Put the "adventure" back into adventure......

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kaholatingtong

Trad climber

Nevada City

Nov 13, 2014 - 12:03pm PT

I would agree that the tern is overused. For me, it is pretty much synonymous with dealing with the unknown and real consequences. I recognize this can be relative, person to person. And I also recognize the "unknown" is frankly pretty relative as well. How do you know a meteor is not going to shoot down outa space and strike you dead on the spot, randomly? Does that mean we are always dealing with adventure, in this thing called life? Perhaps, but I think how I personally define it would be : "anything where you can't with great certainty predict the outcome, and there are in fact serious consequences if stuff goes too wrong". Obviously, "serious consequences" could be different, person to person, and "with great certainty" leaves room for what amount of certainty we are talking about, but I'll leave it at that.

drljefe

climber

El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson

Nov 13, 2014 - 12:03pm PT

I think the bullshiters are companies and organizations who market their services and products as "adventure."

You did not say this in your original post.

You minimized what others consider adventure.

Some people's adventure chakra does not burn as brightly as yours, Jim.

edit:
namaste

Lynne Leichtfuss

Sport climber

moving thru

Nov 13, 2014 - 12:04pm PT

I thought this was headed towards being a fun thread. Now it's turned into an adventure argument....as in I'll see you an adventure and raise you two.

I'd hardly call you an elitist, bullshiter Jim. I don't know any elitists that volunteer to take newbies ice climbing.

survival

Big Wall climber

Terrapin Station

Nov 13, 2014 - 12:04pm PT

It seems that JD is after the commercialization of the word, not us lowly semi-adventurous participants.

With that I can agree.

You did not say this in your original post.

Thus was my original confusion over the OP born.

donini

Trad climber

Ouray, Colorado

Topic Author's Reply - Nov 13, 2014 - 12:06pm PT

Yoga and pilates are offered at an Adventure Fitness retreat on the beautiful coastline of Croatia.

Peter Haan

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, CA

Nov 13, 2014 - 12:09pm PT

I met J-Do 44 years ago. I do sigh when he gets like this. I join others in wondering why he insists on these types of orgulous pronouncements. Usually I ascribe them to J-Do simply baiting folks and laughing as the catfish inevitably surface to his bait.

Other times I just have to remind myself of his many many years of lonely chastity in India's Calcutta, washing the feet of the Untouchables and very poor.

John M

climber

Nov 13, 2014 - 12:18pm PT

Don't take it so hard Jim.. Your life has been lived so large and your tolerance of scary situations is so high that your definition of adventure doesn't fit the average person. I don't agree that things have to start to go wrong for it to be called an adventure. I think to be an adventure something simply has to push the limits of ones comfortability, and thus for some, the via ferrata is an adventure, albeit a tame one in comparison to your adventures. But that just highlights the vast difference between people on this planet, with you being the upper crust of the adventuring spirit.

I don't' care if the average person wants to call a via ferrata an adventure. If it causes him to value adventure, then he or she will be more likely to protect my right to have whatever adventure I want, up to and including risking my life.

jgill

Boulder climber

Colorado

Nov 13, 2014 - 12:21pm PT

Whatever definition you attach to "adventure", it is a substantial alternative to being out-climbed by a 9-year old on the local rocks or in the local gym.

(I admit, I am a bit curmudgeonly when I see such tiny tots doing boulder problems two grades beyond what I was able to do years ago when I was at full strength. Makes you question the very notion of move "difficulty!" )

Peter Haan

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, CA

Nov 13, 2014 - 12:31pm PT

Yeah, Johno, and funny.

Also it puts the question what "difficulty" might actually be in the context of our art and sport. It presents a quandary for sure. It seems to point towards the personal rather than the universal.

I think some people (upon reading J-Do when he makes these sorts of pronouncements) experience his remarks not as an general urging for everyone to have real adventures but instead find his remarks a proclamation that J-Do would be one of the finest and most admirable models of a modern day adventurer. ("Modesty is calling attention to whatever you are being humble about" in other words). Knowing J-Do as I do, I have to urge everyone to understand his meaning to be the former and that he actually never strays too far nor for too long from his large collection of cashmere sweaters and cardigans.

Peter Haan

Trad climber

Santa Cruz, CA

Nov 13, 2014 - 12:32pm PT

Donini Debates Cesare Maestri before the World Sushi Summit 2003

the Fet

climber

Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La

Nov 13, 2014 - 01:42pm PT

If you really pursued adventure you'd be dead. You gotta have a 50% chance of death for it to be real adventure.

Toker Villain

Big Wall climber

Toquerville, Utah

Nov 13, 2014 - 02:21pm PT

I disagree Jim,
technically "adventure" is from the latin "to go towards", so you don't need mishaps merely a goal.

If you ask me, being alone high up on a virgin wall is plenty of adventure for me even without anything going wrong. Ever been there?

SteveW

Trad climber

The state of confusion

Nov 13, 2014 - 02:27pm PT

Yup.

divad

Trad climber

wmass

Nov 13, 2014 - 02:40pm PT

tiptoeing through the tulips can be an adventure for some...

yosguns

climber

San Mateo, California

Nov 13, 2014 - 02:57pm PT

You didn't have an adventure climb because you waded thru poison ivy to do six pitches of trad.

What if it was only supposed to be five pitches of trad...but you broke one pitch into two? I feel that someone mentioned what I did this weekend to you; it's uncanny. And I thought I was special!

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Nov 13, 2014 - 03:23pm PT

More wasabi!

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Nov 13, 2014 - 03:59pm PT

hey there say, donini... :))
i liked this, as to your quote and 'lookingsketchythere's 'handle':

Not looking for a definitive definition. Just pointing out that the word has been used by companies marketing departments to the point where it has lost it's real meaning.
In your case perhaps adventure begins when things start getting.....sketchy.

love those 'word overlaps' as to joining 'two beads' onto a 'string of thought' ... :))

say, susan, also, love the 'thought of adventure' as to applied to being
over 60 = wow, i've been having a few, too... :O

now me:
i think of adventure as this:
'A VENTURE' ;) MEANING:

anything NEW, that i take on, or step-forth to, as to:
--> not fully knowing the outcome...
and expecting the excitment of NEW THINGS to see, learn, and understand
that are character-building, TESTING and USEFUL for the longhaul...

like: wow, THAT sure was an adventure!
(some you want to do again... and others are best just 'savored for what they were') :)

these things, of course, can be outdoors, but i don't limit them to that, as, i have my 'artistic take' on the word and think of the adventure as to
other life-issues as well, dealing with kids, critters, or spur of the moment things, too...

but i sure do agree with this part of what donini said:
as to word over-use...

it does mess-up the inspiration of what adventure
can fully, and at its deepest, REALLY contain...

(i think the danger part, belongs in the EPIC adventures, though, as to my way of seeing 'epic' ... got to 'really fill that cup' then, so more elements of adventure, are needed... )

Off White

climber

Tenino, WA

Nov 13, 2014 - 04:05pm PT

It's an adventure, the outcome is uncertain.

I use that phrase all the time with my wife to prevent an assumption that I know how something will go or can guarantee it will be fun. I think it's actually a good working definition. Notably, it embraces adventure as different things for different people. Just because something isn't an adventure for you doesn't mean it isn't for someone else with a different set of skills and experience. Interesting things happen when people do things they aren't certain they are capable of, and it's the movement beyond your preconception that counts, not the absolute point of departure.