Recreation and Outdoor Life
BACKYARD ADVENTURES
FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) by DANYAL TAYLOR Fear. It is a bit of a weird one. It comes along and sneaks up and hits you when you really don’t want it to. Fear is our neurological response to certain environmental or thought-provoking exposures that wants to pump us with adrenalin to ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ a given situation. What if, instead, we do not put ourselves into that situation in the first place? With the ski season coming up I started thinking about all of the adventurous back country days last season. It was epic. I completed my AST2 with Mountain Addicts (totally worth it and highly recommend!). In avalanche training we are given the tools and frameworks needed to make good decisions, and when to turn around. After the course I got talking to Corin, our ski guide, and he introduced me to a Mountaineering Course at Icefall Lodge in the heart of the Rockies. So, off I went. The course was incredible. I learned everything I wished and hoped for. It was our final day and the final objective was to get up and down Icefall Peak, a 10,482ft monster that has only been skied a handful of times, the first on this course and we were going to be the second course to do so. At this point we had been skiing for six days straight, I had triggered two avalanches, almost got caught in two others, jumped into crevasses, navigated a complete white out and skied down the ‘Wild West’ - a glacier falling off a mountain. It was an intense time and my body and gear were starting to tell me to take it easy. The night before Icefall Peak, we were preparing ourselves for one last final
Danyal Taylor Photos push. Gear is easy, just pack it into a bag and off you go.Your mind though, that is something that needs training, experience, and exposure to develop confidence and skills. It isn’t something that can be prepared overnight. It was at this point the nerves and doubt started kicking in. I didn’t have the confidence in my worn gear and tired body.
similar happen in the Olympics when Simone Biles pulled herself out of the all-around event in gymnastics due to mental health concerns. Her team noticed something wasn’t quite right and Simone took control and made the bold decision to pull the pin. When you aren’t in the zone you are in greater danger of making mistakes, and mistakes can be fatal.
When we woke up I had this immediate feeling my head wasn’t in the game and I felt… off. At the time I couldn’t relate to it but most recently we’ve seen something
At any point up Icefall there are opportunities for mistakes to be made; it is a high consequence environment. Glaciers, avalanches, falling ice. We set off in the
