The Desire to Cancel an Event

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Pre-broken arm and pre-pandemic I was deeply passionate about via ferrata and I went up every single weekend in summer. Since my broken arm, and since the pandemic I have lost almost all desire to do via ferrata. It's a sport that I loved because I loved finding new places. The issue, and this is something I said before I broke my arm, is that I have done almost all local via ferrata several times each.

Reservations

The other issue is that with the growing popularity of the sport you often find yourself trapped, unable to progress as you wait for those ahead of you to make progress. It's convivial, but I no longer feel like driving far to participate in this sport.

The other issue is that I didn't train in a gym, or do much upper body strength work so I think that this decline in upper body strength encourages me to feel more fear than I used to.

When I planned to do the Moléson Illuminé I hadn't rediscovered my passion for cycling. I really love cycling. I love that I don't need the car or trains. I love that it's practically free, especially if I stop buying accessories. It's also about community. I like the cycling community.

Driving Investment

It takes 50 minutes for me to cycle to Geneva, and six minutes to cycle into Nyon for a group ride. In contrast it takes one to two hours for every via ferrata. At the end of the day you spend more time driving than you do practicing the sport you went to do.#

Waiting the Entire Day

One issue, in this context is that you spend your day waiting until evening to do something so you waste your day. When I did it last year the VF took three hours because of how slow those ahead were. If you start early, you benefit from having no one in front, but if you start late then you're blocked. You end at one or two in the morning and then you have the drive home.

And Finally

I don't need to make up my mind now. I can easily decide the day before. I can see what other opportunities present themselves, as well as what the weather is doing. For some reason I felt some urgency to make up my mind when there is none.

#climbing #gruyère #illuminée #molÃSon #viaFerrata

Went on a via ferrata today with a good friend and his 10 year old son. For the little one, it was his first, so we chose a cat. B one. There were maybe 2 or 3 difficult parts for him, mainly because of his height (or lack thereof). He did well! I guess this will not be his last.

The via ferrata was following a big waterfall from bottom to top. The sound of the waterfall was accompanying us all the time. Fittig for a Wednesday.

#ViaFerrata #WaterfallWednesday #Hiking #Mountains

#dolimiti #pragserwildsee #lagodibraies #hikingadventures #hiking #dolomiti_passione #lake #dolomiti_emotions @garmin_belux #viaferrata #klettersteig #kühwiesenkopf #kaserkopf #hochalpenkopf #olangerklettersteig

Partir en week-end #viaferrata et camping à vélo, ça fait un beau paquetage. 😅

Casas Bajas obri la seua primera via ferrada per a impulsar el turisme de natura

@Cronica_CT 👇
#RacódAdemus #turismoactivo #viaferrata
No cal ser expert per deixar-se sorprendre per les vistes del riu Turia des de La Puente.
Casas Bajas inaugura este dissabte la via ferrada La Puente, una nova infraestructura que uneix escalada, paisatge i av...👇

https://www.cronicacampdeturia.org/2025/06/casas-bajas-obri-la-seua-primera-via.html

Emergency Contact Infoormation and Incident Detection

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Recently I joined a cycling group and they require us to provide In Case of Emergency Information so that if we have an accident our phone provides people with names and numbers to call. At first I thought "Why would I want this, I have no In Case of Emergency person" due to being single and living alone.

Now I believe that this is a useful idea. Nothing bad has happened that affected my point of view. It's that it's easy on iOS and Android devices to add three or four people to contact in case of emergency. It's not that you have to give up this information.

The concept is that if you're rendered unconscious or incoherent after an accident, or incident, people can look at your phone and find emergency contact information and contact the right people. You can say whether they are siblings, parents, colleagues and more, which can be useful.

As a follow up to this step I have added emergency contacts to be notified automatically by Garmin in case of an emergency. I also added myself, so that if a false alarm is triggered I can confirm that it was a false alarm.

Incident detection is especially good when doing something alone. That's when we want people to know where we had our incident. It is not unusual to hear about people on solo activities going missing. At least with certain devices that detect incidents people are aware and can send help.

The two devices that have this are the Apple Watch and the Garmin Instinct 2 so I need to wear at least one of these devices for an alert to be sent automatically.

