park rangers at the base probably about 10 different times throughout the years. I have also given my extra water I bring away to people who asked dozens of times as well
If I had to guess as to how many times I have done this hike…well 104 weekends in a year, with 2-3 times per weekend hiking it, for the past 8ish years = somewhere between 1,664 to 2,496 times. I am convinced that I have done it so much that I have literally stepped in the exact same spots the entire entire way up and down in previous trips
Why do I keep doing it? Wouldn’t that get boring? For me the benefits are:
- it’s very close to my home, only a 15 min drive
- it’s steep enough to be a good workout still
- relatively short, not time consuming, I can get to the summit in 25 minutes and about 45mins down (I never haul down), so roughly a little over an hour total time
- I like to have people to compete against around and I like to be seen. I always perform better when people are watching. And this hike is considered the most popular in the entire state
I am also not alone, nor am I the best. There are a few regulars who I refer to as the “mountaineers” who are cardio machines who I have never beat. And there used to even be a “leaderboard” website of crazy summit times, with the fastest I think being something ridiculous like 14 minutes to the summit, which would be running the entire way (considering some spots are so steep they have railings not sure how this is even possible). Although I am faster than 99% of other climbers
Also, considering my balance is such that I have never fallen in years unless literally drugged, not worried about it
Would I behave the exact same on one of your alpine hikes? Hellllll no
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