The Notebook Is the Real Summit

How paying attention (and writing it down) is the real adventure.

Some Stories by Yvon Chouinard isn’t powerful because of the lessons—we’ve all heard those before:

• Know your purpose

• Don’t be afraid to fail

• Find joy in the journey

The magic is how he knew them.

Chouinard paid attention.

He climbed, fished, wandered, and then wrote it down.

He took photographs—not to impress anyone—but to remember what mattered.

This book isn’t just wisdom.

It’s a lifetime of captured noticing.

We tend to believe the adventure is the point—the summit, the expedition, the accomplishment.

But the real work is the quiet part:

You live. You notice. You record. You make meaning.

Most of us have drawers full of photos with no story attached.

Or journals full of events but no feeling.

We remember that something happened—but not why it mattered.

So here’s the invitation Chouinard’s book actually offers:

Don’t wait to understand your life in hindsight. Write it as you go. Tell the story while you’re still inside it.

Not for the audience.

Not for posterity.

Not for some future memoir.

But for you.

The story is already happening.

Pick up the pen.