Thoughts of a Modern-Day Mountain Man:A Field Guide to Leadership in the Great Outdoors Chapter 7

This is the seventh of a weekly blog series that will focus on leadership in the outdoors and how to get the most from the least. Even though the title is called, “Thoughts of a Modern-Day Mountain Man”, it will hopefully cover topics that are useful to everyone.

Chapter 7: Cut your beard and look like you want to do business.

“The elder of the company was a tall gaunt man, with a face browned by twenty years' exposure to the extreme climate of the mountains; his long black hair, as yet scarcely tinged with gray, hung almost to his shoulders, but his cheeks and chin were cleanly shaved after the fashion of the mountain men.”

-George Frederick Ruxton. Life in the Far West

If you work in the outdoor education or environmental education field long enough you will certainly meet some interesting people. Working in the outdoor adventure or environmental education fields tend to draw certain personalities and traits, many of which could be described as “free-spirited” or possibly even “hippie.” The idea that you can be a “free spirit” and not be constrained by the social, moral, dress or grooming code of a professional society tend to go hand-in-hand with working in the great outdoors. However, this should not be the case at all. If you want people to take you seriously and look to you as a leader in times of need, a high level of decorum and professional presentation is important. This becomes especially true when incorporating Christianity and biblical theology into your programs. Like it or not, people can, and will judge you based solely on appearances and first impressions. Society has seemingly lost this perspective throughout the counterculture movements of the past decades. To rebel against “the man” or the “establishment,” nice business suits and good (clean) grooming practices were cast aside in favor of long (often unkempt or dreaded) hair and perpetually worn-out and sloppy clothing. While the intention and the message may have originally been good, it is now sinking to a new low. Nowadays it is not uncommon to go to any social establishment, airport or even grocery store and see people moving about in their pajamas at all hours of the day, or wearing logos or words that are far from family-friendly. There can be a great danger in this freedom of over-expression and not conforming to any professional social norms. How you present yourself in public or professionally is the first impression you can make on others. There can be great positive power in symbolism. Reverence in many forms has been lost. This could be a loss of reverence for your fellow man, social conventions of Western society or in many ways Christianity itself. The idea of “come as you are” to worship should be partly to blame. When reverence is lost for God and Christianity, which are the very underpinnings of Western society, everything else is sure to follow. It used to mean something to wear your “Sunday best,” giving the best of what you had to God as He has done for you. Even if you didn’t have the best clothes, or hairstyle, or the best of anything else, it was simply the best you had to make the worship experience something special and exceptional. Church worship was not meant to be just another day hanging out with people at the club. This lack of professionalism and some semblance of healthy pride in appearance has created a slippery slope of societal decline.

I was enamored with the idea of growing a nice beard/mustache combo. One year while working at camp, I made the decision to forego shaving my chin and upper lip for about eight months. The most common comment I got during this time was “you look like a mountain man.” At that time, I took that as a great compliment. However, as time passed, I began to realize that it actually looked quite ridiculous, and at least for me, served no practical purpose other than to be a quirky conversation starter about mountain men. Historically though, this is incredibly inaccurate. Most, if not all, mountain men of yesteryear were clean-shaven and possibly even well-groomed, other than the long hair they wore to protect their neck and ears from the intense Rocky Mountain sunshine. This lack of facial hair was predominantly for two reasons, with the second I will list being the most important. First, this time period was leading up to and during the Victorian era and beards simply weren’t en vogue. Second, most Native American men cannot and do not grow facial hair. They considered anyone who had facial hair untrustworthy and called him “dog face”. The “dog face” man could not be seen as an equal and trade would not be conducted in any manner. The mountain man of yesteryear knew that in order to maintain their livelihood some professional conventions around appearance must be maintained. I could only imagine this was incredibly inconvenient to have to constantly shave in the wilderness, but it was seen as compulsory and was done. Straight razors and soap was a common item carried by mountain men and were available for trade at all of the rendezvous.

Ready to conduct business.

Another great example of a person who adhered closely to required professional decorum is Enos A. Mills. You would be hard-pressed to find a picture, or even a mention of Mr. Mills, where he is not well-groomed and wearing some combination of a three-piece suit. Mr. Mills believed his work and conservation efforts to be of the utmost importance, and he set out daily to change the world around him in a positive way. He accomplished just that. I am sure wearing professional business men’s clothing to climb a mountain or guide a group in the high mountain environment was not always ideal or even practical, but he recognized it as important and necessary. He needed people to take him seriously, because the job at hand was serious work. If you want people to treat you like a professional, you must look like one.

The modern-day mountain can do well to learn from examples like the ones listed in this chapter. If you show up to work and you look like you haven’t groomed yourself in weeks, or you smell like Mongolian Yak poop (AKA Patchouli), how in the world are people going to take you and your message seriously? Does this mean that you shouldn’t have a beard or not wear your nicest clothes if the work is going to be dirty and possibly damaging? Of course not. Some professions, and even climates, lend themselves well to beards. Some people even look nice and professional with a beard, and what is playoff hockey without the compulsory beards for good luck? Tearing up clothing that is expensive, or not well suited to a task doesn’t make sense either. The point being, take some healthy pride in your appearance. Wear clothes and groom yourself in a way that says, “I cannot only take care of myself, but will take care of you and your business needs”. Your message and your program is an important one and should be presented in a professional way by someone who looks and acts professional and is ready to trade. The mountain men of yesteryear understood this and we should as well.