29/08/2024
DECOMPRESSION
What happens when you complete a challenge you have been dreaming about for 10 years?
For 18 months I had planned towards my 3,588-mile Death Valley to Denali expedition. For 64 days I had pushed harder than ever before and with laser-focus. First, alone on the bike, then with my amazing team on the mountain, to eventually reach the summit. Risk, isolation, intensity, uncertainties, dangers, logistical and physical challenges; the expedition had it all.
And then it was over. After 22 days of living in a tent and joined by a rope with my mountain team, we parted ways and headed back to our homes. Back to ‘normality’.
I’m used to what comes next, yet it seems to remain unavoidable. First, the joy of seeing my wife and children, family and friends after 10 weeks away.
And then it hits. The lull. The post-expedition blues. The hole that is left behind. The knowledge that the only people who really know what it was like are now far away in their homes across the UK and Europe.
For days I empty and sort through my kit methodically. Hundreds of items, each with a connection to my journey. I crave human connection, but I know that my mind is still in a different place, hardwired to impending danger and relentless intensity.
On an expedition like this, bad decisions can have fatal consequences. Now I need to choose which sandwich to buy.
My teammates and I message each other. We crave the mountain. We are painfully withdrawing from the drug of adventure. The best addiction of all.
I always find that the dip is relative to the difficulty and intensity of the challenge. This one lasted about a month.
Next I craved type 1 fun. No suffering for a while thanks. Pure fun. Even in Chamonix this summer I was content looking up the mountains, rather than climbing them. A rare feeling.
As I write, the loop is closing. The hunger is returning. My training is intensifying once again. My sights are set on the next challenge.
Expeditions always have a gravitational pull like that for me.
You can stay away for a little while perhaps. Soon enough though, the mountains will come calling once again.
