There is no need to offer any special proof to understand that the mountains are a synonym for silence. Silence is one of the many main reasons why we hikers go to the mountains. It helps us find calm again, serenity, peace, that peace which no longer exists in our big cities.
Silence is easily associated with the idea of solitude; in the woods it puts us on the alert, it puts us in touch with our most primordial instincts, with our fears, with our deepest emotions.
The great silences of the mountains allow us, at last, to hear the whisper of that faint voice, the voice of our spirit, of our soul, a voice we no longer have the chance to listen to in everyday life. We are so focused on being efficient and productive, so focused on the organised execution of all our duties, that we can no longer hear even our inner voice.
Hiking, going to the mountains, also means this: freeing ourselves for an instant and rediscovering the simple, pure state of existing. Existence for its own sake, with no further purpose, no further speculation, no goal other than to feel the superficial pleasure of feeling alive. It is when we go hiking, when we walk among the mountains, in a wood, along the banks of a stream or at the foot of a waterfall, that we manage to hear the voice of our inner self again and pick up a dialogue with ourselves. We also find the meaning of things more easily, we rediscover the value of the things that really matter most to us. The many small problems of daily life become trivial, the many small idiosyncrasies, the many small obsessions that rule our behaviour every day.
The mountains, as we have said many times, give us a different perspective on our life, they hand us a different pair of glasses.
Facing the silence of the mountains means having the chance to listen to inner voices that in daily life would seem only background noise, an annoying rustle.
The silence of the mountains, in the end, is like a great blank sheet of paper where anything can happen, where everything is potential, full of great opportunities for dialogue, for words and for reasoning. In the end, going to the mountains and rediscovering silence is the chance to seize the opportunity of hearing a new voice.
Moving on, walking forward, the corollary of this great silence, becomes like writing.
You end up writing something truly meaningful, something that cannot help but leave an indelible mark on our spirit.
Read also why the mountains are a synonym for contemplation.