He says Great Debates powered his hike up the PCT last year.

In Big Bear, for example, TG and I hiked an unnecessary four miles because our conversation about The Myth of the Californian Pool Boy meant we missed a turn and took the Cougar Crest Trail by mistake.

In Washington, if we were doing a long day and found a contentious topic we’d keep it for the last hour so that the debate would power us up the hills. I’d never have reached the weather station near Snoqualamie before dark if GoBig hadn’t expounded his view that people who quit the trail are either dishonest when they start the trail or dishonest about why they left. (He lost that one)

Read the whole thing for interesting contrasts between weather in New Zealand and the U.S. West Coast.