Informal Poll: Why Go High?

I went to the top of Mt. Sneffels (Colorado, 14,050 feet) in September, and a friend asked me why I like high places. I LOVE high places, but I was at a loss to explain why. There is something great about being above timberline, and it isn't just the views. I think it has something to do with being isolated or separated from the rest of the world too. Anyone else here love to get high in the mountains? Why?


Steve
www.TheUltralightBackpackingSite.com

 

solitude is great, but you don't have to be up high for that, so that's not the whole answer. Maybe it's because a mountaintop isn't really a place where one can live, it's a place to go to but not a place to stay. So maybe it has some quality of "freshness" or something.

And I believe the view does have a lot to do with it, as well as the struggle/journey to get there. This isn't your average stroll down the block...

 

We only have little 3500ft mountains here, but I think I know what you mean. The last one I climbed didn't have much of a view (only a few miles!) because it was very hazy that day, but this contribuited to the isolation and made the scale of things seem larger, and I didn't see a soul in 6hrs.

As Trippin says, I don't think you have to have altitude to experience similar isolation... but I still think it's a different feeling. When you are in a dark forest, you are isolated, but you feel contained. On a mountain top you are isolated but are free, and if it's the highest point in the region you feel you have reached the pinnacle of this feeling.

There is also a purity at altitude... your senses usually only experience a constant pure smell for instance, untainted by vegetation below (or indeed, pollution!).

 

The highest mountain in New Jersey is 1,200 ft above sea level,
in New York, 5,000 ft. Mt. Marcy.

 

Of course I love to GET HIGH in the mountains, or anywhere else for that matter.

 

whenever i get high in the mountains I usualy end up injuring myself. sex on a mountain peak is awsome.

 

^does that make you... fucking high? lol