Bring on Winter Mountains, the Last Home of Adventure

The essence of life - especially for the man striving to do great things and experience existence the way it's supposed to be, as a visceral arc of growth and exploration - is adventure.

Several hundred years ago most of the great adventurers were tied up exploring thick, warm jungles, sailing to and around desolate beaches, and discovering new islands and island chains. Thing is, after half a millennium of such exploration, most of the warm weather places have been explored, named, tagged, and settled. Thoroughly, in fact. Not to say there's no more adventure in jungles and beaches. But certainly the places that are still most removed from humanity, which feel most untouched by our foul modern world and all its appliances, are the mountains. And as such, those who live in them and play in them - and sometimes die in them - are some of the last great adventurers in the world.

Any jackass with a pith helmet and malaria vaccine - and ideally a high-powered weapon of some sort - can go tromping through the jungle and it's pretty damn easy to survive ad infinitum on a beach provided you have some basic knowledge of fishing and/or know how to crack a coconut. But mountains require special equipment and knowledge, not to mention an ability to conquer such rational fears as those of height, of falling, fear of hypothermia, fear of suffocation, and of course that doesn't even take into account the simple factor of exhaustion that overtakes all but the strongest of mortals should they try to climb the greatest undiscovered peaks. And let's not even discuss the idea that, should you get snowed in, where the fuck will you get food? You can always hunt in the jungle and ideally have some manual for picking berries and such. But what berries grow and/or animals live above the treeline, especially during a 10-day blizzard?

Still, even in the exploration of mountains the outside world is encroaching. Much of the North American mountains have been thoroughly explored and conquered - even mountains untouched as recently as a few years ago have been explored. And even Everest, while still extremely challenging, is about 5 years from putting in a gondola to at least base camp. But the conquest of mountains is still a noble quest, and the combination of mountaineering with skiing and snowboarding further blurs the lines between adventure expeditioning and sport.

As such, check out Sweetgrass' SOLITAIRE from last year. What it lacks in urban jibs and M83/hip-hop soundtrack it more than makes up for in soul, vistas, and life-affirming exploration far beyond the borders. Just a couple guys on tele and fixed skis, as well as snowboards, travelilng through the hinterlands of South America in search of something new, something inspiration, something daring to ride.

So as summer comes to a close, not only do we give one last look to the boys of the South American winter but we also can now look forward to, maybe, please God, having some decent snow this winter.

Happy Friday.

- Ryan