How to keep going and going. And going!
SITUATION:
SOLUTION:
The mountains never stop calling. It’s just that sometimes, life gets in the way of answering the call. And when you do get there, things like the increasingly rapid recurrence of birthdays make it harder to do the things you want to, which can be hard to handle. Eva, who we met about 2100m up the steep winding Mangart road, had some sound advice for us.
Eva and her husband have just knocked back a double espresso each and are very interested in our Sonders, particularly the disc brakes. “To keep my eyes open on the descent”, she grins, in reference to the espresso. She asks our age and though we’re too polite to ask hers, she implies that it’s roughly thrice that of her beloved bike. Eva’s bike does not have disc brakes but Eva doesn’t really care. As we’re packing up, she explains that she might get a new bike one day, but as she’s always looked after this one, it continues to look after her, so she’s sticking with it; you should wear in your best kit, not wear it out. Cycling up to 2100m for a coffee means she’s looking after herself too, which makes even more sense. Ok, we’ve shoe horned this into a ‘survival tip’ a bit, but Eva’s philosophy resonates with us – buy good kit, look after it, look after yourself and don’t miss that call. On the theme of loving your kit for longer, our Hathersage and Ambleside in-store Repair Stations will mend your kit regardless of what brand it is.
OUTPOST THE SURVIVAL ISSUE 31