How Climbing Demands Audacity, or Boldness in the Face of the Unknown

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So, the video is about audacity, defined as “intrepid boldness.” Basically, can we keep moving towards a goal in the face of extreme uncertainty. That’s climbing in a nutshell. Well, maybe more explicitly that climbing when we are climbing at the edge of our abilities. We never know if we are going to succeed.

And then, in certain types of climbing, we can add in the lethal potential of a climbing mistake. Our “failure” may not be that we don’t reach the top; it may be that we don’t survive the attempt.

There is both a romance and a grittiness to the notion. I try to dispense with the romance. For those of us who have lost loved ones to the mountains, I don’t find it to be a “romantic notion” that they “died doing something they loved.” We till grieve the loss. That grief feels gritty, like it can’t wash off.

But it is that grittiness, and the possibility of it, that makes the rewards of “staying clean” - or let’s call it what it is, “coming home safely” - so high. We went some place where humans are not supposed to be; pushed out minds, bodies, and spirits; and came back changed from the effort.

And that’s why audacity plays such a key role when we are first entering the world of climbing. There is so much inherent risk. There is so much we don’t understand. And yet we persist. Persistence doesn’t mean foolhardiness. We probably should take classes and seek mentors and build up our knowledge and our fitness. But the audacious point isn’t actually when we are on the climb. The audacious point was when we committed to prepare for the climb - to believe that we could become smart enough and strong enough and level-headed enough to try the thing that could kill us.

The flip-side of this is fear of failure. Sure, when your life may be on the line, failure becomes a complex and weighty concept. But for any climb to happen there has to at least be the belief that we can “get away with it.” We believe we aren’t walking into our doom.

I find my self belief to be highest when I decide it’s time to head into the unforgiving environment - that is, when I start my prep-work. If it wasn’t then, I’m not sure I’d ever attempt any climb.

Take a look at the video and see if you don’t relate to this notion of audacity. Does you feel audacious as you move through the mountains, or does the feeling come before you even go?

What other spheres of your life benefit from audacity?