Gear Up Review

The 10 Essentials  Before I get into the ten essentials, I want to speak to why the 10 essentials are what they are. You see, in the early days of mountaineering, mountaineering was a dangerous activity. climbing mountains, we now stroll up just one hundred years ago could be the death of you. But as the hobby matured, there came a "mountaineering" philosophy if you will. Now I don't know if the "philosophy" aspect is the correct way to refer to it, but it is how I refer to it. The philosophy is quite simple really. it is about risk mitigation. As mountaineering aged and became more and more mainstream, mountaineers began to standardize things. We have rock climbing as a discipline for example because of this, as well as hiking, skiing, camping backpacking and so on. The 10 essentials came from the background of "What equipment is essential to every mountaineering trip that I go on?" and remains to this day a standard among guides, instructors, teacher...

The earliest memory I have is a camping trip. In fact, it is one of my favorite memories because I am a little kid, and can remember thinking like a little kid. I remember watching my dad put our sodas in the spring meltwater of a mountain stream and I remember my little kid mind wondering why we were putting soda where it doesn't belong. I was three. I also remember growing up without a lot of money...but as a kid, I had no real concept of it. We just enjoyed the outdoors and did a lot and camped and hiked and enjoyed that family time. I remember, fondly, my parents teaching me that the outdoors were for everyone. That it was free and you didn't need fancy things to enjoy it. Just good shoes and a school bag to carry water and snacks. I learned that nature could be a fun, exciting place to relax and recreate. A place where you could enjoy life. It was in these early years that I learned a lot about who I was and the importance of nature. It was a time where I learned tha...