“He who
learns must suffer…” —Aeschylus
Ever since
humans shed their fur and felt the warmth of a lightning-caused fire and
realized that if they could keep the flame alive, they could avoid the brutal
cold forever, we’ve spent a good portion of our time in pursuit of that goal.
For those of us who reside in the “modern world,” the effort to stay warm is as
challenging as turning the dial on the thermostat. But before gas furnaces and
heat pumps and electric radiant heat and solar collectors, staying warm could
be a full-time job. If any of you has ever tried, at least for a while, to stay
warm with a wood fire and a good cast iron stove, you know the challenge. The
work never ends. There’s never enough fuel and the fire always dies at three in
the morning. But for most Americans, at least, even that chore is only
something to be read about—“Honey, turn up the heat,” is all we need to do to
stay warm.
But there
are a few of us, driven by forces that can’t quite be explained, who possess a
willingness to suffer and display an utter lack of common sense that causes us
to abandon these comforts and deliberately seek the misery of sub-freezing
temperatures. I’ve been doing this for years and still dabble in self-inflicted
misery from time to time. It’s called ‘winter camping.’ It started like this…
— Jim
Stiles—
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