What Is the Correct Way to Hike?

To walk, to step, it seems like the same thing. But when you are walking on a mountain you only do it a certain way. The variables are innumerable, the terrain changes all the time, its consistency, the debris, the wet grass, the rubble, the slopes, everything. That’s why you have to step in a constant rhythm, neither hurried nor fast, and you should both sense the soil with your sole and walk on it systematically. A good and absolutely relevant exercise for this is to observe how the shepherds and the locals walk. Knowing your own lung capacity, fitness and energy reserve is essential. Walking in the mountains is definitely something relentless. Coordinating your own physical abilities, terrain, weather conditions, clothing, your own weight and backpack, your own desires and plans to get from one point to another, and if it really is possible to get there. Even if at the beginning you do not realise all the contributing factors, after repeated exercise, analysation and observation you start to understand the way it goes. How much you can bear, how you manage, how much you can push yourself, in what situations this isn’t a good idea. Walking in the mountains is a permanent challenge against the environment and against yourself. You have to learn to do it instinctively, without thinking about it, the fine agreement between you and the environment comes naturally. Knowing when to stop is more important than going blindly until you collapse. Knowing how to avoid and prevent situations and potential dangers can often be essential. Excesses on the mountain are only rarely helpful. Balance is necessary and obligatory, it is dictated by the very nature of stepping. Changing direction or changing plans in order to reach the goal is usually a prerequisite, since on the mountain nothing is linear, fixed, cast in stone or subject to the rules. The mountain also teaches you what it means to be strong, but it also brutally offers you a lesson about modesty and humility. The road is full of meaning. When the road is full of meaning, reaching the goal is inevitable. Walking in the mountains is for those who walk not only with their step, but also with the mind. And feel everything around them at the same time. Just like in life.

I wrote today, after a long break, inspired by a discussion I had with someone about balance, desire and power, aspirations, need and inner longing to do something. And about the fact that (in my opinion) they have no value and are not possible unless you feel in your heart how far you can go and how to do it. Or it may come by mistake, with exercise and experience.