"les conquérants de l'inutile"

The conquerors of the useless.... Lionel Terray used this term to describe adventurers, climbers, hikers, etc., after accomplishing feats that have no value other than the satisfaction of completion for the adventurer.

"Les conquérants de l'inutile" refers principally to the whole activity of adventure seeking. Sometimes risking your very life--for what? To stand for a few minutes or an hour on top of a piece of rock, then climb back down again. To WALK from one place to another. Does the world need this activity? Why do some people feel compelled to do it (or so many other extreme things that we seem compelled to do, for no clear gain) That becomes a metaphor for the whole question of what is "useful" and what is "useless"--for the world, for mankind as a species, for our survival.

Taking a small adventure, of any kind, leads to growth and change of your person, of your ideals, and hopefully then of the way you interact with the land, and your priorities. Its a grass roots revolution.

So with that in mind, Ive decided to undertake an adventure of my own, the Pacific Crest Trail. This is more or less the main "outdoors" adventure I'll be undertaking. I'm leaving for San Jose in about 3 weeks, and starting medic school. Thats a pretty big adventure I guess... I should be done with school around July of 2011, and then i plan on taking the PCT trip mid August.

The PCT trip I'm thinking is going to take about 2 weeks. Im not 100% sure which section I'll be doing yet, but tentatively I'm thinking Highway 12 to I-90. I havent decided what the goal is for the trip, or if there really IS going to be a goal besides to survive out there for two weeks.

I'm really looking forward the the simple living aspect of the adventure (I actually dont really like calling it adventure al the time. it typically BECOMES an adventure after something goes wrong). We only are going to be able to bring about 25 pounds maximum after all, so it will kind of force me into simple living. It will be nice though, to unwind a little bit though. Yvon Chouinard said "The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life. It's easy to make it complex."

What i would like the end result to be is that after two weeks we get home with a feeling of accomplishent for achieving the useless, and that we have learned a little more about ourselves in the process.

At the end what's important is not WHAT we will accomplish, but HOW we accomplished it.