“People ask me, ‘What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?’ and my answer must at once be, ‘It is of no use.’There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behaviour of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron… If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to live. That is what life means and what life is for.”
-George Herbert Leigh Mallory
“Because it’s there” is the famous response that George Mallory gave when asked why climb Everest. To me it is more than a simple witty quote. This mentality defines my life. In 2009, as a freshman in college, I decided to attempt a winter thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. Why? Because it’s there. In winter of 2013 I traveled to Newfoundland to summit it’s high mountains in the deep, early season snow. In 2014, I became the first person to paddle a kayak from Key West to the Dry Tortugas. In 2015 I attempted to break the Appalachian Trail thru-hike unsupported record. Why? Because it’s there.
In addition to backpacking and kayaking, I am also an avid freediver, climber, and mountaineer. I am also currently a Family Medicine Resident in Missoula, Montana.
Please take your time and explore this page. If you have any comments or just want to say you enjoy the blog, please leave them below!
Grayson- ran across your blog after following a link from Sharman Ultra news to your September post on hand swelling when hiking. Enjoyed the read and your blog. All the best to you and your 3rd year of Med school and beyond. I graduated from EVMS in 1997.. I enjoyed my time there. Went into Emergency Medicine as it allowed time for adventures. If you ever have any questions about what the next 20 years might look like shoot me an email.
This is so cool! Thanks for commenting Miles! Most of my considerations for the future are to account for ability to get out for adventures too. I hope I can find some balance that lets me do that. I appreciate you commenting.
Hi Grayson, love your blog! Really insightfull stuff!
Thanks for writing,
Nivge.
What a terrific blog! I just stumbled upon this…how in the world do you find time, not only to hike and climb but to write this??!! I shared it with my son, Tommy and his best friend, James Hitch, because i know they’d both be very intrigued… Match Day is looming! I hope you get your first choice, wherever that might be…
Cheers…your downstairs neighbor, Anne
Thanks Anne! I’m glad you like it! I haven’t had much time to write the last year but sometimes I get a good adventure in!
Which quilt do you have from Enlightened Equipment at 8 oz? From your great list.
short slim 50 degree with home mods. 900 fill
Hi Grayson,
Crazy story: got a email from a CBD distributor who commented they liked my blog about outdoor adventures. Odd. How did this spammer know I love me some outdoor adventures? Reading on, the email listed your website, which I had to click on because my name is Grayson Cobb too! This might be kind of strange, but I just had to reach out and let you know that we are basically the same people… except you are male, and a medical student. Like you, my passions in life are backpacking, kayaking, climbing (novice), and as of recently, mountaineering. I was also born in DC and grew up in MD. Anyway, in addition to wanting to let you know you have a great blog, I wanted to forward the aforementioned email onto the correct Grayson Cobb.
Lol this is amazing!
Hi Grayson,
I hope that you still monitor this page. Reading through it has been one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I first came across it while looking for what kind of gear used for an AT FKT. After reading your 2015 packing list, I kept the page up on my laptop as something to come back to. I think it was because the blurb about the ethos of “Because it’s there” resonated with me and I wanted to check out more of your blog later. Whatever it was, I am glad I did.
Today I came back to browse the rest of the page. Reading through it felt like the sort of story that would be featured on an episode of “This American Life”. That I could so randomly stumble upon the past works of someone with such a similar philosophy and life path. Someone with the same call to adventure, hobbies, philosophy on health, and career aspirations. A sort of deja vu that someone else had lived my life before I had.
First, what you wrote on the drive for adventure, is very similar to ideas I have spent a lot of time thinking and writing about after some very memorable “brushes with entropy” backpacking high up on the moonlit plains of the white mountains of NH this winter. Reading your blog I found there was someone else who relished in struggling into the cold wilderness with the same passion as myself. I also thought it was cool that you were a then medical student when you made this blog, as I aspire to go into medicine myself.
Things got weird when I clicked on the “Triathlon” section of your page. I am on the Virginia Tech triathlon team. Years later, I also watch Navy unload their dedicated trailer on those groggy mornings. This year, I watched someone die at a triathlon in North Carolina, a helpless experience that further solidified my desire to study medicine. Obviously, no two people are the same, but these are some weird inextricable connections.
Look, I don’t want to be too forward in posting all this, but this was too strange of a discovery to go unspoken. I hope that life has found you well in the years since you were actively creating this blog, and I hope you still look at these comments. My email is jackquinn@vt.edu. If you see this, reach out. I would love to talk about anything, from finding meaning in the outdoors to just shooting the shit about the past and current state of the VT club team. I hope that even with the demand of your career in medicine you still find time to answer the call of the mountains. All the best,
Jack