I just finished Rick Ridgeway’s Life Lived Wild: Adventures at the Edge of the Map. Rick Ridgeway’s best buddies are Yvon Chounaird, of Patagonia-fame, and Doug Tompkins, who founded the North Face.
Life Lived Wild is a thrilling and fun ride
If you never intend to climb some previously unclimbed, rowdy summit in the wilds of Patagonia but you would like to experience it second hand, this is the book for you. So much of it starts and finishes pouring over maps in unknown edges of the world. Finding space where one can go to truly discover something. Many of Ridgeway and company’s trips also center around an idea and that idea is often conservation.
I have been thinking a lot about the book. I have no intention of climbing K2 or Everest, in fact while I have climbed many of the 14ers in Colorado, it’s not the type of pursuit that excites me.
But Ridgeway’s perspective on adventure is not about the check mark of having bagged a peak. It’s about the map and the discovery.
Raising a little human has made me look at all the things in my life with more intention. What am I showing him that he will take with him? What experiences can I give to him?
Adventure occurs on a spectrum
Ridgeway made me think adventure occurs on a spectrum, but above all else we should pursue adventure relentlessly. I felt this acutely a few weeks ago when we were camping and pouring over the map.
We ended up hiking into a basin on the map, a basin I hadn’t heard anyone talk about locally. A basin you won’t likely find online. The trail petered out and we wandered below a 13,000 foot peak.
And I thought “this is it for me”. Making the map come alive.
Being alone in the wild. I want to give West all the maps and say “where should we go”? Not be bound by well known routes or the experiences of others.
Because for me being in the wild is about being unbounded and open to finding something new. That something new, may only be new to us, but that doesn’t make it any less of a discovery.
I think we all have the opportunity to live on the edge of the map, but those edges will look different for everyone. I have a new enthusiasm for finding those edges with a tiny human leading the way. In 2023, our theme for the year is to wander at the edges, our favorite way to explore.
