Winter is quickly coming to an end, which means we’re transitioning into the time of year when it’s seasonally appropriate to hang up a hammock, crack open a refreshing beverage, and spend hours reading in the blissfully warm sunshine. In honor of welcoming these warmer seasons, here are three excellent reads to help you with spring cleaning, gearing up for more time outdoors, and mentally preparing to climb more peaks this summer.
The Great Outdoors: A User’s Guide by Brendan Leonard (2017)
As outdoor activities have been booming in popularity due to a recent growth in outdoor-specific meetup groups, the spread of knowledge about these activities, and a surge in more affordable high-performing gear, there are now so many incredible avenues to get outdoors that it’s just about impossible to not find an outdoor activity to suit your fancy. However, even if you find the perfect sport for you, how the heck do you get into it?! From knowing which gear you’ll need, to figuring out which time of year (or time of day) is best for it, to understanding how to be safe while doing it, getting started in a new outdoor sport can seem daunting enough to make you feel like scrapping it altogether.
Thankfully, writer and outdoor adventurer Brendan Leonard (a.k.a. @semi_rad on Instagram) realized what an issue this is and created a solution by writing this book. This easy-to-read guide has the answer to every question you could ever ask about getting started in activities like rock climbing, skiing, hiking fourteeners, backpacking, and even ice fishing. Plus, unlike some outdoor guidebooks - which can be so dry they’ll make your eyes glaze over before you even make it through the back cover description - Leonard’s book is accessible to even the most novice outdoor enthusiast, laugh-out-loud funny at times, and chock full of fun and informative images.
If you’re looking to try a new outdoor pursuit (or if you just moved to an outdoorsy town and are trying to figure out what the heck all the locals are doing), definitely pick up a copy of this book. If you’ve already dabbled in most of the activities listed in the book, there’s a good chance you won’t learn any new, groundbreaking information. That said, for the book’s more recreationally experienced readers, there are still many excellent resources and creative ideas nestled in its pages. Plus, it makes for a fun refresher course - as well as a great gift for that friend of yours who just moved to a place with prime access to the great outdoors.
Mountains in My Heart: A Passion for Climbing by Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner (2014)
If you’ve ever found yourself on the side of a mountain, struggling to combat fatigue, soreness, and shortness of breath while navigating difficult terrain on the way to the summit, and thought to yourself, “Yup - this right here is my happy place,” then this book is definitely for you.
Author Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, the first woman to climb all fourteen peaks over 8,000 meters without the use of supplemental oxygen, shares her inspiring (and occasionally harrowing) accounts of climbing said peaks in this page-turner of a book. In addition to artfully describing her ascents, she weaves in her unique experiences of being respected and heard as a female in a heavily male-dominated pursuit, balancing a full-time job with consistent expeditions and training sessions, and learning to listen to her instincts after experiencing the loss of multiple climbing partners. Refreshingly, her motivation for setting such respectable goals comes from an obvious passion of spending time in the mountains rather than a desire to achieve bragging rights.
Though I personally have never done anything close to what I would call serious mountaineering, Kaltenbrunner’s stories still resonated with me on many levels and have inspired me to push my limits in the activities that I do participate in. Plus, her book has motivated me to spend more time in the mountains, period - even if my mountains are a bit smaller and don’t require sherpas to summit.
Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists by Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus (2014)
In full disclosure, I read this book when it first came out four years ago (and again shortly thereafter because it’s truly that good), but I still highly recommend it to friends today because the principles from it continue to impact my life in such a positive way. This is a book that everyone could benefit from reading, whether you’re primarily an outdoor enthusiast, stay-at-home mom, big city dweller, workaholic - you name it.
In this relatively short but mightily powerful read, authors Millburn and Nicodemus (also known as ‘The Minimalists’) share how they went from living the wealthy corporate high life, with all the best appliances, clothes, and home furnishings money could buy, to living with next to nothing - on purpose. Through their own personal journeys, they have come to understand firsthand that we live in a time in which we’re constantly fed the idea that more ‘stuff’ will make us happier, and how it’s becoming increasingly difficult to not feel the pressure to buy more things and attach emotions to our possessions. However, after many years of downsizing and cutting the things out of their lives that don’t add value (including material possessions, relationships, and attitudes), they have learned how to lead rich, meaningful lives with less - and teach their readers how they can, too.
This engaging read will motivate you to cut the excess out of your life by providing you with the actual framework to be able to realistically do so. While some minimalist books only preach theory, Everything That Remains actually contains concrete ideas and examples of how to practically tailor minimalism to your lifestyle and make downsizing happen without feeling overwhelmed. For anyone ready to change their life in a big, positive way, grab a copy of this book - and when you're done reading it, free up space in your life by passing it on to someone else who could use it.
