Winter's Worth It: Why Winter is a Wild Time to be Outdoors

Many outdoor adventurers have a season they stray away from, or have a season they are more attracted to. Some people may seek to adventure more during, or only during certain seasons, while others may look for the opposite.

The ebbs and flows of life; such as seasons, jobs, time of day and outdoor conditions, usually pace our experiences in the wild. But what if I told you that it doesn’t have to? Winter is a season that is very often overlooked by outdoor adventurers because of the discomfort, the lack of convenience, and the lack of beauty. To me, these are all the exact reasons that make winter a perfect time for outdoor freaks!

(Photo captured by Michael Montes.)

I’m sure most people, when asked, would tell you they’d like to grow as a person, at any given moment in time. In the same instance, I’m sure most outdoor adventurers would tell you they’d like to be more efficient at whatever their method of being outside is - be it birding, hiking, fishing, hunting, etc....

The discomfort of air nipping the tips of every bodily feature forces you to move slower. Each motion becomes more intentful because if you don’t look before you step, then you might step on a rock, that rock could have ice on it, which could cause you to roll your ankle or slip, then fall - whatever! My point being that IF you don’t move slow in winter, you could be jeopardizing your entire outdoor experience. 

However! When forced to move slowly, you tend to notice a little more… you tend to familiarize yourself with each movement, each pattern, so by the time spring comes around and you can feel your fingertips again, all of a sudden those steps feel a lot stronger! (Literally, in some cases.) Winter forces you to build routines in normal every-day motions, while outdoors. It forces you to listen more, consider more - be more in touch.

I think that when learning to acknowledge and adapt to discomfort, rather than shying away from it in the outdoors, it begins to translate when that feeling arises in any other circumstance. Winter is the season that taught me the most about being okay with being uncomfortable. Once discomfort is relieved of as a factor, everything else becomes comfortable, becoming one less thing that stops you… from anything. 

(Photo captured by Ethan Bertini.)

Convenience is a huge reason I believe our society is structured the way it is. The more convenient something is, the more efficient it becomes. When processes become more efficient, though, the factors that contribute towards carrying those processes out become less valuable… until those processes result in failures! 

For instance, grocery shopping… In the last ten years grocery shopping has started out as a multiple party process where a consumer walks into a shop that has already sourced products from all over the world for the consumers’ convenience; to, an experience where the entire store is presented to you via an app, then delivered to you without any physical contact between the producer and consumer, IN ANY CAPACITY. How long before we, as a general public, will become incapable of shopping for ourselves?

Take this same logic, and apply it towards outdoor recreation. If you had the choice to never experience winter outdoors in the same area, would you? Wouldn’t that take away from what makes summer so special in that given area? Guess what, everything that happens during the summer - the vibrant colors, hums and sounds of life, water flowing out of every crack, blades of grass springing from every sprout, insects emerging from every crevice - wouldn’t be there without what occurred during the winter months. Everything that happens on your grocery app… wouldn’t be there without the people that grew, outsourced, delivered and selected the groceries that end up on your doorstep. The inconvenience of winter makes the conveniences of summer all that more cherishable. 

Which, in turn, leads me to my final point: The brutal atrocities of winter, and the ability to experience and conquer all of it, become that much more beautiful when finally overcome. To say, ‘Wow, I saw that tree six months ago - when it looked dead and hopeless - now, I’m standing here watching it, not only thrive for itself, but provide an entire life for hundreds of creatures to thrive off of it, too?!’ is something fulfilling in its own right.

It teaches you about the capability of any living being to endure way more than what we usually allow ourselves to. You become more connected with that place. You appreciate it more for teaching you those kinds of lessons; and eventually, are left with a feeling that maybe it appreciates you a little more too, just for being there and taking the time to understand it. The beauty in this feeling is worth more than any surface-level beauty could ever provide. 

With that said, get some better clothes - anything that’ll work - and get uncomfortable outside this winter! I can’t promise, you won’t hurt yourself or get scared. I can promise you’ll learn something, and that it’ll all be worth it.

(Photo captured by Ethan Bertini.)