I have always been slightly bitter about good weather. I don’t know where the feeling came from, maybe it has to do with being home schooled or living in Alaska, I don’t really know. But when the sun is out, I am just a little less happy than everyone else.
When the sun is out, the runners take to the track, the tennis players to the courts, the boaters to the lakes, the basketball players to the courts, and so on. But I am none of those.
When the rain comes, and the wind picks up and cuts through your coat like a knife, then everyone is cut down. No one wants to go outside to weather the elements. Instead you are in survival mode, your goal being to stay alive and healthy.
One thing I say a lot is that “There is no such thing as too cold, only insufficient clothing.” I believe that, and I relish the full conditions. I like the windy dreary days much more than the sunny days, because when the conditions get bad, you can tell who you can trust.
I was hiking with a friend in the Grand Tetons. We were at the end of a 20 mile hike, and we had reached the mouth of the canyon we had explored. A storm had chased us down the canyon for hours, and had finally caught up to us. The lighting exploded every minute, and the rain hit our ponchos us hard. We were climbing down a cliff that was so slippery if you took a bad step you could fall over 40 feet to the rocky outcroppings below. I turned around to find my brothers gone, no where to be seen. The thunder echoed down the canyon in a tremendous rumble like the roar of a god. I turned to Justin and smiled, how often do you end up in this situation? He smiled back.
Every day is an adventure. The weather determines how you handle each day. What fun is a bright and sunny day that makes you work to have adventures? In full conditions, when your first thought is survival, just standing still is an exhilarating experience.
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