Outdoor recreation often slips into what I call an achievement-based relationship with nature. I’ve been guilty of it myself. Whether it’s “bagging peaks”, racing to finish the AT, or stamping the land with machines and monuments, the focus shifts from ecology to ego.
Being obsessed with Peak Bagging is not Solarpunk.
Nature is not your personal obstacle to challenge yourself against, it is a shared place of discovery you trample when you only see it as a place to endlessly, exhaustingly conquer.
As long as they’re not defacing, degrading, or destroying anything, its nobodies business how another person appreciates nature. Wtf is this gatekeeping bullshit?
If you read the article, a large portion of it is dedicated to people defacing and degrading the nature.
Hell the title card image is a tree with a bunch of initials carved into it.
Overall the headline blows, because the article had a large chunk dedicated to Native American Cultural Appropriation and other related criticisms.
To clarify, I’m replying to the OP, not the article.