CoHi591 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 8:20 am
This is a stress point for me as well. I really like climbing peaks a s backpacking solo on my own terms, which is why I haven't really enjoyed the small handful of times I've gone with internet people. I'm also extremely introverted and quiet and I don't want to make someone else feel uncomfortable if we aren't chatting. Sharing a 3-4 hour car ride each way with a stranger is a nightmare.
As an aside I've always joked about starting my own "Introverts mountain guiding business". Need company/a guide on the peaks for safety and a second set of eyes on the route, but want general solitude and absolutely no small talk otherwise? I'm you're guy!
Kidding of course. I'm not good enough to guide.
I remember a "Slow Hikers Unite!" thread from a while back. Maybe we need an "Introverted Hikers Unite!" as well as a "Short Hikers Unite!" thread. Anybody else who falls into all three categories, feel free to PM me!
But then again, I also suspect evaluating partners is a bit like how my non-asexual/aromantic friends describe evaluating romantic partners: the people you mesh with the best IRL aren't necessarily the ones you'd go looking for online. The partner I'd say I've climbed with the most pretty much doesn't stop talking until he falls asleep (and sometimes not even then), but he's got a consistently interesting perspective that keeps me from thinking about how much my legs hurt/my lungs are burning/I wish I were fast asleep in bed. Another regular partner has 7" on me, all of them seemingly in his legs, but he's considerate about finding routes on scrambles that won't put a shorter-legged climber at too much of a disadvantage. He's also a genuinely good-hearted, generous sort, so I have no idea why he keeps hanging around me.
I've also hiked with partners who looked good on paper, so to speak, but while they were perfectly fine people, I guess the chemistry just wasn't there.
That said, I do have actual, solid, quantifiable standards, mainly going back to Tornadoman's comment about medical conditions: I'm a Type I diabetic. When I say I need to stop to tend to my low blood sugar, I don't mean I'll be getting a little hangrier if we keep going. I mean I can either eat some Skittles NOW, or whoever I'm hiking with is gonna have to call Flight for Life.
"I'm not selling drugs, dude. Drugs sell themselves. I'm selling stoke!"
- Guy at the table next to mine at Alta's Slopeside Cafe, in what I can't help but selfishly hope were (will be?) his verbatim words to the arresting officer(s)