Stay on Offense Climb Mountains

Attacking Adversity

Go Hiking Early

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Frankly I did not want to write about this. I thought I would bury it somewhere deep in these posts. Why? Because it is a secret. It is the secret to a great hike.

Solitude

People are expected at the mall or on busy streets in downtown. Not on top of a mountain. I am writing this a few weeks after several climbers were killed on Mt Everest while waiting in line to summit. That is not right. It should not have happened. When you go hiking up your local mountain you are usually not faced with life and death situations, but that is still no reason to put up with people. The fewer the better.

When you are the first one on top of the mountain, it is quiet. You can hear God whisper. It is just you and nature. No distracting sounds of peoples voices.

Best Photographs

Do you like the picture I took in the Grand Cayon? I took that early too! You also can stand anywhere you want and get the best photographs. Who wants someone standing on top and there is no room for you? Who wants someone else in their photograph? You can choose where to stand and choose what scenery looks best without having to consider the crowd.

I have done commercials for products on top of a mountain. I couldn’t have taken those videos if there were people mulling around.

The Reality

You might ask yourself, “How can it be that bad?” Oh, it is bad. How do I know? It is because I count people coming up the mountain as I am going down. When I get to around twenty I stop counting. Those summits must be crawling with people. And then once I get back down to the trailhead there are no parking spots left. People are parked illegally.

The only way to avoid this nightmare is to get up very early. How early? Early enough so that you begin your hike at least an hour before sunrise. At least. Two hours is ideal. So go hiking early!

Bookish Weapon Number Seven

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In his excellent book, “The Miracle Equation,” Hal Elrod devotes an entire chapter on my favorite idea from his book. That is a lot of space so this post may be a little longer than others. Let’s take a closer look at his chapter four – Becoming Emotionally Invincible.”

“How is that even possible,” I thought, as I read the title to this chapter. Who has that kind of Superman power? According to Elrod, we all do, but he certainly has developed it in a way others have not.

The Miracle Equation, review by Bill Montgomery

The Miracle Equation, review by Bill Montgomery

It’s All Your Fault

The way I see it is, at the core, we are talking about personal responsibility here. Elrod makes a statement that is worth quoting. Actually he makes a lot of them and I will be quoting and quoting and quoting. Here is the first. “Every painful emotion the you have ever felt, are feeling now, and will ever feel in the future was, is, and will be self-created by you and is completely optional.” That last part is tough. Optional? You feel what you feel don’t you?

Hal says that we all “have the power to stop self-creating negative emotions and live free from emotional pain…that is what it means to be become emotionally invincible.”

Rules

Have you read, “The Five Second Rule,” written by Mel Robbins? Good book. You should read it, but it is not the rule we will be discussing here. There are lots of rules. Sometimes it is hard to keep them all straight.

Hal Elrod’s rule is the five minute rule. He says he came up with this rule after a car accident as he lay in his hospital bed. The light bulb moment was that he made a decision to accept his new reality unconditionally and it only took him five minutes to come to this acceptance. Then he remembered the five minute rule his old boss had taught him that states the you can complain for five minutes about something that went wrong, but that’s it.

So the idea is when something happens like breaking your leg. You can bitch and moan for five minutes and then you need to accept the reality of it. Hal’s boss said the when the five minutes were up you needed to say, “Can’t change it” out loud. Isn’t that powerful? How many times has something happened to you that you had no control over changing and you got all upset for hours? Days? Months? This is a wake up call for all of us.

Let It Go

You are gong to have positive and negative emotions your whole life. Any tools you can muster to manage the negative ones helps you. This is a bookish weapon the helps you stay on offense.

Hal says, “..”all emotional pain that we have ever experienced, are experiencing now, or will ever experience in the future is self created by our resistance to our reality.” He goes on to say, “…it is the degree to which we resist our reality-the degree to which we wish or want something that is out of our control to be different-that determines the degree of emotional pain we experience.”

