Sixty Meters to Anywhere by Brendan Leonard #
Sixty Meters to Anywhere by Brendan Leonard. If you don’t know Leonard by name, you might know him as “the semi-rad.com guy”. I’ve followed his blog and other writings for years, as have many folks in my little intersection of outdoor sports and (especially online) writing.His “Friday Inspiration” series heavily inspired my temporarily-dormant-but-to-be-revived Week Links series. Although I have a good sense of his voice from years of reading his writing, I was excited to pick up this olderPublished in 2016. memoir chronicling his journey from an alcoholic teenager in Iowa (a “flatlander”) into a self-described mountain person. More concretely: from jail and court-mandated rehab straight to an MS in journalism at the University of Montana in Missoula. And then through Arizona and Denver.He’s now back in Missoula, though this book finishes before the move back there.
I’ve reviewed my share of climbing memoirs and this is one of the best. Maybe because it’s not really a climbing memoir, but rather a memoir of a life diverted (“saved”? Leonard has thoughts about this that I’ll let you read directly) by the chance gift of a sixty meter climbing rope from his brother. This transition into having an identity based not on drinking or the hard fight to not drink at all was summarized nicely towards the end of the book:
I am a climber, finally identified by something I do instead of something I don’t do.
This formation of an identity resonated with ideas from James Clear that have for some reason been coming into my media diet recently on identity-based habits.I actually searched for a review of Clear’s Atomic Habits in my archive, only to learn that I haven’t actually read it. The closest I have: Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit. A rough two-step process: (1) choose an identity; (2) accumulate evidence that you are that type of person through small wins. This feels on par with major shifts in my life like starting graduate school (self-conceiving as a scholar) and becoming a climber.I had climbed very recreationally during a multi-year period when I played competitive ultimate frisbee. During rehab from an injury, when I was able to climb more consistently but couldn’t play ultimate, I fell in love and self-consciously decided to “become a climber”, as cheesy as it sounds. Lots of life decisions have been shaped by that identity since then. And many of my peers distinguish between people who climb and climbers, the latter being an adopted identity. But maybe this is turning into a new post, not a margin note. And maybe I’ll pick up the Clear book.
One other quote that I screen-shotted from this book captures one aspect of why climbing has hooked me and others so strongly:Another reason is well-articulated by C Thi Nguyen in “The Aesthetics of Rock Climbing” and his recent book The Score. Stay tuned for a review of that one.
There is nothing else when you’re climbing. There isn’t room for the mind to wander. No bills, no angry boss, no girlfriend, no debt, no depression, no heartbreak, no expectations, no questioning your life choices or career, no success and no failure; …
I’ve been surprised to learn that not everyone experiences climbing this way but, for me, it’s always been a place where the world shrinks to a tiny box surrounding my mind, body, and the wall. While I’ve had a pattern of intense interest in different athletic hobbies (maybe even identities in each?), only climbing has had this forced mental focus which, together with its interacting with the natural world and never-ending puzzle-solving, have really made it sink in. But I digress.
The final reason to pick this book up, which maybe should be the first: Leonard can write. It’s his trade and his craft. He has made a living out of freelance writing and related pursuits and you can tell why. This book will have you hooked whether or not you struggle with addiction or love climbing. Just pick it up and get going. Grade. A-