To the mountains!

MANILA, Philippines - Five days into the New Year and most online trends have rotted faster than an ad for Enteng Kabisote.

By now, we’ve all read hundreds of “privilege speeches” from our contacts on Facebook and Twitter: resolutions, well-wishers, and post-apocalyptic hoo-ha of which we have no real business meddling with or caring for whatsoever. Besides, we ourselves have proven that year after year, these resolutions only bear weight as long as the New Year remains “new.” In a disturbing way, the past week has also showed us that the epitome of description for the year 2012 — or any old year for that matter — is “rollercoaster ride.” If we were to base it on our social networks, who’d think that 2013 would be any different from last year?

2012 was the year we were taught that social media can only do so much. Nothing new came from all the fuss we built around #AMALAYER, #KabitMovies, or even #KCPioloBreakUp. Likewise, nothing substantial materialized online when Typhoon Pablo ravaged Davao and Compostela Valley. Whether we like it or not, the avenues of cyberspace are trafficked by us, the measly one percent.

But we’re in the Philippines and the real s**t is out there. So if you’re bent on changing a habit, posting a lengthy and eloquent status message won’t help anyone but your created online persona. And on the Net, every day is New Year’s Day.

It is in this backdrop that I put forward a different kind of resolution: take on a new lifestyle altogether. Making a resolution is not as easy as selecting which counter to take when paying at a supermarket. Resolutions are complex choices. A smoker doesn’t quit smoking overnight. In much the same way, nothing worthwhile is ever achieved overnight. It takes a whole lifestyle revamp.

Take on a lifestyle which aches for adventure; a lifestyle which tries out something new every single day. Try mountaineering.

These days, climbing mountains has evolved for better or for worse. On one hand, there are “tour groups” which trek the easy trails in large numbers with porters carrying their luggage for them. For a price, they organize transportation, take the overnight route, and leave the mountain with trash and worn-out trails, trampled on by 40 to 80 pairs of feet.

They reach the summit and pull out a tarpaulin with “We have conquered Mt. _____” written on it and they pose for pictures which soon appear on Facebook. Mass climbers, they are called.

On the other hand, there are those small groups that climb for the sake of climbing, owning their time, enjoying the scenery, and preparing home-cooked meals. They do everything themselves, from digging cat holes for their poop, to talking to trees, and finally, taking their trash home with them. In other words, they’re your modern-day Fellowship: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Boromir (+), Legolas, Gimli, and Gandalf. (And the occasional Gollum.)

And after summiting and coming down from the mountain, these sad blokes don’t feel like they’ve conquered any mountain at all. Instead, they find themselves conquered by the mountain. Smitten, they go back for more. They be mountaineers.

Mountaineering involves more than buying the gear or climbing a calculated number of mountains. It might not even include any of those. Mountaineering is a paradoxical lifestyle requiring a certain zest for life and an outlandish fear of death. While all mountaineers are adventurous, no mountaineer is fearless of death. Mountaineers are not mad daredevils or suicide bombers. They are normal people with normal ambitions. Don’t we all want to climb to the top?

Climbing the mountain’s summit is but its physical manifestation. And when you start craving it, that’s when it seeps into your soul.

But before I lose my point and rave about the sport, let’s look at where we are now. By distorting time and space, cyberspace has ruined our idea of a landscape. Cyberspace is flat — there are no cliffs, no water wells, no danger of nighttime, no fresh cow dung (the real ones), and ultimately, there are no summits. What risks are left to take on the Internet — a libel suit for a status message? No wonder the Cybercrime Law got everyone on their toes.

So why not try something tangible? Get your ass off your computer.

To put an end to technology interfering with real-life social interaction, people have taken to stacking their phones up on top of each other during dinner outs. The first one to take his/hers off the stack pays for the bill. On top of a mountain, mountaineers forget they ever brought a phone with them. But they know they’ve got everything they need.