Humbled by nature

As a little boy, my dad loved taking me to the Swiss Alps to camp and hike. It gave me a special bond with nature and the mountains. As a teenager, I brought my first mobile phone into the mountains to stay in touch with my friends back home. My dad still talks about that one text message I received (and answered) on top of a mountain.
Now, years later, I understand all too well why that bothered him so much, now that the mountains have become a place for me too to find rest and escape the busyness of everyday life.

When I started studying in Delft, I found a group of friends to share that love of nature with. We call ourselves the binkies, and we go on an adventurous trip into nature (almost) every year.
I still remember that during one of our first trips in Switzerland, we came across trail running signs along the path. For us, just hiking the trail with our daypacks was hard enough. Who on earth would be crazy enough to run it?
In recent years my love for off-road sports has grown more and more, both running and on the bike. It’s a great way to reach beautiful places and enjoy nature. But during races there’s often little time to take in your surroundings. Most of the time you’re staring at your feet, or those of whoever is in front of you.

That’s why the concept of Le Pilgrimage Trail appealed to me right away: trail running in a small group through the French Alps, a hotel as basecamp, and plenty of room for good food and even better stories. It’s not a race, it’s an adventure. It takes you back to the essence: challenging yourself, connecting with nature, and friendship. 120 kilometers of trails, spread over 3 stages and 4 days.
I managed to talk Luc into taking on this challenge with me and sharing the adventure. Together with 31 other Pilgrims, we gathered last week at Hotel Saint Roch in Puy-Saint-Vincent. At the start of the week, most of us were still strangers to each other, but that would change quickly.

We like to use the glamorous term “trail running”, but in reality it often has very little to do with running. On even the smallest incline it turns into power walking, and often it is not much more than scrambling.
With the sound of your own panting echoing in your head, the noise of the river resonating through the valley, and your poles ticking like a metronome on the rocks of the trail, every step brings you closer to the top. Again and again, we are humbled by nature, and there’s no better feeling than being humbled by nature.
At the top there’s room to catch your breath, look around to take it all in, and for a high-five. Ironically, I also got a call at the top of a mountain from my dad. He thought I had gotten injured because my live tracker did not move. Luckily I could reassure him that everything was fine. Technology sure comes in handy sometimes, right dad?

The descents are amazing. Flying down the trails gives you a huge sense of freedom and a solid dose of adrenaline. With that feeling, you can take on the world and nothing can take it away from you. Until, mid-stride, you hit a rock and have to eat the fall. Once again humbled by nature. A moment to catch your breath, to check that everything still works, and to finish the rest of the descent with a little bit more discipline. The mountains are fantastic, enormous, imposing. I feel tiny, and now I know my limits. Nature is the boss, and I know my place.

The Le Pilgrimage adventure is also about friendship and camaraderie, because you don’t run these trails alone. With the race element gone, there’s time to share the suffering and to enjoy the top together. If you fall, the rest will wait for you, and if it turns out you underestimated how much salt you should’ve packed, that gets shared too. Of course the level within the group varies, but you quickly cluster together with the people around you. When you spend hours together suffering in the mountains, you’ve got all the time in the world to get to know each other. The connecting factor isn’t hard to find, since everyone was crazy enough to sign up for this event in the first place. Naturally there’s also plenty of time for introspection on the mountain, and it’s remarkable how fast that leads to deep conversations. Turns out that shared suffering makes a solid foundation for a strong bond.

The other bonding factor, and an important part of Le Pilgrimage, is sharing good food. Anne, the chef at Hotel Saint Roch, prepares incredible meals all week long. Fresh pasta is waiting after every stage, and every evening the whole group eats together at one long table. These mealtimes are also the perfect place to tell the stories of the day. The first night everyone still eats very politely, but as the week goes on, the table gets louder and hungrier.
It’s not just at the hotel that we get treated well, even on the trails we are well looked after. At the checkpoints we are welcomed with cheese fondue, salads, hotdogs, fruit and plenty more. Every now and then we also pass a little cabin with cheese, sausage and génépi waiting for us, where we are invited to slow down for a moment. Where a checkpoint in a race usually gets rushed through, here it is a moment to calm down. They are placed so that the hardest part of the day is already behind you, and you’re encouraged to sit down, take it easy, and to cheer on the rest of the group climbing up the mountain. The first day this still feels a bit unfamiliar, but it is actually such a great way to enjoy the trails and let go of the race mentality.

I came back from the mountains with a full filling. Grateful for all the camping trips of my childhood that led me here, for the new adventures and friendships, and for all the beauty nature has to offer.

// pictures by @YORIT_KLUITMAN and @Celui_qui_court