“We’ll come back from a day of skiing and talk about dumb stuff,” says professional skier, climber, mountaineer, director, and photographer Jimmy Chin. “ ‘I had this rad line through the trees’ or ‘Did you see me hit that cliff?’ What we don’t say is ‘I got into that amazing headspace again, and I fucking felt like God.

Yet the here and now isn’t seen much these days. In our always-on, hyperconnected world, there are endless reasons to be elsewhere. Every time we answer an e-mail or return a text or check our Facebook page, we are there and not here. And just as frequently, we are then and not now. With inboxes piling up, today’s luncheon, tonight’s parent-teacher

We are the ones that we’ve been waiting for. — ALICE

Familiarity, our next trigger, means the group has a common language, a shared knowledge base, and a communication style based on unspoken understandings.

No longer was the fastest person down the mountain the best athlete on the mountain. To really win, you had be creative. “Creativity became the way athletes judged success,” continues Jimmy Chin. “Did I pick a cool line? Did it look stylish? Was I innovative? Did I add anything to the conversation? It’s why so many of these guys now see themselves

Why is “together” such an effective strategy? For starters, the obvious. Humans are a social species. We’re competitive, cooperative, sexually attracted, and all the rest.

Where is the lightning to lick you with its tongue? Where is the frenzy with which you should be inoculated? Behold, I teach you the overman: He is this lightning; he is this frenzy. – FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Instead, over the past thirty years, in the world of action and adventure sports, in situations where asses really were on the line, the bounds of the possible have been pushed further and faster than ever before in history. We’ve seen near-exponential growth in ultimate human performance, which is both hyperbolic paradox and considerable mystery.

Then there’s blending egos—which is the collective version of the same sort of humility that allowed Doug Ammons to merge with the Stikine. When egos have been blended, no one’s hogging the spotlight and everyone’s thoroughly involved.