Outdoor Recreation Skills:
I was lucky enough to be introduced to the outdoors at a young age, exploring the Sierra Nevada’s hidden lakes, streams, mountains, and rivers in any and all of my families free time. As the years passed by the great-outdoors continued to grow into a large part of my personal identity. With this beginning foundation, I began broadening my recreational activities from hiking and exploring to mountain biking, fly fishing, backpacking, canoeing, and so much more. While I didn’t plan on becoming versed in so many different outdoor activities, I found that as time went on that I had built and was building a large set out outdoor recreational activity skills. More than the skills I have had the time to acquire, I believe one of my biggest skills in outdoor recreation (and beyond) is my ability to pick up new activities at a quick pass. I am either all in or out. I find this mindset allows me to happily dedicate time and energy into learning new practices at close to my full potential rather than only being able to dedicate a small amount of energy toward the activity at hand. I personally strive to put in quality of work rather than quantity of work, and believe that this allows me to quickly take up knew activities at a swift rate.
While being able to stay focused and critically look at what I need to improve when it comes to practicing outdoor skills I view as a valuable trait, I have recently become aware of another attribute that I believe aids me in my outdoor skills. After years of climbing, mountain biking, distance running, and pushing myself to my personal limit I have been able to observe myself struggle, push, and suffer my way into learning new outdoor skills. As I continue to pick up more hobbies professional outdoor recreation activities I get to witness myself do this again and again. One thing that all of these activities seem to have in common yet is painfully counterinstictual is the ability to stay calm in stressful/exhausting situations. It’s a counterintuitive mindset that can only last so long when at our limits but over time I believe I have been able to increase the my ability to stay in this headspace. While I have begun to notice that I have been able to subconsciously train myself to stay “calm”, I don’t mean to say that I have this skill completely dialed, but rather that I am a beginner who has just become aware of its usefulness. The ability to view being under a kayak in a rapid and run out on a rock climb as the same thing has allowed me to take the skills that I have spent years learning and implement them in seemingly new activities. With this, I feel I don’t have to start from zero when focusing on new objectives, I can rather build upon countless hours of time spent in like fields. I don’t have an opinion on how helpful or accurate this consideration is in picking up new and honing current skills, but I believe that it definitely is playing a factor in my recreational activities. Lastly, I see this paragraph as an easy topic to write about in a hypothetical sense, but rather the ability to perform in this headspace to be one of the hardest things I have spent time observing and learning.
I find these two qualities are what often what drive and inhibit me in my personal endeavours. While be comfortable and at home in the outdoors has given me the opportunity to partake in many outdoor activities, I also have observed myself allowing it to be an preventable struggle in my pursuits in outdoor recreation. I often find that I struggle being a beginner in new activities. My ability to have to switch from being versed to being a rookie in the outdoor field I often don’t take easily. I find myself dedicating time into learning more about/becoming better at certain new sports simply to become “more proficient” at them rather than simply enjoying the activity for what it is at any level. I then find myself realizing this, getting a bit frustrated at my driving intentions, slowing down, then flipping back to being irritated at a lack of progress. The more time I have had to observe myself in this cycle, the more versed I have become in allowing it to simply be part of the learning process rather than a outlying error. While I am sure that my inability to want to start from the bottom causes some undo headache, I do also hold a curiosity in what value it may bring in my determination to become proficient in my endeavours.
Outdoor Recreation Career:
I’d now like to term away from the fun of activities and point my scope at where and how I see myself pursuing my goals in an outdoor recreation profession. For years I have spent every free hour of my life dedicated to being outside and active. The more outdoor recreation I infused into my life the more it became a key part of who I am. With this thought comes one of my concerns in my pursuit of an outdoor recreation career. It’s often thought that if one allows there hobbies to become their work it no longer becomes a hobby at all but rather a job. Parallely, you could choose to believe that if you make your work your passion you will “never”truly have to work. I personally struggle with these two trains of thought often and wonder how and if monitiving it my passions will change how I view them. I often find myself coming to terms with either view point, and rather than making up my mind hope to pursue a career with an open mind for whatever changes or lack of come my way. If it came down to being stressed and worn out in a cubicle or the mountains I’d take the mountains any day.