The idea is to let it go. You don’t have to like it, but let it go. Besides, you have probably heard a version of the story about the farmer who had something unfortunate happen to him and is told by his friends that this is so bad. It turns out in the story the it was actually good. Then something else would happen that looked good and it turned out to lead to something bad. Hal says, “You can’t accurately judge an experience as “good” or “bad” in the moment.”

Hal asks how we can tell if something is out of our control and can’t be changed. It is anything that has already happened. So he says to accept life before it happens. Not just what has happened, but what will happen. Now when are you going to start using this?

Bookish Weapon Number Six

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Eric Greitens book, “Resilience,” was one of the very best books I had ever read on the subject when it was published in 2015. Please read it if you are struggling in life. Once again, this book has so many bookish weapons in it choosing just one is difficult. However, there is a concept discussed that when understood gives the reader a powerful weapon.

Resilience, review by Bill Montgomery

Resilience, review by Bill Montgomery

Feelings, Action, Identity

Everyone talks about how they are feeling. I feel sad, angry, hurt, etc. Greitens points out that in our culture we focus on our feelings first. Then those feelings lead to action. We get angry so we yell at someone. We are hurt so we isolate ourselves. That shapes our identity and we become someone that yells at people, gets angry easily or avoids relationships.

Greitens says this is the wrong way to look at it. Putting feelings first gets us in trouble. Feelings are always going to be there. We just need to put them in their proper place.

Identity, Action, Feelings

Instead of focusing on what you are feeling, ask yourself who you want to be. Then you take action based on that. The action will impact the way you feel. “Your emotions can be harnessed and your feelings trained.”

Greitens discusses Plato’s horses and chariot story where the horses represent our emotions so if we allow emotions to take over they run wild.

It Isn’t Easy

What a great bookish weapon this concept is for us. It is not easy, however. Greitens says, “This all takes daily attention. You never win an award for mastering emotions and call it a day.” He goes on to say, “Decide who you want to be. Act that way. In time you will become the person you resolve to be.”

Wise advice! This book is filed with so much and I certainly recommend you read it. My look at one or two ideas from a book is not meant to be a review, but just a quick look.

Go Hiking Every Week

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Most hikers, even avid hikers, don’t climb a mountain every week. At most they might hike once every couple weeks. That isn’t too bad if you are hiking all year long, but let’s consider the advantages of weekly hiking.

Climb More Mountains

This is pretty obvious. If you are going every week you can climb more in less time. There are so many mountains here in the Picnic Northwest that it is hard to exhaust them.

Enter the hypocrite. Even though I go hiking every week from March through September I do not climb different mountains. I have my favorites and keep gong back to those over and over and over again. Especially in March, April and May when I climb Mt Si again and again.

Your Legs Will Thank You

Consistent weekly hiking will build your legs and lungs. If you wait too long between hikes your legs are going to be sore constantly. It builds your endurance. Your ability to exercise for long periods of time so then you are ready for anything, even the Zombie Apocalypse.

This is an appropriate time to advocate for a little self care. Please, after your hike be sure to use a foam roller on your legs as well as stretching them. This may seem common sense but it is not. In fact, an epsom salt bath or ice bath can help early in the season when your legs have not adapted.

It Becomes A Habit

Now I have to admit that when hiking day rolls around I don’t always “feel” like going. Maybe it is raining. Maybe it’s snowing. It is probably cold. However, going weekly establishes a habit. Then of course you need to establish some “rules” for yourself. Mine are always begin the hike before sunrise, go hiking no matter what the weather happens to be, and always time yourself.

Maybe I should qualify that last rule. Yes, always time yourself, because you want to get better and to get better you have to measure your progress. However, there may be a day on the trail when you want to stop and take a picture or you just decide to take it a little easy. That’s ok. I approve! Now, go hiking every week!

Go Hiking In The Snow

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When the season changes and it snows or the snow just hasn’t melted off the mountain yet you need to know how to handle it. It mainly comes down to gear and staying away from areas that are avalanche prone. So this piece is for those that have never hiked in the snow before.

