Why Do We Need Challenges?
“Life is not that complicated. You get up, you go to work, eat three meals, you take one good shit and you go back to bed. What’s the fucking mystery?!”
Enter Walter Bailey, The Hardest Climb of My Life
My back was cooking like clay in a kiln. Our goal was to be at the top of the route by 9 am; before Devil’s Tower reached the estimated 97 degree temperature for the day. But through a combination of my partner forgetting gear in the car and me taking 3 times as long to climb the route, it was now noon and I was 50 ft below the finish — getting cooked.
The only thing I had eaten all day was a Cliff bar and my tongue was so dry it felt like I had swallowed a moth.
I climbed 10 ft above my last piece of gear, felt my foot slip and began falling. My ankle got caught in the crack as I dropped and pain shot up my leg. I cursed the rock and wanted to quit. Unfortunately, I had climbed past the halfway point on my rope, so with no way down, I jammed my injured foot back into the crack, and finished the route.
Tying in my safety knot at the top of the climb, I still had to belay my partner up, navigate three rappels, and hike back to my car. When all was said and done, I drove to the Devil’s Tower gift shop, got a root beer float and sat in total bliss, as overweight, tourists in khaki shorts shot weird glances at me.
So why climb?
A lot of people call climbing a selfish activity. When compared to a job like building a social enterprise or doing medical research— it is. But, the process of challenging myself helps me become a better person in everything I do.
Overall, life for me isn’t that hard. I can afford healthy food, a comfortable night’s sleep, and have time left over to exercise, socialize and watch Game of Thrones. Despite my good fortune, there are nights where I can’t sleep. Questions run through my head, most of which boil down to what’s my purpose? For me one of the best ways to quiet this noise is to find challenge.
Achievable challenges pull my thoughts away from the unknown and into the present. And when I accomplish them (or come close), I’m left feeling satisfied and wiser.
Biologically were just a bunch of over evolved monkeys. We developed a brain (as our species began eating energy rich meats) in order to survive, but now for many of us, our brain does the opposite. Challenges like climbing help me feel like I’m progressing somewhere, or at the very least require the kind of effort that keeps me present and happy.
