"It was the laughter of mortals at the trick which had been played on them by an ironical fate. They had been taught to believe that the whole object of life was to reach out to beauty and love. And that mankind in its progress to perfection had killed the beast instinct: cruelty, blood-lust, the primitive, savage laws of survival by tooth and claw and club and axe. All poetry, all art, all religion had preached this gospel and this promise. Now that ideal had broken like a china vase, dashed to hard ground. The contrast between that and this was devastating." -Phillip Gibbs A solo hiker gets a lot of time to think to himself. After not paying enough attention to my environment and getting lost in my thoughts, I found myself fighting for every step forward by kicking in ice steps and punching handholds. Maybe it was inevitable even if I had found the actual #pct route. Then I was forced to go around the snow slope covering the switchbacks leading up to #matherpass anyway. Climbing stuff like this will make you focus on the task at hand entirely or it will cost you many frustrations or worse. Caught up to these guys before I knew it. They were shocked and rather upset that I "didn't even look tired." I had been meditating on what would have happened to me if I had gone to war as an 18 year old. #highsierra #thruhike #matherpass #meditations #stoic #supportourveterans