#automated #climbing #cycling #groups #hiking #safety #viaFerrata

Via-ferrata du Capucin (Mont-Dore 63240)
Découvrez le monde de la verticalité en toute quiétude avec notre moniteur.
Activité entre randonnée et escalade, la via-ferrata est en fait un itinéraire équipé qui permet de progresser en parois sans obligation de connaissance des techniques de l’escalade.
Un autre point de vue sur les paysages auvergnats !

ℙℝ𝕆ℂℍ𝔸𝕀ℕ𝔼 𝕊𝔼́𝔸ℕℂ𝔼 :
ce jeudi 26/06/2025 à 14h.

38 € par participant (casque, baudrier, longes fournis).

Inscription sur le lien suivant :
https://auvergnattitude.fr/nos-agendas/via-ferrata/

#auvergne #viaferrata #massifdusancy #montdore

Heute die #ViaFerrata-Saison eröffnet. In der Region um #Goisern haben wir uns die #Klettersteige #MeinLandDeinLand, #OutdoorLeadership mit dem Gipfel #Predigstuhl und #EwigeWand vorgenommen. Mit atemberaubendem Ausblick, unter anderem auf den #Hallstättersee.

#Salzkammergut #Oberösterreich

Via Ferrata <> Ferrovia 😄

Lite kul ändå att de gör det på klippan där tåget går i en tunnel.

Tunnelmynningar med kreneleringar som en borg är väldigt romanticistiskt

Det här området kallas ”Böhmiska Schweiz”, norr om gränsen i Tyskland finns ”Sachsiska Schweiz” med de kända sandstensformationerna vid Basteibrücke.

#tågluff #interrail #viaferrata

📍Via Ferrata Dolomites

Read more: https://www.touripia.com/travel-destinations/europe/via-ferrata-adventures-dolomites/

#ViaFerrata #DolomitesAdventure #MountainLovers #ItalyTravel #AlpineAdventure
#ClimbingGoals #HikingLife #BucketListTrips #OutdoorAdventures #TravelDolomites
#ViaFerrataLife #MountainEscape #AdrenalineRush #EuropeTravel #UltimateGuide

Když jde o život, jako při horolezení, je #ux kriticky důležité. Třeba prsní úvazek Rock Empire Eight Vario důrazně nedoporučuji! Dvakrát jsem opravoval špatné uvázání (za gumičky). Srovnej se Singing Rock Aladin #climbing #viaferrata #klettersteig

Nahoře sněžilo. Letos jsme s sebou vzali 2x20 metrů lana a hned využili při záchraně jiné skupinky. Dnes tedy za dobré skutky splněno. Příště ještě přibalit nějaké vklíněnce a další matroš na zbudování štandu. #klettersteig #viaferrata

Zlí jazykové tvrdí, že bych si mohl otevřít půjčovnu sportovního vybavení. #climbing #klettersteig #viaferrata

Looking for Conversations in the Age of Facebook Dominance

Reading Time: 2 minutes

A few days ago someone wrote something about chocolate croissants. I then wrote something about Chocolate easter bunnies. A third person then said "please don't have conversations, there are hundreds of people reading this exchange". This is on WhatsApp. WhatsApp is, or at least was, an IM client. For those of a certain age an IM client is a conversation app. It's the type of app that includes AIM, ICQ, Messenger, Skype and many, many more apps. Its raison d'être is to encourage conversations.

That we were told "avoid having conversations on a WhatsApp group is a post COVID absurdity. Before COVID we had communities for hiking, and climbing, and diving and more. It was expected that when we weren't in physical proximity, able to converse with each other, that we would chat via WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and more. Utilitiarians said, "Don't you ducking dare, this is for work, we must not have a high follow cost by posting too much, this should be to make money". Since 2007 or so I said "But what is the ROI for human beings, if social media is just for PR firms?

The Social Media landscape today, and WhatsApp use illustrates what happens when user ROI is forgotten about. ROI is Return on Investment. Now, the wrap on the knuckles didn't really bother me. It's ordinary. What bothered me is two voice messages, both 30-40 seconds long. If the person had written something with text I would have remained within the running group. Audio messages make me anxious.

WhatsApp is a written platform, not audio. I quit the group.