I’ll finish up with a more heartening look into my strengths when it comes to pursuing an outdoor recreation career. First off, I know that I have the passion and confidence to make what I want a reality. This confidence comes from months if not years of wavering between my skill when it came to pen, paper, and textbooks and my pure love for the outdoors. I believe that if I had the ability to drag myself away from a secure track and a STEM degree into that of entrepreneurship and irregularity that I can continue to swim my way forward.
Skill Development
Snow:
- Beginning the semester, I was lucky enough to have already spent many days traveling in the winter backcountry and felt fairly well acquainted with the basics of snow travel. While, the ideas of staying warm, a bit of type two fun, and beautiful sights weren’t firsts for me this semester, what was truly new was learning how to recreate and not just survive in the winter backcountry. I entered the ORL program with only a few random ski days as a kid under my belt. With little knowledge on ski travel, I definitely felt rusty/unprepared entering the semester, but surprised myself with how fast I began to pick up and like the sport.
Cross Country Skiing
- Overall, cross country skiing quickly felt “comfortable uncomfortable”. My ability to travel most moderate terrain in the backcountry with cross country skis I feel is adequate for most cross skiing activities. The one thing that I would like to improve with XC skiing is my overall comfort. Despite not often falling, I often find myself with an insecure feeling more often than I like when encountering specific moves/turns on xc skis.
Backcountry Skiing
- Starting off I felt like I knew little to nothing when it came to downhill skiing, but I quickly found that I knew more than what I first expected. My physical skills were definitely lacking, but where I felt comfort was in the mental side of skiing. After spending years climbing, the feeling of having to keep a clear head even when you find yourself struggling while difficult didn’t feel foreign, and I found that the fear factor in skiing was less than I had expected. I enjoyed being a beginner at a outdoor sport this semester, and found that after nearly twenty five days of skiing that my skills have greatly improved. I had the pleasure of skiing Eureka Peak from the summit down the southeast face a few days ago, and I can remember thinking the first day I saw Eureka Peak that I’d be happy if I could ever ski a face that looked like it. Funny how perspectives change so quickly. I look forward to the amount of progress that I still have to make in terms of skiing, and now view it as my 2nd favorite recreation activity only to climbing.
Avalanche Safety
- With little previous avalanche knowledge, I believe that I greatly increased my knowledge in terms of backcountry snow safety this semester. While physical observation tools are great and I do believe that they are something to always practice, I personally believe that I gained the most when it came to avalanche and snow safety when it came to handling the psychological side of the matter.
- The principles that were introduced in the avalanche course surrounding decision making, planning, and group dynamics I found to be incredibly useful and something that I can always fall back on when in difficult situations. While the concept of sticking to a plan, surrounding yourself with people you trust, and making sure everyone has a voice are things that I have always tried to perfect in the backcountry, I feel that the ability to give names and direct definitions to these philosophies allows them to carry more weight. Which gives the follower more ability to use in them when the situation arises.
Whitewater
- With the start of the semester my whitewater experience was similar to that of my skiing. I grew up rafting class II-III rapids, but had never had to grab the guide paddle or make critical decisions. I definitely had the most reservations/curiosities when it came to whitewater sports than anything else that we had scheduled for the spring semester. Besides being a descent swimmer and surfing in Santa Cruz for a semester, any advanced whitewater knowledge was above me. Since then I believe the two areas that I have grown the most in whitewater sports are in my ability to be confident in whitewater and enjoying the sport more than I had previously thought I would. In terms of confidence, I believe the teaching method that most helped me was the sheer volume of whitewater miles that we have had the opportunity to acquire this spring. The exposure and ability to be put in situations that are “not ideal” always you to be able to broaden our comfort zones with these experiences.
