Oh, the mountains. The place to connect with nature, relax, and breathe in the fresh air.
Unless you’re in the middle of a trail running race, of course, and the air smells like sweat and you feel like crying.
In peace and in pain, we love the mountains. We plan new routes, we run new trails, we explore and live adventure to its fullest. However, there are some things we hear over and over again and we have to call them what they are: big fat lies.
Here are five of the most common lies I’ve heard while hiking or running:
- It’s the last climb – or its variation, “From now on, it’s only downhill”. And then, surprise! A big hill hits you right in the face. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to go back, grab the person who told me it would be the final climb, and take them to see the steep trails ahead that are nowhere close to the definition of flat or downhill.
- One kilometer left to the finish – It’s marathon pacers’ favorite lie. They just don’t know what you’re going through in those seconds that seem years and those meters that seem miles.
- There aren’t any bears around – A lie often heard in Romanian mountains. Please don’t believe this if you’re ever around Padina, especially at night, especially if there aren’t many other people around.
- It’s not technical at all – Another lie I keep hearing. People telling me how runnable a route is and then I get there to see it’s 99% rocks. Ok, if you’re a mountain goat I guess it’s runnable.
- It’s going to take you x hours to get there – This is not exactly a lie, but it’s a piece of advice you shouldn’t give if you don’t know someone’s fitness level. It might take you 3h to climb Moldoveanu Peak from Balea, but it’s going to take much longer for someone climbing with an average touristic pace. In this case, giving the touristic estimated time is the best answer. (Of course, you might be lieing to yourself, too, like we did when we first climbed Moldoveanu and estimated we’d be up and back in 9h, although the touristic estimation was of about 14-15h. It took us 12.)
What other lies have you heard in the mountains?