EXPEDITION IDEAS. WHERE DO YOU GET THEM ?

EXPEDITIONS EXIST IN THE MIND BEFORE THEY EXIST IN PHYSICAL REALITY. ALL THE WAY FROM THE INITIAL IDEA RIGHT THROUGH TO HOW THE PHYSICAL EFFORT IS EXECUTED, IT IS THE IDEAS THAT GIVE THINGS FORM. WHERE THESE IDEAS COME FROM, HOW THEY INFORM THE PROCESS AND HOW THINGS ARE DONE IN REAL TIME DETERMINE HOW A TRIP GOES, AND THE NATURE OF THOSE IDEAS DECIDES WHETHER THINGS ARE REALISTIC, FANTASY OR FRAUGHT WITH CONFUSION AND IDEALISM.

YOUR IDEAS ARE WHERE YOUR OBJECTIVES COME FROM, YOUR PLANNING SOLUTIONS COME FROM, YOUR ABILITIES COME FROM, AND YOUR PERCEPTION OF HOW AN EXPEDITION IS GOING COMES FROM, AND THE SOURCE OF THESE IDEAS AFFECTS THAT. NONE OF US THINK THESE THINGS UP AS SINGULARITIES, WITH NO REFERENCE TO WHAT HAS COME BEFORE, SO THE SOURCES OF YOUR THINKING ARE FUNDAMENTAL TO EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS.

WE HAVE ALREADY DELVED INTO THIS WITH MARSHAL McLUHANS CONCEPT OF ‘THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE’, HOW YOUR PERSPECTIVE IS CHANNELLED BY THE MEDIA YOU VIEW IT THROUGH. THIS NOW IS THE PART WHERE YOUR ACTUAL CLIMBING IS AFFECTED, INFLUENCED BY THE SOURCES YOU DRAW FROM TO TAKE PART IN AN EXPEDITION.

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THERE ARE MULTIPLE SOURCES OF IDEAS, WITH MOST PEOPLE STITCHING TOGETHER SOMETHING FROM ACROSS THE SPECTRUM. DIFFERENT SOURCES CAN HAVE RADICALLY DIFFERENT EXPRESSIONS OF IDEAS, EACH WITH PROS AND CONS THAT SHIFT THE WAY A TRIP WORKS. IN A ROUGHLY DESCENDING ORDER OF QUALITY, THESE CLASSES OF IDEA SOURCES ARE;

ADVERTISING

DON’T LAUGH. FOR MANY THIS SETS THE STYLE OF A TRIP, PATCHING TOGETHER FLASHES FROM HANG TAGS, POSTERS, POP-UPS, SCROLLING BANNERS AND SHOP WINDOWS. HIGHLY CONTRIVED BUT ALSO HIGHLY DISTILLED, THIS CAN BE WHERE STRONG IDEAS ARE FORMED FROM DYNAMIC IMAGES AND BYTES OF EDITED DIALOGUE.

INSTA-MEDIA

PERHAPS THE DEFINING SOURCE OF OUR TIME. THIS IS ONE STEP BEYOND ADVERTISING AS IT IS BASED ON MASSIVE EDITING, SHOWING ONLY THE BITS THAT FIT INTO AN ATTENTION SPAN OF SECONDS. COMPLEX AS IT’S DRAMA-BASED, DESIGNED FOR EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT, VERY OFTEN MONETIZED SO LOW ON INFORMATION BUT HIGH ON IDENTITY-ENGAGEMENT.

POD CASTS

WE ALL WANT TO BELIEVE POD CASTS ARE HIGH DENSITY INFORMATION, BUT IN REALITY THEYARE AS CONTRIVED AND COMMERCIALLY-DRIVEN AS MOST SOCIAL MEDIA. POD CASTS BASICALLY ARE THE ECHO CHAMBER, PREACHING TO THE CHOIR, AND THOUGH THEY MIMIC RADIO THEY LACK THE DIVERSITY OF AUDIENCE AND SO THE ELEMENT OF PEER REVIEW. GOOD STUFF CAN BE PRESENTED, BUT IT IS HIGHLY CONTEXTUALIZED, AND IS USUALLY TO CONFIRM THE POSITION OF THE PRESENTER-AS-COMMODITY MORE THAN THE INFORMATION ITSELF.

