Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Attributed to many but let’s claim it for Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, or just plain old George Santayana. Writer, philosopher, traveller, Cambridge student and Harvard lecturer, counting among his students T.S. Eliot ( famously an anagram of “Toilets” ) and Gertrude Stein ( “Registered Nut” ). So not an entirely wasted life. Let’s take his advice on looking at the past. Specifically, past Trailwalkers.
Fortunately our own philosopher, Reza, was able to record some information about Trailwalkers, 2008. I refer research-minded readers to his original post for the full detail but the table reproduced below will suffice as quick-reference :
The keen-eyed will note that once you’ve gone up a mountain, down a mountain, up another one, and so on for 100Km, the total ascent starts to become quite surprising. 5420m of surprise, to be exact. That is phenomenal. That is higher than, for example, Loma Larga, high in the Chilean Andes. It is a total ascent of five times England’s highest peak, Mt Snowdon ( 1085m ).
In the European Alps, we have Mt Blanc ( 4800m ). Impressive, but were you to climb it and stand upon it’s summit, you would still be half a vertical kilometre short of our total.
So, let’s pause, Santayana-style, to ponder and philosophise for a moment …
What have we learned from these historical data ?
Clearly, nothing.
We signed up again. If anything, an even more stupid decision than the first time, when at least we could claim we had no idea. We are indeed, condemned to repeat.