About
THE BEST OF OUTDOOR ADVENTURES come to life at the intersection of surroundings, effort, skill and consequence; a place where the wherewithal of an individual can take on the challenge of an activity in a wild environment. At the heart of all good adventures is an appreciation that technology takes a back seat to skills and sweat, and a desire to engage as directly as possible with the surroundings. To have a great experience in the outdoors takes a little push and a chance taken but it doesn’t require going to extremes or high risk, and comparing our achievements with that of others or notching our belts with 'firsts' seems a bit tough on the soul. Outdoor recreation begins with sand between your toes and wind in your hair, it’s about winding the window down, it’s about making an emotional connection with the world around us, it’s about an open mind and great attitude. The people that grace these pages are my contemporaries: we’re neither particularly talented nor especially audacious; we're ordinary people with ordinary abilities, means and opportunities. Personally, I'm probably towards the lower end of the natural capability spectrum, but I've been lucky enough to have always seen the magic and promise in wild places. Like so many, I've been drawn to those places and the challenges and joys of activities in them, and I've chosen to make that the focus of my life.
Sometimes we do take carefully considered, educated risks. Yet taking on a hazardous activity isn’t tantamount to recklessness; there is no pleasure to be had in simply courting an abyss. In the past, I took a few risks that I could not justify now. I have no regrets because the rewards were huge and I am still here, but since the invulnerability of my youth has faded my attitude has changed. If an individual has a well-found confidence that they can overcome hazards with technique, an undertaking becomes less about the risk and more about their character. It seems reasonable to stand back from an idea and ask, “If I do everything right, will I survive this?” The answer is often not a definite yes, but the adventures depicted here are, with a few exceptions, close enough to any notion of what constitutes ‘safe’ for the individuals concerned that the slight risk can be justified when balanced against the rewards they offer. We venture into the alps and sky and cross oceans because to do so is fun, sure, but there’s also a deep, abiding love for the places themselves, as much as the activities and the events that happen along the way.
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In an increasingly consumerist world, technology can take many of the steps for us. We can kill remoteness with helicopters; we can shrink the unknown with GPS; we can swap self-reliance for locator beacons, radios and cellphones; we can trade an ability to read the sky for weather forecasts downloaded from a satellite receiver wherever we are; we can even employ guides to think and act on our behalf. Indeed, we’re encouraged that to do otherwise is irresponsible. But technology is capable of watering down the elemental rawness that entices us outside, until an adventure becomes as pointless and dislocated as a video game. The best activities are undiluted by such means, and we can choose to leave the entrapments of the 21st Century behind. To meet an arbitrary goal with personal character is frivolous, and must be in order to have value; what we want to avoid is to trivialise it by taking away the need for commitment, self-reliance and judgement.
An adventure, by definition, has an uncertain outcome. It is never a contest between people and nature - a bulldozer might 'conquer' a wilderness, but the only thing that changes after a worthwhile adventure is the participants.