Get Out There and Live It; Inspiration from Trail’s Young Mountaineer of the Year

At the end of last year, Trail magazine announced they were wanting to celebrate the next generation of outdoor superstars by launching their first Young Mountaineer of the Year Award. Parents were invited to write in and provide a few pictures of their childrens favourite adventures; In their words “Whether 2015 was the year they summited their first mountain, crossed their first ridgeline, slept in their first bothy, bagged their 50th Munro or climbed their first Alpine peak – we want to hear about it.”

The winners have just been announced in this months edition. There were 3 age categories (7 years old and under; 8-12 years old; and 13-16 years old) and the judges were Leo Houlding (British rock climber and adventurer) and Bonita Norris (youngest person to summit Everest and reach the North Pole) as well as Trail editor Simon Ingram (a great writer with an equally great sense of humour and whose articles always have us in stitches!).

From the looks of the pictures submitted, it couldn’t have been an easy job to judge as they are all amazing! A huge congratulations to the kids and their families! The winners of our sons age range were 3yr old twins – they’re having amazing adventures together! It’s really inspirational to us to see what other families are getting up to and gave us a few ideas.

We wrote in on behalf of our son and found out he had made the list of runners up for the 7yrs and under category after picking up a copy of the magazine doing our weekly shop at the local supermarket! We giggled a bit and showed it to him. He wiggled his eyebrows a little, pointed at his picture and moved on to look at something else. His celebration was that fleeting.

We wrote in because last year was a tough year for him, after breaking his leg and spending time in a spica cast and even longer finding his feet again and getting his strength back. We were amazed by his get up and go throughout that time and his eagerness to get back out there and have our walks and wildcamping adventures. He’s completely forgotten about his leg and how tough it was for him to have his life completely turned upside down, no easy feat for a 3yr old.

So he’s only a little excited about seeing a picture of himself in a magazine we’d picked up from a shop. To him, what he does is no big thing. Why would it be?

He’s choosing to live in the ‘now’ and his choice of adventure was, according to him, “nothing special”. So maybe in that blink of an eye of a celebration, there was something a lot more going on.

What others see as runner-up worthy, he simply sees as normal and everyday. That it’s a natural thing for us to be doing something outdoors as often as we can as a family. That it’s the being together with people you love the most, having adventures and good times that matters the most. It’s freedom, it’s excitement, mixed in with nature’s wonders. It’s a giant playground that provides us with plenty of opportunities to learn more about ourselves, each other and the world we live in than any classroom ever will. You can’t find that in any book or magazine.

That’s what life’s about!

Life is short. You are the winner of your own adventure. Get out there and live it!

Thanks for the reminder, kid.