When I was a teen, a generation before the internet, I would go to my local library and scour the shelves for any book related to adventure sports. It didn’t take long, there was like seven titles of wavering quality.  I borrowed all of them, multiple times, but there was one stand out. It was a book about Adventure Sports featuring mountaineering, canyoning, vertical access caving, you get the picture, extreme experiences in wild places. That book opened my mind to the possibilities out there and from which tickled my imagination to achieve some of that craziness for myself.   States of Adventure is that kind of book.
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Adventure has it’s pull in a myriad of ways, each of you chase it for your own set of reasons. Embarking on a mission requires determination and completing it requires resilience. Fitz Cahall angled his collection of stories not so much about the adventure itself, in all the stories in States of Adventure it is what the adventure does to the person and their mindset. It’s how the participants find themselves amongst the cold, the heat, the storms and the heartache. This is the foundation Fitz wants to share and the state of mind that the adventure brings to the participant.

The book has thirty short stories set in a wide variety of outdoor pursuits (mainly in the United States), and there is something for everyone but the visceral joy of being out there amongst it and the tough learnings that wild landscapes bring, eclipse all else. It’s a tell of adventure and as I read, I dug a little deeper into my own experiences. Adventure and its landscapes have carved deep song lines in the way I go about my life, it has provided me memories that will light up even the darkest of nights.

Amongst the trees climbing, an aesthetic photo to aid your escape into the book "States of Adventure" (Photo Credit: Matt Van Bien)

The book is beautifully illustrated, and the stories aren’t long. Its like the internet but solid and the writing has been carefully selected to provide impact. The stories move the reader emotionally, but I have a feeling Fitz wants you to move from being inside and cozy to being outside and amazed.  
The writing is high class, and he has collated many winners in his time hosting The Dirtbag Diaries. Fitz has included some of those pieces, but the read is also peppered by others sharing their perspectives of wild places and chasing crazy adventures and lessons learned.

States of Adventure has prose coupled with killer one liners. An example is a story, The Gimp Monkeys, where three adaptive climbers, Craig Demarinto, Pete Davis and Jarem Frye, attempt the first all -adaptive climb of El Capitan in Yosemite.  Of the difficulty Pete Davis shares, “The right attitude and one arm will beat the wrong attitude and two arms every time.” Gold.

"The Gimp Monkeys" Craig Demarinto leading on Zodiac in Yosemite National Park, California. This was the first all-adaptive attempt to climb El Capitan. (Photo Credit: Mikey Schaeffer)

Photo from the story "Unseen But Felt" (Photo Credit: Mikey Schaefer)

Another is a story called Unseen but Felt. It is a heartfelt story of Fitz and Becca Cahall’s 300-mile journey across the Sierra Range of the Western United States. Much of it is on goat tracks and through unfrequented wild passes. Tired and a little out of their depth in a blizzard, they come across some tracks. Fitz writes, “Deer tracks appeared just when we doubted our way. Sometimes it’s just better to believe in a direction rather than questioning the path.” 
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Living an adventure is like wielding a sword - sometimes you cut through, sometimes you get cut.

​This book isn’t about claiming summits or conquering nature. It’s about the transformations that happen on the trail and the wisdom that nature teaches those who stay long enough to learn how to listen. 

There is a story called Sacred Slopes by Len Necefer. Len is a native Navajo man and an outdoor adventurer. His words seek out the connection between person and landscape. He emphasises the knowledge of Country that his people have in story and culture, he realises with global warming that song lines referencing snow and ice may be lost as the snow disappears, forever. Will the stories of these alpine landscapes continue to hold meaning for his people? Stories like that make me ponder.

Maybe that’s what Fitz wants to remind us of?

​That wild places and experiences are much more than a tick or an Instagram post. These experiences will move you to the core and strengthen your spine for other challenges in life. There is another thing. The experience of going wild - that is being out of your comfort zone in the natural world - will provide you a compass to navigate life but also warm your enthusiasm for the life we have been gifted. So, get out there. Thanks, Fitz, for a book that I will draw on for inspiration and for reflection. It’s a good one to have on my shelf so visitors to my place may find a collection of stories that explain me but in turn, may provide them a reference of where they can find themselves.    

States of Adventure is published by DK Publishing

Fitz Cahall creator of the Dirt Bag Diaries and author of the book "States of Adventure."