I don't want to repeat myself. For me WhatsApp, Instagram are social networks. For me, by limiting conversations on WhatsApp, and pushing user generated crap by strangers, WhatsApp and Instagram are not being used as they should be.

During week days I deal with solitude. Social networks, before they became social media, and WhatsApp before it became a cheap version of Meetup.com were great places for communities to chat, for single people, or people in solitude.

In the age of ever increasing loneliness I think that social networks, that temporarily became social media, were a fantastic place to chat, and forget about solitude.

I really miss having a place where I could discuss what to do with a group this weekend. I would love to have a full blown conversation, exploring ideas for a hike or two this weekend.

A week or two ago, if we could have discussed a hike for two weekend, and this weekend I am sure that the weekends would have been less solitary. This weekend just one hike is planned, which is why I want to try a bike ride.

And Finally

Yesterday I looked at the logistics for a hike tomorrow that I will not join, because I don't want to catch five or six buses and travel for two to three hours each way. While writing this blog post I looked at the logistics for another hike that I could do on Sunday, except that it is meant to rain from Midday onwards, with a chance of lightning. Light rain isn't an issue. A storm is.

And Finally, if it wasn't for the audio messages sent to me by DM in the running group I could have considered going for a run tomorrow, except that it would be absurd to make the physical effort to go and see a group that can't make the virtual effort to read a few IMs. There is a group doing a via ferrata but I am avoiding it for similar reasons.

#community #conversations #cycling #hiking #im #viaFerrata

A Choice of Weekend Sports

Reading Time: 2 minutes

This weekend I have the choice between running, hiking, walking, via ferrata and probably more. Years ago I would have automatically gravitated towards Via Ferrata because that is a sport I really loved. These days I'm not so sure. It's especially that the VF would take one and a half hours of driving, which isn't really the issue, but that it starts at around 11:30, which, for me, is late.

Early Starts are Better

I would prefer to start at 0900-1000. Those are the sweet spot. Get up at 6-7, drive for an hour or so, get to the location, do a VF for an hour or two, and by lunch time start to head home.

There is also the dimension that with VFs you get to a certain level of experience where it takes longer to get to and from the VF than it does to do the actual VF. That's when it might become less rational as a sport.

Options

In theory Saturday morning I could go for a run in Geneva. The issue is that my runs are short-5-8km. Heading to Geneva to run for half an hour to an hour is not the best use of my time. There is also the small matter of a walk the next day.

The walk that does interest me, and that I have considered for a while is from Bière via the Arboretum to Aubonne. I have often been to the arboretum, but I have not often walked from the nearby towns, through the arboretum, to other nearby towns. This would be a first.

The Sunday walk would be from Rivaz to Lutry. It's just 390 meters of climbing, compared to the 1200m of climbing I do on other hikes. It would also be with a large group.

Plenty of Hikers

I get the impression that there are thousands of hikers per weekend, in Switzerland, if not more. Almost every hiking activity attracts 15-20 or more people that can come. If there was no limit groups of up to seventy would come, at a time. With such a large community of communities of hikers you can always find people to walk with. Last weekend was quiet, but this weekend seems back to normal.

And Finally

I am perfectly happy to walk, hike and cycle alone. If I do group activities it is in the hope of meeting new people that I get along with. It is in the hope that I find a group, like the scuba diving group, or the climbing group, or the via ferrata group, that I enjoyed doing things with, for years, pre-pandemic, pre-broken arm, and pre-deicing job.

Meeting new people is enjoyable. The paradox is that I usually appreciate the group by the end of an activity, rather than during. With the right group I would enjoy a group during an activity. I have, recently, but then the group vanishes for a few weeks.

I should organise activities, and let people find me, rather than the other way around. I know this region well. It would be the logical thing to do.

#early #hiking #late #morning #running #viaFerrata #walking #weekend

When the high peaks are lost in the clouds, chase adventure on the rocks! ⛰️💥

Our guide Felipe recently led these two brave souls on the thrilling Guejar Sierra via ferrata—where exposure meets adrenaline and every step is pure excitement!

Highlights include Tibetan bridge, Tyrolean traverses, Pendulum, bridges and ladders.

More info: https://spanishhighs.com/via-ferratas-andalucia-spain.html

#viaferrata #spain #adventure #rockclimbing #andalucia #granada