September 2020 was a month of epic failures for me. I began the month with plans to thru-hike the Uinta Highline Trail and had to be rescued from an unexpected blizzard at 11,000 feet before I could finish. Then I book-ended the month with a failed attempt to summit Borah Peak – Idaho’s tallest point – reluctantly turning back only a mile before the summit because the exposed terrain scared me silly.

And as much as I wanted to crawl up into bed and not think about these failures, that wasn’t an option.

All of us have to face up to failure at some point. Sometimes our defeat results from poor choices. But just as often it’s merely a matter of timing, comfort, or circumstances beyond our control. It’s just part of life. So whether you are just sampling a new sport or just pushing your existing boundaries in the outdoors, you will undoubtedly experience failure once or twice.

For most of us though, falling short of whatever goal you set for yourself can leave you in a real funk. That feeling of failure can linger. Self-doubt creeps in. You begin to wonder if you’ve lost your mojo. And the bigger the failure is in your mind, the worse these negative feelings get. Trust me, I know.

But before you throw your hands in the aid and resign yourself to a life at the gym, let’s consider some basic facts.

FAILURE IS NOT ALL BAD

Fact #1 – Occasional failure is inevitable. None of us come out of the womb ready to turn into an outdoor pro. If you’ve never failed in the backcountry, then either (a) you’re new to the outdoors; or (b) you never really left your comfort zone. You can research, and plan, and watch others things on YouTube ad nauseam. But, you won’t really know your own limits until you get out there and try it for yourself. Your first time might be an epic failure. The second and third time may be equally ugly. But, you can’t learn if you’re unwilling to try. So don’t let the occasional failure create a belief that you have some sort of systematic problem.

Fact #2 – Failure isn’t always your fault. I love solo backpacking, trail running, and hiking. But there’s one thing I’ve repeatedly discovered during my adventures. The outdoors is never really a solo sport. There’s always a handful of other characters out there with you. It could be the weather, the terrain, a wildlife encounter, seasonal fire closures, or other people. And every single one them wants to have a say in your backcountry experience — whether you like it or not!

Fact #3 – Failure is often self-preservation. When fear is a dominant reason keeping you from your goal, it’s worth asking yourself what exactly you’re afraid of. Is your hesitation simply a result of this being something new and uncomfortable? Or are you genuinely worried about some of the risks? If it’s the latter, then consider this. That abject feeling of fear may be your brain allowing your good judgment override everything else so you can live another day. After all, just because you can master a slack line that’s 18 inches off the ground doesn’t mean you are *quite* ready to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope. Knowing your limits is a good thing if you hope to live a long, adventure-filled life!

Fact #4- Every failure is worth sharing. After a bit of time and distance, most of our minor backcountry failures turn into great stories. Like that time you forgot to bring toilet paper on a four-day backpacking trip. Meanwhile, some our missteps can be downright scary. Like that time my friend got lost in the dark – without a flashlight or her phone – for 12 hours in middle of a massive rain storm on the Appalachian Trail. Yet, regardless of magnitude of the situation, every failure is worth sharing with others, either as a funny anecdote around the campfire or as a cautionary tale.

So, if failure truly is inevitable, how do you muster the resilience to plow ahead without letting it ruin your confidence or self-esteem?

EVALUATE THE FAILURE

The silver lining in falling short of any goal is it gives you the opportunity to examine and reflect on your goal, methods, and preparation.

Yet to evaluate any failure properly, you have to be willing to take a brutally honest look at yourself and what happened, not merely brush over the shortcoming. Whether it’s the gear you brought (or left behind), time constraints, bad weather conditions, difficult choices made in the heat of the moment, or something else entirely. Any number of variables can cause the most perfect plan to go awry.

Unfortunately, some problems have complex solutions, and the last thing you want to to is return to the backcountry without remedying the issue. So, how do you go about assessing your bigger failures in the outdoors without conjuring up feelings anxiety, fear, or denial? Here’s a few steps I recently used when dealing with one of my own recent failures.

STEP 1: Review your goals

When you’re sitting around in a funk after a recent failure, the first thing you need to do is examine your goals. This is the why or how you actually want to get there. We have a tendency to gloss over these two factors and focus on the outcome. But, if you hope to try again and success, you need some clarity on your goals.

Let’s say you’re really getting into mountaineering. If your goal is to reach to the summit of a Mt. Rainier, then perhaps the route isn’t the most critical factor. Getting hyper-focused on going up a certain way could be counterproductive and ultimately result in failure. Instead, you need to refocus on the true goal – getting to the summit.

Conversely, if your goal is to master a 5.8 technical climb, perhaps the location of the mountain is less important than the grading of the route. Your success doesn’t hinge on whether this climb was in the Sierra Nevadas. It could just as easily be a route a bit closer to home. Once again, being able to articulate your goal might avoid future disappointment or failure.

STEP 2: Review your planning & preparation process

Imagine a 19th century polar explorer heading to the wilds. He knows the weather conditions will be freezing for weeks and months. And you better believe he knows the dire consequences of forgetting to pack warm gloves. That omission could result in frostbitten fingers or even the inability to continue his journey. Gloves are as essential to his success (or failure) as knowing how to read a map or bringing enough food for the expedition.

