Informal Poll: Why Go High?

[mochilero]

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?

[Sly]

I love high places too, as long as someone doesn't whip out their cellphone and yell, "You'll never guess where I am?"

[peter_pan]

Because it is there...and, I can.

Pan

[Mouse]

Being up above the mundane world and its problems.

[Ramble~On]

MMMmmmmm Cause it's legal, free, doesn't cause cancer or short term memory loss ?

I like to get "high" cause there will be less people at the top providing it is foot travel only, usually the harder the hike to get there the less used the area is, the better the view....the better the feeling of being "alone".
And........if there are other people up there they had the same climb I did and that generally means that they worked so hard to reach such a place for the same reason I did....feeling of solitude, enjoy nature, the view etc.
I've found the further, deeper or higher I go the more I run into people that are like myself. Although...that does not hold true for Great Smoky Mountains Nat. Park.....I still can't understand finding used diapers littering some of the remote places that I have found them in......and no, they were not carried there by an animal. The Smokies get an unfair population of idiots per year.

[Whistler]

They're fun to pee off of. High spots are also nice and windy and invigorating. And the views are better. And being up there I remember that a photo really, really won't do the moment justice. But I take dozens anyway.

-Mark

[Seeker]

it's a spiritual thing... symbolically closer to god, maybe? has more to do with the climb than reaching the top...

[Marta]

I think it has something to do with the colder, cleaner air. Puts a flush on the cheeks and a sparkle in the eyes. Especially if you've gotten there under your own power...

[the goat]

.....because being high is a lot cooler than not being high......

[liv2play]

Plans to snowboard off that sucker this spring

[Ender]

.....because being high is a lot cooler than not being high......

Amen to that.

[fiddlehead]

My most memorable moments in life have taken place while high!

[Blue Jay]

Why ask why? If you love something, isn't that enough? Some people love being cold, wet, tired and hungry for months at a time, not only that when they are warm, dry, comfortable and well fed they wish they were cold, wet tired, and hungry. It makes no sense, but if you love something that's more than enough.

[Chip]

For me being on a mountain top gives a totally different perspective, especially a 360 degree view. There is a certain peace I feel as I might hear and feel the wind on my face or see and hear the birds nearby. In the fall the colors from the trees paint the hills, in springtime to view the freshness of a new season about to begin. Most of all if your on top and there is nothing man made in sight what a pleasure that is. This is what is real and this is very soothing to the soul.

[Moxie00]

I have a love for the alpine zone, (above timberline) I have never been able to explain. The air is clear, there are no trees, the wind is blowing and no matter what the weather is, it is beautiful. I have been ot Avery Peak on Bigelow is a fog where you couldnt see 30 feet, the wind was blowing and it was raining and it was beautiful. One day on Mt. Washington the air was as clear as gin and I swear I could see Springer in the distance and that was also beautifiul. The worse thing about thru hiking is you have to walk 1800 miles before you reach your first Alpine Zone of Moosilauke. As you get further north the Alpine Zone gets lower and lower in altitude and about 200 miles north of Quebec City all trees vanish and you are in the alpine zone all the way to the north pole. In Maine we have a few mountains about 2000 feet tall with definite alpine zones and we have 4000 footers that have trees all the way to the top and I don't know why. Most of my hiking friends agree with Mochilero, you can't explain it but you get a definite high just from being abovr timberline.

[Pringles]

I love the views from high points. I like to be able to see for miles and miles.

In Roughing It, Mark Twain said, "The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be?--it is the same the angels breathe." That quote was on a sign in Sequoia National Park's Visitors Center, and it captured my attention. I have it on a post-it note somewhere on my desk, and everytime I find it, it makes me happy. I feel like I've been up there, sort of, and breathed in that same air.

Beth