Snow Gear

It can be dangerous if you so not have the right gear. First of all you need hiking boots. This should be obvious, but unfortunately it is not. I see people in tennis shoes all the time, yes, even in the snow. A friend of mine climbed to Camp Muir on Rainier in his Gucci boots. Yes, that happened!

Then you need some kind of traction device for your boots. There are three. First Yaktrax, which are the minimum necessary. They consist of rubber and wire and are the least expensive. You pull them over your boots. The next choice is Microspikes. These are similar to Yaktrax but have tiny spikes which give you much better traction and they las much longer than Yaktrax. Finally, you could get a set of crampons but that is probably not necessary unless you are climbing a mountain like Rainier.

Be sure to dress in layers so that you can peel them off. It is easy to overdress, get wet from sweat and then get cold quick.

So there you have it. All you need to enjoy the snow. However, some of you might decide to cut corners or just forget to bring something.

Quick Story

I climb Mt Si every week from March through May. There is usually still snow and ice on the mountain in March, but it is not an avalanche area and pretty safe. That is why I stay with it for three months until the snow melts elsewhere.

Last year I headed out the door with what I thought was all my gear, but I had forgotten my Microsipkes. I did not realize I didn’t have them until I reached the trailhead. So do I just go home or see how far I can go. The snow was not significant so I thought I would give it a shot. Going up was pretty easy. Keep that in mind. I knew this already, but it was so easy going up. Once I started down I felt pretty smug. I had gotten to the top without any traction. Then suddenly, I slipped, my feet went out from under me and I went down. As I always do (yes I have fallen before), I laid there for a few minutes to see if I had broken anything. As it turned out I broke a rib. So the moral to the story is make sure you have a check list of items to bring with you ad use it.

Life and Going Hiking In The Snow

So it is pretty easy to apply this to life. If you do not have the right tools to do a job then it either won’t get done as quickly, as well, or it will end in disaster. Be prepared! As Jocko Willink says, “One is none and two is one.” I take two head lamps on every hike, because I begin hiking before sunrise and don’t want to run out of batteries in the middle of a dark mountain.

It is also a good example of preparation matching the challenge. If you are going hiking in the snow then you need to be more prepared than when it is dry ground. There are gradients of preparation too. If it is raining you have to demonstrate more caution when negotiating slippery areas. So keep all this mind when you face challenges and of course go hiking!

Go Hiking-It Teaches You About Life

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There are so many things about hiking that are lessons in life. There is the preparation, the physical conditioning, having a destination, new trails and old trails, and false summits, just to name a few.

Today however I want to discuss something that is ever present on a mountain. People ask you if there are a lot of them or not. They sort of worry about them, but when you go hiking you are gong to find them in abundance. I am talking about switchbacks.

Switchbacks And Life

Whenever I go hiking there are trees which are beautiful, rocks that sometimes beat you up, sky to look at along with the occasional sunrise, and then there are switchbacks. Switchbacks are like life in so many ways so I thought I would shake that branch and see what falls out.

You have heard of switchbacks, right? A switchback is the name given to the trail when it goes in one direction and then “switches” back in the other direction. I guess that is the first characteristic of a switchback. It goes one way and then another. Does that ever happen in life? Of course it does.

Direction In Life And When You Go Hiking

It is important to know your destination when you go hiking. Switchbacks might take you in different directions, but you always know your destination and you trust the path you’re on in life. Sometimes life, just like a switchback takes you in one direction for a long time and you wonder if it will ever come to an end. Then it goes in another direction. Wait, you were getting used to this and had almost mastered it and now it is switching on you. What I have realized is that changing direction is ok as long as you keep the end in mind. Switchbacks have a purpose and that is to make the hike easier. Yes, that’s right. Instead of going straight up the mountain you switch back and forth. Oh, and switchbacks change vertically too.

What if it is steep! A steep switchback is really tough, but then sometimes switchbacks are flat (for a short time) and yes, sometimes they go down for a bit. But a steep switchback, just like a tough stretch in life makes you stronger. Pretty soon you look forward to the challenge as you do when you become more competent in life.

Here’s to switchbacks and all their glory! Now, go hiking!