🧙♂️ GETTING TO THE TOP OF SOMETHING is all very well. The view can be nice, great, even…
But then you have to go down the other side (or the way you came), unless you want to finish your days withering away on a mountain top (in our case). Why bother?
In the ‘Why?’ section of the Lakeland Chronicles, I talk about why I created the site, why I chose the Lake District as my topic, and even why I photograph and write about this stuff at all.
What I didn’t discuss was: “Why climb a mountain?” After all, there’s nothing to do at the top but go back down again, after the obligatory selfie and the odd panorama or two. Major déjà vu. What’s the point?
Why do we head for the giddy heights only to descend inevitably to grim reality once again?
Don’t we risk regretting our miserable little lives even more having tasted greatness (or at least highness)? Will we be thinking about that mountain top attained when we are doing someone else’s dirty work or checking tax returns or emptying the bins?
These questions have been discussed and pondered countless times, of course, so are even they worth discussing and pondering? Well, I’d say “Yes, absolutely!” as I type, because they seem quite intriguing to me. It’s me doing the pondering and I’m enjoying it, and that’s all that’s necessary and all there is to it.
You could also argue that if we’re supposed to be undertaking these climbs for some particular reason, such as being the first or the fastest or the youngest or the oldest or the stupidest or the corniest, then that’s also a bit of a lost cause.
Unless you invent a truly ridiculous category, like First expat Brit living in France who publishes a photo of Paris and writes about it every day to climb Helvellyn”, and proceed to convince people it’s worth even considering a category, there’s little chance you’ll be the first, fastest, fittest, fattest or funniest person to conquer any given peak these days.
Which brings us to what is still probably the most concise and truest, if rather irritating answer for why climb any given mountain: because it’s there.
What that really means is, we humans love a challenge. And one of our favourites is seeing if we, personally, yes, little old us, can get to the top of something we haven’t been to the top of before. Because when we do, however pointless it may seem, it feels really good, which ends up being the point, even if we have no idea why.
If the view’s breathtaking and we get some stunning shots to immortalise our achievement, so much the better. So, we just do it (because, you know…)…
Look! There it is => 
(Goodness, is that the time? 
I really must be off!)
The Laggard of Lakeland 
(Lakeland Chronicles No.8)
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Wainwright Log: 2 of 214 Fells Conquered / Zero Books Completed / Visit Log
