Too many times, we hear things like: I climbed Mount Everest, because I really wanted to see if I could do it.
What happens if you fail your test? You die, come back maimed/chronic pain for life, have to get helicoptered out, etc. So many times, adventurers don’t come back, and it’s usually: got lost / without map / signal, was super hot / cold, slipped and fell into something / got hurt, hit by avalanche/falling rock. The disproportionate danger is the usual reason we tell people not to do this stuff, and while it’s a good one, people don’t accept it as much as they should.
The other, more fundamental reason: because these natural tests are less rigorous than tests you can come up with yourself, for cheap, and with ample ability to bail out. That is: all the danger of some big mountain climb, hike, swim, etc. is a pointless accessory to the function of testing yourself.
From that perspective, if we continue to talk about Everest – lots of people can climb it. The hard part is surviving with your health. For any half-prepared person, it isn’t testing of your willpower or training – it’s biological susceptibility to the high altitudes, the crush of other people trying to climb, random weather causing you to fall, frostbite, or get hit by objects, etc. Everest hasn’t been a technically challenging climb for some years, unless you are the Sherpas laying down the paths at the beginning of the climbing season. In situations like this, you aren’t testing the things people normally come to test.
To the constructive point: what are better tests?:
- If it’s about orienteering etc. you hike with a partner who is checking the maps etc. and then lets you know if you screw up. As such, you can go on crazy mazes through trees, walk at night, etc. and get a much bigger challenge than if you are using conventional landmarks.
- The similar considerations apply to cave diving: instead of getting super disoriented in a tunnel with no easy way out, just put a blindfold on your goggles and make yourself a challenging obstacle course in a safe area.
- If the point is survival under heat, you walk in a circle in the desert around your car, and if you get too hot/dehydrated, you walk to your car and cool off. If you want to prove you can survive in the Arctic, you go camp outside the observatory or hotel room, and bail out if it gets really bad.
- If it’s about the technical capability to climb some slot canyon, or other natural landmark, you go with a group. If you want to make it nasty, you go pour some water on it, or whatever extra you want to add.
- If you want to go swimming e.g. across the Atlantic: go swim near the beach in cold, turbulent weather without riptides. If you are trying to test yourself, go swim in a mild storm with life preservers etc. attached and an observer in a (rescue) boat looking out for you.
- Overall, the crazy sport climbing walls are going to be way more technically challenging than almost anything seen in the environment.