soggycherry

Three types of people climb mountains in southeast asia. Locals who grew up in the mountains, Europeans and peasants.

Locals wear slippers and take half a day to summit while carrying a 60L pack full of food for the Europeans and the peasants. Europeans wear Salomons and a small bright pack, shockingly enough they also have no fear of the cold at the top. Often they are seen with just one layer, shorts and a hat. Peasants consist of locals who never really hiked and travellers who claimed they know how to hike. I would hope there is a good number of hikers falling into the latter category of peasantry. (I would hope there are people as incapable as myself.)

Trekking in southeast Asia requires two mental successes which are usually present in a selected few: toxicity and (over)confidence. Come on, have you ever encountered bro-hikers? They stare at you suspiciously before politely striding past you. Many Europeans are good at that, and justifiably so as they are indeed very fit. I saw them and thought to myself, no way I am hiking with these german speaking monsters. No way I belong here.

Is it necessarily unfit, though, to conquer a mountain in four days instead of one day? Maybe, but it shouldn’t mean it’s less healthy. There is no principled reason why those mental successes could not be achieved by the peasants to achieve the trek they wanted to do. In reality they already do possess those strengths, maybe even more so than the Europeans. A peasant wouldn’t sign up for a trek without a little overconfidence and competitiveness (with themselves or others).

All that to say I should be less intimidated by Europeans. They’re not my enemy, they’re just very special. And I shouldn’t be too afraid of the mountain, it is also not my enemy, it’s just a toxic friend you like to hang out with sometimes to catch up on some tea.

I also shouldn’t feel bad about growing up at sea level in a traditional Asian household which valued tutoring over mountaineering as an extracurricular activity, and, in a way, privilegedly so. As you would know, porters and guides treading through the bushes every day earn a horrifyingly small amount of money for the effort they put into their craft. Yes, it is a craft, and all of them compose it beautifully.

Whatever the hiker’s (objective) fitness level, it is a privilege they are having an okay great time or are voluntarily putting themselves in breathlessness for funsies. However efficiently or leisurely (or not) they climb the mountain, Europeans and peasants are so fortunate they have the mental space to be toxic and be overly confident at a recreation.

21 April 2026 – DNF at Mount Fansipan