Outdoor Excursions | When it’s long and difficult

During an excursion, there are sometimes difficult moments, monotonous moments. This mountain must be climbed, one step at a time, even if the summit seems to recede as you go. This river must be traversed, one paddle stroke at a time, even if the wind puts up fierce resistance. How to get through these tough times?

Adventurers and mountaineers who spend weeks and months in the most isolated parts of the planet have a few tips that the Sunday hiker can adapt to their own situation.

Frédéric Dion, who notably connected the South Pole by kite skiing, likes to wander in thought. “You make connections between things in your head, you clean up the past, you make peace with this person or this situation. It can be super rich and super suffering at the same time. »

However, he insists on the need to direct his thoughts, and not to let himself go anywhere. “For the person who believes that they have the capacity to change their thoughts, to direct them, there is a whole world that has just opened up. We’re talking about meditation. »

It also activates a little game when conditions are too difficult, during an ultratrail, for example. He chooses a subject and breaks it down according to the alphabet. “Let’s just say I take first names. A. Adélie, she’s my daughter, I think of her, I’m happy. B. It’s my friend Bertrand, I wonder what he does. Little by little, you end up diving into other worlds. »

Caroline Côté, who achieved a speed record skiing to the South Pole, is organizing big parties in her head. “I was going to celebrate Christmas when I came back. I was thinking about the gifts I was going to buy, the cake I was going to make: what ingredients should I buy? Where ? I experienced it as if I were cooking at home. »

Nicolas Roux, who crossed Canada from north to south as part of the AKOR expedition, makes forays into the past. “I’m trying to reconstruct what the inside of my primary school looked like: what was it like when you came in on the left? There was the secretariat, the toilets. At what point in your life do you have the availability to do this, other than on an expedition? »

He also thinks about his good moves, his failures.

Dominic Asselin, a mountain guide, however, fears falling into an endless loop. “For years, I tended to solve problems, things to do at the office or at home. It went on and on, but I never resolved anything and by the end of the day, I was psychologically exhausted. »

Music in the ears

Now he slips an earbud into one ear to listen to music, not too loud so he can hear his customers. “In more critical moments when you have to be more attentive, to the sounds of the glacier for example, I will remove it. »

Samuel Lalande-Markon, who crossed Quebec from west to east and from south to north, also listens to music, particularly classical. “I can enter into great works. In the Transboreal expedition, I reconnected with my first love of symphonic music. In particular, I listened to the 5 several times^e Mahler’s symphony, which is truly complex and dense. You start an album like that and then, boom, an hour has just passed. »

Caroline Côté listens to audio books, especially those related to the sea, with sailors who were left to their own devices for months.

She also writes little notes to her loved ones on her inReach beacon to tell about funny situations.

Frédéric Dion turns to taking images to break the monotony. “When it becomes too physically difficult, I stop, I put the camera down, I frame it, I walk in front. It’s a moment of rest. »

Difficult times are best experienced in a group, with jokes, songs, riddles. You still need to have the right partners!

“There are people who are the perfect match. When I was with Daniel [Barriault] and Jacob [Racine]I think that any event would have been a joke,” says Frédéric Dion.