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It’s raining. As I lay in my down-filled cocoon listening only to the pattering of raindrops and the last murmurs of camp, I realize how rare and fleeting moments like this are in my life. The iPhone that rarely leaves my side has been on airplane mode since we reached the trailhead at 7:30 in the morning, leaving the safety of its waterproof home only for a quick photo before beginning our expedition to Camp Zeal. And it remained that way for the next 72 hours.
This was the first time in a year that I have been truly disconnected from the digital world. I was invited on a catalog shoot with the Zeal Optics team where we would spend three days in the Colorado wilderness splitboarding and camping in the snow. Conditions were less than ideal—thunderstorms had been forecasted for the entire week—but despite the constant struggle to keep our boots dry, we found that there was nothing that could dampen our spirits. After a long, disappointing season with many of the riders scanning social media to figure out where the snow is at, this was a reprieve from a world that is powered by the need to be connected.
So many comments were made throughout the trip about how liberating it was to remove our infatuation with Instagram, the desire to Snapchat mundane moments of the day, or to know that for just a couple of hours, the emails could wait. The society we live in has fueled the addiction we have to our devices, which have both enriched and impoverished the relationships we have with even those we are most close with. I realize the irony in writing a story about disconnecting that you are reading on a computer screen, but maybe this will provide motivation to turn off that phone, to go enjoy the company of others without the impulse to post about it on social media.
That’s what made this adventure great. We were all together in the same time and place, not spending precious moments living vicariously through the lives of people we’ve never even met. Thank you Zeal for bringing together friends both old and new to share an unforgettable experience in the beautiful world we have right outside our back door.
It’s much better to see it in person rather than in a Instagram feed.
See also: Zeal Optics presents The Canadian Chronicles: A snowboard odyssey
