Good afternoon!
There are quite a few themes that rattle regularly round my tiny adventurer’s mind. These include mortality and the pressure to get good stuff done before I die (nice cheerful start to the newsletter), the golden era of adventure (Nansen, Shipton et al), and the changing nature of adventure in this era of total mapping, global rescue, and permanent, instant communication.
All of these feature in David Roberts’ excellent new book which examines his personal relationship to extreme risk, Limits of the Known, (written as he battled cancer) which has spawned enough thoughts and ideas for this entire newsletter.
- A Blog post: I wrote Nobody Should Blog on Their First Expedition because I feel that adventure should be about more than trying to find phone signal in order to upload another selfie – something which I simultaneously hate, do myself, and enjoy… Roberts’ tackled this more articulately than me in this interview which says that if you want to be an adventure writer, you have to focus on the adventure before the writing (sharing).
- Some Thoughtful Articles that Limits of the Known reminded me of (some I know I have sent before, but they are worth re-sharing): Your Life in Weeks (a terrifying firework up the bum to get on with life), Henry Worsley’s solitary Antarctic trek.
I first learned about David Roberts via Brendan’s excellent weekly newsletter. He recommended this excellent article about Roberts’ life in climbing, academia, and adventure.
- An Exciting Adventure Film: adventure in the 21st Century is not all doom and gloom and narcissism. You can still combine doing epic stuff with creating beautiful films and the best aspects of sharing vicarious expedition thrills. This multi-discipline expedition in Greenland looked blooming marvellous!
Enjoy the weekend!
Alastair