ABOUT ADVENTURE AND RISK
We live in a world where more and more people are looking for adventure every day. And why? As humans, we were nomads for tens of thousands of years.
We struggled to find food to avoid being killed by predators and natural disasters. We were on the road for days to find clean water.
Today we live in cities, drive our cars; if we need something to eat, all we have to do is open the fridge. In a few centuries, our society has developed so fast that the only way to experience similar feelings as in the past is to have some kind of adventure.
I think that's great. Just spending some time in the great outdoors and looking at the beautiful nature could improve everyone's life. We are always in a hurry, sometimes without thinking about what we are doing, and we often forget to take a break and just see how beautiful this world is. That's why I'm really glad that more and more people are doing outdoor activities. But please, don't call them adventures.
Today, millions of climbers train on indoor walls and perhaps climb in climbing gardens at weekends; some travel to South Africa or Australia to go bouldering, children and adults go to adventure parks where they climb rope ladders, cross Tibetan bridges or jump from a dam attached to a long rubber band. They want to test their courage, experience the thrill, go to their limits. But without any real risk and with every possible insurance.
Today it is possible to climb Mount Everest without even being able to climb. Of course you have to be fit, but you have fixed ropes, well-trodden paths, camps ready for you. That's not adventure, that's tourism. It's much more adventurous to explore a 2000 m peak without trails and outside help.
I try to make my life as adventurous as possible. And adventure for me goes hand in hand with the concept of exposure. If you climb in a crag close to home, you have little exposure, but if you climb the same pitch in the middle of a wall where you are alone, you have much more exposure. Exposure means that the consequences of an accident are greater. If you break your leg on a ski slope, you can be rescued quickly, but if you are in a remote couloir in the middle of the Alps, it is a bigger problem.
This does not mean that I take unnecessary risks, but once I take a risk, I am fully responsible for my actions and accept their consequences. I think that is the highest freedom we can experience.
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