SHORT FORM VIDEO

VIMEO etc CAN PROVIDE ACTUAL INFORMATION, STILL HIGHLY BEHELD TO SHARP EDITIING AND COMMERCIAL BIAS AS IT’S BASED ON TRAFFIC, BUT THE BEST STUFF SPENDS THE MINUTES WELL TO SHOW QUALITY DETAIL AND INFORMATION DENSITY. THIS LEVEL CAN BE MORE CRITICAL AS THERE’S ROOM FOR SOME EXPLANATION AND COMPLEXITY, BUT IT’S STILL RELIANT ON CHOPPING OUT THE STUFF THAT GOES OVER WHAT A SHORT TERM ATTENTION SPAN WILL BOTHER WITH.

FILM AND LONG FORM VIDEO

LONG THE TERRITORY OF DOCUMENTARIES AND EXTENDED STORIES, THIS WAS ALL CHANGED BY STUFF LIKE NETFLIX THAT TURNS OUT BASICALLY EXTREMELY LONG VIDEOS. ALGORITHM-DRIVEN, THE BEST STUFF NEVER MAKES THE MAIN MENU, AND QUALITY STUFF NEEDS TO BE SEARCHED FOR RATHER THAN EXPECTED TO ROLL PAST YOUR EYES. OF COURSE STILL EDITIED TO FIT A PERSPECTIVE, THE DISCERNING CLIMBER CAN SEE PAST THE NARRATIVE, AND SEE INTO THE IMAGE CONTENT FOR DETAILS AND DATA.

BLOGS

YOU ARE READING ONE NOW, AND THUS SHOULD KNOW THAT THIS IS THE FIRST ON THE LIST THAT ALLOWS TRUE ENGAGEMENT. BLOGS ARE WHERE INTERACTION CAN HAPPEN BEYOND THE ‘LIKE’ LEVEL, WHERE ACTUAL INFORMATION EXISTS, AND IS WHERE MANY AN EXPEDITION HAS BEEN PLANNED IN CONCERT WITH ACTUAL DISCUSSION.

FORUMS

FORUMS CHURN IDEAS LIKE CEMENT MIXERS, OFTEN LOSING MUCH TO THE WHITENOISE OF REPETITION AND WHATABOUTERY, BUT RELY ON ACTUAL ENGAGEMENT SOMEWHAT LIKE A SPEAKERS CORNER WHERE IDEAS RUN THE GAUNTLET OF PUBLIC APPROVAL. FORUMS PULL IN IDEAS FROM A WIDE ARRAY, WHICH IS A GOOD THING, AND DEMAND A WELL FUNCTIONING BULLSHIT DETECTOR WHICH IS NEVER A BAD THING.

RADIO

WHAT SOUNDS MESOPOTAMIAN THESE DAYS IS ACTUALLY STILL A HIGH FORM OF DATA, AND THERE IS MORE OF IT THAN SOME MAY THINK, BEING A PART OF MANY CLIMBERS WORKING OBLIGATIONS. BEING LOW-FI, MANY BROADCASTS ARE ARCHIVED AND SO CAN BE ACCESSED FOR DECADES, AND BY HAVING NO DISTRACTIONS FROM VISUALS ARE BASICALLY A CLIMBER IN A HOT SEAT. USUALLY INTIMATE AND 1 TO 1, OFTEN FOCUSED ON A SPECIFIC, BROADCASTS CAN GO FOR HOURS AND HAVE ARGUABLY THE HIGHEST DENSITY OF INFORMATION DUE TO THE QUALITY OF THE PRESENTER EMPLOYED TO DRAG IT OUT OF THEM.

PRESENTATIONS

REAL CLIMBERS ON A STAGE WITH SLIDES IS A PILLAR OF THE CLIMBING WORLD, AND FORMS VECTORS OF ACTUAL COMMUNITY THAT HAVE ALWAYS BEEN CENTRAL TO EXPEDITIONS. FIRST HAND INFORMATION, AMONG CLIMBING PEERS, WITH QUESTIONS IS AS REAL AS IT GETS ALMOST, SUBJECT ONLY TO HOW LONG PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO SIT IN A SEAT.

