Between narrative and practice: Storytelling as a way of knowing how to be in nature

This article examines the storytelling practices of adventurers as a means to shape embodied experience. While scholars mostly treat narrative and practice separately, examining them simultaneously reveals their mutual constitution and tensions. Stories often precede the embodied learning that occurs through going into the outdoors. However, they only make sense at the point of the encounter and the experience can change the lesson. Key aspects of the embodied experience often remain unspoken, both due to time delays between the experience and its telling and the inadequacies of language. This analysis is based on interviews, participant observation, and “go-alongs” with adventurers based in Australia and New Zealand.