"There Are Many Different Kinds Of Mountains In One's Life..."

Some think that Tunnel Mountain at our Banff, Canada town site, really doesn't deserve to be called a 'mountain'...

It certainly shouldn't be seen as any kind of summit either, many serious climbers would say...

Quite a few summers ago... during a very early morning training session, I was to learn to see this summit of sorts very differently...

It had misted during the night. One of those fine rains that touches everything, but was not heavy enough so the moisture up in the trees all falls to the ground.

It was quiet and it was very early... with just enough first light to see the well used trail up to the top of Tunnel Mountain... I made good time slowly jogging up and was now walking quietly and quickly down when I met two other early starters...

This patient father was making his way with his young daughter up along the easy grade of this mountain trail... We spoke briefly, and I could see it was going to take a long time for them to reach their goal...

"We are going all the way, aren't we," the father said to his daughter, who looked up with that innocent friendliness that many challenged persons have... "It will be her first mountain", dad said so proudly...

Then they carried on... the father guiding... the daughter walking back and forth... often distracted by the many sights, noises, and wonderments we mostly overlook on a typical well used trail...

I have no doubt they made their summit that day on Tunnel Mountain...

It would have been a long one going up, and even longer coming down... As challenging as any I have been out on... I sense they may have appreciated it more too than many other climbers out that same day, on any of the surrounding, much higher, more rugged Rocky Mountain peaks...

We all have our own mountains to climb, and our own summits to reach...

And yes, that little rocky point in Banff, is indeed a Mountain as that challenged young person and her dad taught me that day.......

DSD

"Dawning Of The North..."

The Aurora Borealis, also known by many as the 'Dawning of the North', is one of many mysterious wonders of our wild places...

Aboriginal Peoples have believed these swirling apparitions to be travelling spirits... drifting across the winter sky... Spirits who entice us with their beauty and their tales, while drawing us further and further north... They are said to inspire us to watch endlessly as their stories unfold...

While silent, you would swear on occasion that a crackling of sorts can be heard on the most quiet of nights out there during this dawning of the northlands...

Some say the breaking of the spring and this contrast of cold and sun brings out the most vivid of these swirling images... The darkest nights seem best for these dancing lights and perceiving their intense colors...

When I stand quietly out here and turn my eyes to the sky in the dark... I remember...

These mystical lights while deep winter camping among our frozen northern lakes; when snowshoeing in the calm of a cold late night; while dog sledding down a snow bound valley; and when seeing images of animals, like birds, wolves, and bears, dancing with one another across the fabric of an old canvass tent as I stayed up almost all night... for no other reason than because I could... so I could muse for hours while feeding and watching that small stove fire...

Our more scientific colleagues would describe these phenomenon as the collision of moving electrons, molecules, atoms, and other particles in the coldest winter air...

Still others believe that further elements are in play among these visions of mysterious colors, movement, and perception... And that is what I believe too, in this dawning of our north.....

DSD

"There Is More Within You....."

Five seemingly simple words.......

But as with many adventure truths, and wild place paradoxes, such apparently simple concepts have endless depths of meaning within them...

As I look in the mirror after an especially challenging training period, on course to a goal I have not tried to repeat in over fifteen years; and after a season of setbacks, distractions & doubts - I am beginning to see these words yet again through another set of eyes...

I reflect back upon the first time an Outward Bound Instructor said this to me on my very first rock climb; then said it again, as I went back to do the same climb... blindfolded...

This saying was also stated before my very first solo; and during the first few steps of the long run back to camp... I watched as this simple mantra was repeated for so many other Outward Bound students; and then observed their joy and exhilaration in finding their own truth of it...

Since then these same words have resonated with me time and time again...

I have listened for their echo in valleys before some of my most difficult climbs... They have been whispered to me over and over again on solo's, during long distance treks, when sea kayaking out among the greater ocean waves, through the forests and old trees while still moving long after sunset, and among the beats of my heart while it sounded so loudly up at altitude... These words keep calling their meaning out.....

This mantra has returned in my mind too at just those moments when I seemed to feel there was little left to draw upon... And then I sensed them being shared with me again...

There was one mountain in particular, where after two unsuccessful summit attempts, and with more than a thousand feet to go on the third try, that Outward Bound Instructors' voice was there just when the impetus was most needed...

There IS more within you...

There is MORE within you...

There is more WITHIN you...

There is more within YOU.....

Each time the emphasis became more focused, more personal... On that day, when finally upon that elusive summit, that Outward Bound mentors creed was proven true yet again...

There is indeed more within each of us... We only need to hear with our third ear; listen more closely... Really see the meanings hidden there... And embrace that truth as it supports us...

There is much about adventures that inherently arrange those challenging elements before us, that we each need to push limits outward somewhat farther; and grow inwards a bit deeper...

These 'simple' words have been such a gift... A present I have mused much over, and often write about here. They have reverberated through adventure tests and trials not just of avocation, but of vocation, of family, of issues both worried and very real...

So when you gaze at yourself in that mirror dear friends... in that compass before a long trek, in the reflection on that lake before a distance paddle, in the crystals of snow and ice during first light of your next climb...

Know the truth of there being more to be found within you as well.......

DSD