BOOKS

BOOKS BREAK THE TIME BARRIER OF ATTENTION SPANS AND AIRTIME, SO CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT CAN TAKE HOURS AND REVISIONS TO GET ACROSS. THE BEST BOOKS ARE, WELL, THE BEST BOOKS, SOMETHING THAT SPEAKS FOR ITSELF, AND CONVEY HUGE AMOUNTS OF INFORMATION EVEN CENTURIES AFTER THEY WERE WRITTEN. STILL OPEN TO BIAS AND DISTORTION OF COURSE, BOOKS BUILD A TANGIBLE REALITY, BUT ONE THAT CAN BE CROSS REFERENCED EASILY AND DISECTED DOWN TO THE NTH DEGREE.

RESEARCH DATA

PROPER, QUANTIFIABLE DATA EXISTS FOR MOST ASPECTS OF CLIMBING, FROM WEATHER ACHIVES AND MODELS TO THE PERFORMANCE OF BODY AND MATERIALS, GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY TO STATISTICS. FUNDAMENTAL AS A SOURCE, THIS STUFF CAN ALSO BECOME A PRISON, WHEN ALLOWED TO OVERWHELM IDEAS BY TURNING THEM INTO BACKWARDS-LOOKING NUMBERS AND GRAPHS. BE WARY OF THE SLAVERY TO THESE NUMBERS AS THEY LEAVE OUT THE MOST VITAL THING TO CLIMBING – THAT PROGRESS IS MADE NOT ALONG EVEN CURVES, BUT BY RADICAL SHIFTS.

PERSONAL RESEARCH

COLLATING YOUR OWN DATA IS CENTRAL TO ALL EXPEDITIONS, AS IT’S WHAT ALLOWS PLANS TO BE MADE AND THE FANTASIES OF LESSER MEDIA BE QUESTIONED. DATA GATHERING, SELF-EXPERIMENTATION, TRIPS TO OTHER PLACES AND DIRECT ENQUIRY ALL ARE THE SIGNATURES OF THE GREAT EXPEDITIONS OF THE PAST. SELF-CONFRONTING RESEARCH BY CONFRONTING YOUR OWN IDEAS, ie REAL RESEARCH, SHOWS YOU WHERE YOU ARE ALONG A SPECTRUM, OF HOW MUCH YOU KNOW YOU KNOW RATHER THAN SIMPLY WHAT YOU THINK.

EXPERIENCE

NOTHING BEATS BEING THERE. A DAY IN SITU BEATS ALMOST ALL OTHER SOURCES OF IDEAS COMBINED, FILLING IN THE MILLION DETAILS THAT ALL OTHER SOURCES CAN’T. IDEAS DERIVED FROM EXPERIENCE, BY BEING ONE VALLEY OVER OR HAVING TRIED AND FAILED, SEAMLESSLY MERGE WITH THE NEXT IDEA IN A CONDUIT OF ACTUAL REALITY. IN ITS WAY, EXPERIENCE MAKES YOU THE SOURCE, BEHELD ONLY TO YOUR OWN FACULTIES NOT THOSE OF ANOTHER.

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FROM THIS CORNUCOPIA OF SOURCES WE HAVE NOTICED SEVERAL ARCHETYPES OF CLIMBERS ON OUR TRIPS, AND ALL CLIMBERS HAVE A BIT OF EVERYTHING WITH USUALLY ONE ARCHETYPE PROMINENT. EACH IS INFORMED BY AN ORGANIC BLEND OF THE MENTIONED SOURCES, TO FORM A PARADIGM THEY ACT WITHIN THAT HAS GOOD AND BAD QUALITIES.

THE QUALITY OF YOUR EXPEDITION DEPENDS ENTIRELY ON THE QUALITY OF YOUR IDEAS, BALANCED AND INFORMED BY A MIX OF MEDIA AND REFERENCES. IT IS INTEGRAL TO LOOK AT WHICH SOURCES YOU IDEAS COME FROM, SO YOU CAN EXTRAPOLATE HOW YOU WILL GO WHEN YOU ARE FINALLY OUT THERE. POTENTIALLY A LOT OF MONEY AND TIME, AND OF COURSE YOUR LIFE, ARE THE STAKES HERE. EXPEDITIONS ARE NOT A GAME WHERE YOU GET TO RESTART TO MATCH YOUR IDEAS. ONCE IN MOTION IT MAY BE TOO LATE TO FIND OUT YOU SHOULD HAVE DEVELOPED YOUR THINKING, TO INCLUDE INFORMATION THAT AFFECTS EVERY ELEMENT.