Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Chapter 324 - 140: Heavy-Duty Trekking: Outdoor Master Li Younan! [6,200 Words!]

Before officially starting the hiking trip, Li Younan first needs to purchase a series of gear.

It must be very professional!

This point is very important.

Although he currently possesses two major hiking and mountaineering skills: high-altitude genetics and mountaineering skill, according to this system’s skill settings, simply going on a straightforward trek shouldn’t be a problem. Besides, he also has the skills of a botanist and zoologist, so encountering some wild plants and animals along the way shouldn’t cause much trouble. But just in case, Li Younan still wants to be fully prepared.

After all, this is his first long-distance cross-country trek.

He’s also bringing along a girl.

Li Younan isn’t worried that Zhu Qingyue will bring any trouble for him.

The first principle is not to take risks.

If there is something insurmountable, something that can be considered dangerous blocking the path, Li Younan will definitely not have the strange notion that it must be overcome or conquered.

First, the plan would be to find a way around it, and if that’s not possible, just give up.

In such a situation, even if Zhu Qingyue has different opinions, it doesn’t matter. He will show her a new, domineering side of himself.

Of course, considering the precautionary measures that Li Younan has already set and the promises Zhu Qingyue has made in front of him, if such situations do occur, they likely won’t fall into a decision-making dilemma. This has already been predetermined.

In terms of capability, Zhu Qingyue certainly doesn’t have the physical condition of someone who frequently goes on long-distance hikes. Although she has repeatedly emphasized in front of him that she’s undergone several months of intensive training, Li Younan thinks this so-called "training" probably involves just climbing stairs and moving along with home workouts on TV. He still has to regard her as being at the level of a burden...

The lower the expectations, the more thorough the preparation, and the greater the chance of resolving problems if they arise. If her ability exceeds expectations... it would be a pleasant surprise.

Since he’s preset that "Zhu Qingyue is probably a bit of a weakling," when planning, he needs to be more detailed. In a sense, teaming up with Zhu Qingyue has benefits: it forces him to prepare more thoroughly and be more cautious when hiking.

Luo Yong has already given them the route they took before. Although he didn’t take notes at the time, because of his mountaineering skill, Li Younan’s head is full of geographical knowledge of mountain areas and experience in mountain activities, his level of expertise rivaling that of geologists mixed with natives who live in high mountain areas year-round.

So in many places, when Luo Yong mentioned something, Li Younan could see it clearly and intuitively, making communication very easy.

In contrast, even though Zhu Qingyue, a humanities student with decent high school geography grades, often found herself at a loss. She wanted to ask questions, but with Li Younan and Luo Yong deeply engaged in conversation, she could only reluctantly keep her questions to herself, patiently listening and trying to make sense of it all.

Their conversations included topics like: "This time, we set up the base camp in the traditional spot, but the forward camp was moved about two hours forward, directly placed at the foot of the glacier tongue..."

"The icefall zone below the North Ridge has changed significantly this year, with many new crevasses opening up. We had to make several lateral crossings to find a passage."

"Most of it is composed of schist, intermingled with ice cones and rocky outcrops. We had to do some dry-tooling on a stretch of it."

"We used four-season tents, added extra wind ropes and snow anchors, but the wind still made a lot of noise, and we barely slept all night."

These words, although each Chinese character is not hard to understand, when combined, without knowledge or experience in that area, would be very difficult to follow, requiring the narrator to continuously explain those terms and conventional references.

In fact, originally Luo Yong hadn’t planned on explaining things in such detail when giving his account to Li Younan. It was only after Li Younan proactively asked some professional questions right from the start that Luo Yong subconsciously switched to giving a detailed account.

And it was precisely in this process that he suddenly realized that Li Younan was indeed not a novice.

As their conversation went deeper, the solid theoretical knowledge and rich mountain experience displayed by Li Younan was surprisingly impressive.

During this process, Li Younan naturally drew upon his knowledge to propose some insightful questions, such as "In that case, why not choose the southeast ridge’s double-rope descent when retreating? Although it’s longer, it’s safer and quicker than the mixed routes we took there..."

"If it were me, I would probably choose to rest for half a day more to avoid the thick fog..."

Some things that Li Younan thought about, he raised simply as queries... because according to the knowledge given by the system... it was indeed the better choice.

However, while the speaker was not intentional, the listener was moved, and Luo Yong, repeatedly asked by Li Younan, found himself a bit stupefied, then plunged into long silences, occasionally frowning, with an expression suggesting he realized "Yeah, it seems it should be that choice."