Poll: What’s Your Biggest Adventure Dream?

When Dick Bass died last week, he left behind at least two major legacies: He was the first person to climb the tallest peak on each continent and, perhaps even more impactful, he was the first person to popularize the Seven Summits quest as a dream. (He also founded Snowbird ski resort, but since it’s so small and gets such lousy snow, it probably doesn’t count as a legacy. J/K.)

His quest became the quest of thousands of other people around the world, and I suspect that all of us, or many of us, have these desires to prove ourselves, these dreams that are sometimes clear to us and other times fuzzy and just out of reach, waiting for someone like Dick to articulate them in recognizable form.

Or maybe not prove ourselves. In the 1970s, the ne plus ultra of adventure was backpacking deep into the wilderness. In the 1980s, it was to chase extreme and glisse. In the 1990s, it took the form of being a summit conquerer. Today, the idea that machismo outdoor accomplishments should be our goal has lost some of its luster, replaced, I would argue, by an embrace of a more achievable ideal: outdoor excursions with friends, car camping, and campfires. Back to nature just to be in nature. This dream, I would also argue, is every bit as cleanly articulated as Bass’s Seven Summits idea, if not more so, by the popularity of the #vanlife trend.

How much we’re influenced by the zeitgeist – or influence it ourselves – is impossible to say. Dreams are personal, and we don’t often know ourselves why we’re driven to want certain things. But we do know we want them.

It’s pretty obvious that we can’t imagine or list all the possible dreams. You can select up to three from our list and, of course, add whatever you want in comments.

WIN SMITH SUNGLASSES JUST BY VOTING
This week, one poll participant will receive Smith Optic’s Clark sunglasses. We’ll pick the winner via random number generator (and announce it here) – all you have to do to enter is vote and leave a comment so we have your email to contact you. Must have a U.S. or Canadian address. Contest ends Sunday, August 9, at midnight PST.

Congratulations to Will Boulware, who wins the Smiths this week!

Photo of Torres del Paine National Park, Chile, by Steve Casimiro