Of course, most failures in the outdoors are more nuanced than just forgetting to pack a pair of gloves. But the point of this illustration is that it’s often relatively simple details that make or break an outdoor adventure. And as you do an autopsy of your own outdoor failures, ask yourself the following about your planning and preparation:

• Did I have a plan or was I just expecting to wing it?
• What gear did I pack, forget, or intentionally leave behind?
• Were there any skills or requirements for this trip that I didn’t feel 100% comfortable about?
• When was the last time I checked the weather forecast?
• Did I have the flexibility to change my plan when something went wrong?
• Were my expectations about this backcountry adventure realistic?

STEP 3: Review the events methodically

Once you’re reviewed your goals and picked apart your planning, it’s time to get to the meat of the issue. What actually happened?

If your failure was more traumatic (e.g. you nearly drowned or watched a friend fall off a cliff), this is the unfortunate part of the process where you will have to re-live the event. Take your time, and just remember, the goal here isn’t to trigger your emotions or punish yourself for the failure. It’s about examining the event to avoid a similar outcome in the future.

There are three common ways to review your experience to get the maximum information needed to help you move forward.

OUTCOME-BASED APPROACH. In this method, you focus primarily on the outcome, then work backwards to identify what specific elements or decisions went awry.

For example, let’s say you took a wrong turn on a trail and spent the next several hours off-track and worried. You’d begin your analysis with the result (i.e., getting lost). Then you’d examine all the things that potentially contributed to that outcome. Did you have a map or GPS? How frequently did you check it? Was the trail poorly marked? Were you distracted when you missed the turn? And so on, until you feel you understand the entire situation and all the contributing factors.

PLAN-BASED APPROACH. This second method focuses on getting information by comparing the each element of your plan against what actually occurred. I find this approach works really well when the failure revolves around a poor decision or a rapid or unexpected change.

Let’s suppose you came upon a section of trail that was completely washed out and you had to find an alternate route around it before proceeding. You’re going to have a few options in mind, and will undoubtedly weigh the pros and cons of each one before selecting the best alternative. If your choice didn’t pan out as expected, you can go back to your plan and examine each step, what faulty assumptions you might have made, and how your plan went awry.

CHRONOLOGICAL APPROACH. In this final method, you examine the entire event from start to finish in a liner fashion. I often find this approach to be the most helpful one because it’s not centered on a single aspect, decision, or outcome. You might even discover minor decisions, that seem completely unrelated to each other, had a cumulative impact on the failure.

Consider this scenario. Perhaps you fell and broke your leg while canyoneering. The other two analytical approaches above might identify problems with your footwear or how a specific route impacted your footing. But they might completely miss that your were a bit less attentive than normal because you hadn’t eaten since breakfast.

STEP 4: Assess went well and what didn’t

After you’ve reviewed your goals, your planning, and what actually occurred – now it’s time to fix the problem. To do this, you need take all that information you gathered above and plug it into three categories: (1) what you did right; (2) what you could have done better; and (3) the solutions to those shortfalls.

• SUSTAINS. It might seem counter-intuitive to focus on what you did right during a backcountry failure, but the fact that you’re alive to go through this process means you MUST have done something correct. And, If you focus only on what went wrong, you’re less likely to try again. Your self-esteem probably took a wallop out there and you need to remind yourself that you weren’t a helpless animal in the backcountry. You made some good decisions – whether it was in the gear you brought, where you set up camp, or in deciding to seek help. These “sustains” are the choices or things you’d definitely repeat if you were heading back out on this adventure again.

• IMPROVEMENTS. Be forewarned. It’s tempting to want to jump right to this step after a failure. But you can’t really begin to identify where you need to make meaningful improvements until you’ve done a good analysis of your goals, your preparation, and the event itself. Only after you’ve gone through those other steps (and figured out what you want to sustain) are you ready to clearly decide what you need to improve. And remember, as you develop your list of improvements, it should be limited to things that actually had a tangible impact on the failure. Don’t go down the rabbit hole of second-guessing every detail you could have changed about your experience. Keep your eye on the ball!

• SOLUTIONS. Once you have a concrete list of things to improve based on the facts, it’s now time for the final step: developing some solutions. When I examined my recent failure to summit Borah Peak, I discovered three crucial factors that contributed to my inability to reach my goal: (1) I arrived at the trailhead super tired because of the 4-hour early morning drive to get there; (2) I was hiking solo and worried that I’d inadvertently cliff myself out on this unmarked route; and (3) I didn’t feel safe attempting such an exposed climb/scramble without a rope or climbing gear. And so, in developing my plan to return – I opted to hire a seasoned guide from a local climbing company to come with me and help identify the optimal route. She brought appropriate climbing gear. And we spent the prior evening camping at the trailhead to get a good night’s sleep before our journey. These minor tweaks to my plan was all it took to successfully summit just one week after my first failed attempt.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Self-assessment is a great tool for building your confidence back after a major (or even minor) mishap in the outdoors. But you don’t need to wait until you find yourself recovering from a bad experience to improve. As I mentioned above, every failure is worth sharing. So why not take some time to learn from other people’s mistakes too? Here’s a few of my favorite examples that are simple invaluable.

• Outdoor Failures – What we learn from not meeting goals (PMags.com)
• The Top 52 Hiker Mistakes and How to Avoid Them (Backpacker)
• Episode 39: Out There – High On Failure (She Explores Podcast)
• FK-FAIL: When Attempting a Fastest Known Time is NOT for You (The Trek)