Who doesn't like a good hike?
Every now and then I get an itching to get outdoors. I almost develop a little melancholy if I’ve not had a good walk with mates.
With family and business life, taking time out with mates to walk and talk can be difficult. There’s a lot of responsibility with being a Dad, a husband, and a business owner that weighs on your mind. Did I handle that situation right? Am I spoiling the kids? Am I giving enough attention to my wife? Am I spending too much time working? How do I get more sales? What’s the next big product launch? Why does everyone else on the internet look so successful? Yadda yadda.
Depending on the group size depends on what we talk about, unless you split off into smaller groups. I find one-on-one splinter groups are where you talk about real life, the serious stuff. Otherwise, I'll be honest, it's usually about football, fantasy premier league, our wives, our kids, movies and sometimes politics (which covers everything). There's sometimes disagreements in how we perceive something, but usually there's a lot of nostalgia and laughter. I count myself lucky in having a solid group of friends, some that I've known since I was literally born, others from 5 years old, and the rest from around the age of 11. At the the time of writing this I'm 45, and they are still my main group of friends. I wouldn't have it any other way.
I'll write about my friend group another time as they have played a bigger role in my life than they probably realise.
Back to a good hike.
Now I like walks too, we sometimes up to 8-10 miles on a Saturday morning. Start around 7am, get home for about 10:30am-ish. Usually local to where we live. These are good to just get out and catch up but they usually come with a caveat of being home by a certain time because something else is going on or something needs to be done.
A hike on the other hand...takes up a bigger part of the day, maybe a weekend. They are the best. You get to spend enough time to talk through all the funny but small talk stuff. Spending longer with friends gives you more time to have conversations or find out a little more about each other than you'd normally get. This, to me, is when those stronger bonds are formed. Lived experiences - shared together. Remembered.
As of today, I've done a few day hikes up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis (twice), Striding Edge, and the best adventure I've ever had in my life, Everest Base Camp.
All gave me something to remember. Two gave me something to live by. Confidence and Resilience.
Cutting longs stories short, my first summit of Ben Nevis was going really well until about 4/5 of the way up, then I just felt my groin start to hurt. It hurt to the point where I was effectively dragging my right leg. I couldn't lift it. I remember my mate slowing right down to stick with me. I was never going to stop. Getting to the summit of Ben Nevis is not easy, but it's not that hard either if you take your time and wear the right gear. But the pain in my groin at every lift of the leg was teeth grinding. At least it felt like it anyway. And as we got to the summit, we rested, we got to the trig point and one of the lads said "We're officially the highest people in the UK" - that blew my mind for some reason. It was almost like a medal for the achievement. Coming back down was so much easier.
For the Everest Base Camp, again, this deserves more than a paragraph but I'll leave it for another time, it was more about perseverance, camaraderie, adventure. I'd never been away from my family for 17 days. The thought in the back of my head of my first long haul flight into Kathmandu, the world's most dangerous flight to our starting point in Lukla and the potential dangers of altitude sickness made it very real to me. Preparing for the worst - making sure my insurance covered death and repatriation, leaving my wedding ring with my wife, posting letters to my wife and boys for them to receive and open when I was in Nepal - meant that I was actually doing this for me, not anyone else. It felt very selfish in a way, but it's bloody Everest Base Camp man...I can't miss out on an opportunity like that with one of my best friends.
This was a life affirming trip for me - that gave additional meaning to a life that had suffered a lot of losses, this was another big win. Completing it was inevitable. Every day was amazing. The hardship of those living in the hills of the Himalaya's is something we never experience. We are very lucky and it was very humbling. I'll write more about EBC another time but it was the most life changing thing I have ever done - not including kids and marriage!
So, if my ramblings have made any sense and you're still actually here, then I wholeheartedly recommend you gather some of your closest friends, plan a hike and spend a day together. Right each others wrongs. Laugh at things you really shouldn't. Ask questions deeper than you normally would. You won't regret it.
Take it easy,
P.S. I'm no writer, so apologies if my grammar is atrocious but I'll try to improve. I'm trying not to use our AI overlords to correct my mistakes. I want, at least for these more personal blogs articles, for the words to flow straight out of my fingertips as I think of them. These are less about a structured, planned article and more of an outpouring of my thoughts, memories and consciousness.
