Type 2 Pleasure | The Press

Many outdoor enthusiasts know this feeling when hiking in the pouring rain, when climbing a peak never ends, or when the wind stops the canoe from advancing a single meter. “But what am I doing here?” they wonder.

Then, they eventually find shelter, they reach the top or they find a quieter bay. Later, reminiscing about the adventure, they say to themselves that in fact, they had a lot of fun.

This is called Type 2 fun, an important concept in the outdoor world.

According to this concept, there are three types of outdoor fun. Type 1 pleasure is when everything is going well, when it’s pleasant, when you have fun. Type 2 pleasure is when it’s arduous and the pleasure only appears after the fact.

Type 3 pleasure is when an experience is undeniably unpleasant and even in retrospect there is no pleasure. Of course, the use of the term “type 3 pleasure” is highly ironic.

Jacob Racine is an adventure guide, an adventurer and a great specialist in the three types of pleasure. “I mainly do type 2 pleasure, but with my girlfriend and my son, I do type 1, he says. We go canoe-camping for a week, I organize myself so that the daily pleasure is always present, planning the pace accordingly, the stops, the food. I don’t want my son to get sick of the outdoors. It means that every time I propose a project to him, he is on board. »

He hopes to start exploring Type 2 pleasure with his son when he enters deeper into adolescence.

It will then be a question of working on surpassing oneself, of facing the difficulties that arise, of surpassing oneself and of experiencing great satisfaction, great pleasure.

Jacob Racine gives the example of a stage of the AKOR expedition, near Ellesmere Island, in the Arctic, with Nicolas Roulx and Guillaume Moreau. The latter had such inflammation in his knees that it was impossible to respect the progress schedule and reach the refueling point in time.

“We were going to run out of fuel, recalls Jacob Racine. However, if there is no more fuel, there is no more water, we die. The temptation was great to give up. However, the participants found a way to save fuel: do not boil the water once the snow has melted and instead use tablets to treat it.

“It’s about finding a solution that will lead us to overcome the problem. It gives us a sense of achievement, it will bring pleasure. »

However, he warns against the temptation to pursue an adventure when the conditions are really dangerous.

Jacob Racine experienced a type 3 pleasure period while crossing Quebec on skis, between Montreal and Kuujjuaq in 2014 with Marie-Andrée Fortin, Bruno-Pierre Couture and Sébastien Dugas. “When we arrived at Lake Mistassini, we had a decision to make,” says Jacob Racine. Either we followed the route of the guys who had done the expedition in 1980, or we were going to see the Otish Mountains, a 170 kilometer detour that was not planned at the start. We wondered if we would have the opportunity to go back to the Otish Mountains. Probably never. As long as we’re so close, let’s go. »

“It was hell. We entered Mordor. This included following deep rivers, where the snow was abundant and powdery. “We couldn’t move forward. During the first day, we covered only three kilometers in 15 hours,” he recalls.

The colds were terrible. Despite this, the rivers were so rough that there were several sections of open water. “My skis crashed, I fell into the river up to my hips. It was a series of bad situations. »

Arrived at the Otish Mountains, Jacob Racine was too exhausted to take advantage of it. “These are 15 days that have been useless. It was definitely type 3 fun. I will never do it again. Just talking about it, I get hives. »

For the moment, Jacob Racine does not have a type 2 or 3 pleasure expedition in preparation. However, he will guide trips with Vélo Québec this spring. “That’s type 1 pleasure, that’s candy!” »