Rafting
- I currently feel fairly confident in a raft in class III/III+ whitewater, but as many sports go I would not be surprised if a experience/more exposure will actually allow me to be more respectful of this grade of river. I know that when I started climbing trad that it wasn’t a perfect curve of confidence vs. exposure and that seeing more dangerous situations actually gave me a greater appreciation and respect for the “easier” routes.
- One area that I feel there is infinitely more to learn about on the river is reading water. With fishing and ocean experience I felt that I had an okay grasp from the beginning, yet feel that I can continue to learn more about reading rivers on the fly and before hand for years to come. Specifically, I’d like to pay more attention to gradient and the differences that similar objects have at different water speeds in the river. A small pour over at one gradient could be a great place to surface, whereas give the river a bit more speed and it completely changes.
- Lastly, I’d like to mention rowing. After a semester full of paddle guiding, the ability to pick up the oars these last few weeks has truly been revolutionary. While at first glance many of the movements on the oars may seem counterintuitive, I found that it actually felt to make the most sense out of all the water vessels I’ve had the opportunity to practice this semester. After only a few weeks on the oars, I would feel comfortable saying that I feel even more comfortable on an oar rig than being in the back of a paddle raft.
Hard Shell Kayaking
- When it comes to hardshell whitewater kayaking, I truly thought I was starting the semester with an inexistent amount of previous knowledge, yet I quickly learned (like any backcountry sport) that there were many key pieces of knowledge that overlapped with my current outdoor recreation activities. First off reading water, I found that understanding the river’s currents and flows came quicker than I thought it would and believe that I can contribute this to my fly fishing and surf background. Eddies are the bain of keeping a line tight while fly fishing and you quickly learn how to maneuver your line in them. Whereas from surfing I found that I could trust I’d eventually be spat out of wherever I might find myself self stuck in the river if I had enough patience and calm.
- While I may have been not completely shocked on all fronts when I jammed my legs into the boat on our first day in hardshells, what I quickly found as new and exciting were the amount of skills like riding a wheelie on a bike that I could learn in my kayak. From ferries to paddle strokes the amount of knowledge to gain in kayaking is seemingly endless and it excites me to be able to pursue a completely knew sport from the ground up.
- Lastly, I felt that I greatly improved from the beginning of the semester when it came to kayaking in a few specific areas.
- First was my ability to view kayaking with a clear head and not that of a panicked cloudy brain attacking the water. This came fairly quickly when I realized it felt like lead climbing.
- Secondly, I found that once I got even a single crappy roll in flat water that I felt much more willing to try new skills in whitewater with the thought that there wasn’t a 100% chance of swimming if I was to “biff it”.
- Lastly is something that may seem basic, but I found that when we started kayaking I was miserably uncomfortable in my boat, and with time, instruction, and experimentation I have now found a way to be what I like to call “performance comfortable”. This has allowed me to feel more secure in my boat, not distracted by a asleep leg, and overall more present when paddling in my boat.
Rock
- Despite giving my primary recreational activity a bit of the back burner this semester, I do believe that it still deserves a note on improvement and skill development. While training and physical ability have not been the primary focus or key outcome of this climbing this semester, I moreover believe that it comes down to my perspective on certain climbing philosophies.
- I have found that the climbing community as a whole is often incredible stoked to go out and climb and share climbing with knew climbers. This culture is what allowed me to gain countless amounts of knowledge from people I have the utmost respect for. Yet, with this community of stoked individuals, I see more/had my eyes opened to the fact that a with this stoke and excitement to “get out” we accidentally allow safety to hit the back burner, with that being said, I now find myself often take from the conservative skiers play book when it comes to climbing:
- Being picky about picking partners. While I personally would never head up a big wall with a stranger, I believe that my standards for my climbing partners has definitely resign this semester. I want people who not only know how to climb, but can think on their feet, address problems creatively, and be able to take charge when/if needed.
- I believe that the ideas that are being spread in avalanche safety classes about human decision making and team dynamics play a critical role in all outdoor recreation activities. Especially on the rock.
