Lessons in Gratitude
Luke Nelson experiences a moment of gratitude for some runnable terrain, thirteen hours into the Uinta Traverse. Utah. Photo: Jared Campbell
It started on a hot afternoon in May, deep in . Four of us had been going hard for a couple of days and the fatigue from difficult miles was stacking up. One of us was struggling. It might have been lack of training, or perhaps improper fueling for back-to-back 12-hour days running through the wilds of southern Utah. Or maybe, as we planned the trip, we hadn鈥檛 made clear that the mileages were just estimates and so far they were a bit off. Whatever it was, Matt was not having a good time.
Jared leaned over to me as we marched along the sandy canyon bottom. 鈥淵ou know,鈥� he confided, 鈥渋f we start running for a bit, it will make Matt grateful for when we walk.鈥� 欧博会员入口 both chuckled, then started trotting along, intent on helping our friend find thankfulness.
A couple months later, Jared and I had embarked on another big adventure, this time in the High Uinta Wilderness of northern Utah. Our objective was to climb all of the state鈥檚 13,000-foot peaks in record time. Six or seven hours after leaving the trailhead we joked about our current lesson in gratitude. For most of those hours, we had been traveling on terribly loose talus鈥攖he kind that moves every time it is touched. No rock, from the smallest pebble to the largest boulder, could be trusted to be stable. 欧博会员入口 became increasingly grateful for the rare buttery-smooth single track.
Jared Campbell runs the ridge above Red Castle Lake, a juxtaposition of difficulty and beauty. Uinta Traverse, Utah. Photo: Luke Nelson
The weather reflects Luke Nelson鈥檚 mood during a rough stretch. Photo: Jared Campbell
Sometime around two in the morning, the adventure had gotten quite difficult. 欧博会员入口 were slogging our way up East Gunsite Peak, which had been surprisingly strenuous. To top it off, Jared鈥檚 stomach wasn鈥檛 cooperating and both of our energy levels had tanked. I was having a bad patch and my thoughts had turned quite negative. Just below the summit I stopped to catch my breath. As I stood there, hands on knees, Jared walked up and asked, 鈥淵ou know what I am feeling?鈥�
I took a moment to imagine his answer: Suffering? Discomfort? Torture? Before I could speak, he answered his own question: 鈥淕ratitude.鈥�
I was completely caught off guard. Here we were, 22 hours deep, behind schedule and truly digging to keep the progress forward. Yet Jared stood there smiling, and explained that he was grateful to be in the mountains and grateful to be able to push his body well beyond what most think is possible. That simple comment reframed our entire experience.
Often a crowded and popular summit, Luke and Jared had Kings Peak all to themselves at 2 a.m. Photo: Luke Nelson
欧博会员入口 would continue on for another 10 hours of tedious and difficult high-altitude terrain, along seemingly endless ridgelines, constantly teetering on loose talus. It would have been very easy to hunker down in the pain cave for an old-fashioned sufferfest, but we didn鈥檛. Instead, we enjoyed a good lesson in gratitude.
On July 7, 2017, Luke Nelson and Jared Campbell completed the Uinta Traverse in 32 hours 50 minutes, the fastest known time for the 60-mile traverse that gains 22,600 feet of elevation.
