Depending on what big thing is happening in your world right now, allow me to wish you a Happy New Year / Happy New Lockdown / Happy New President…

My mission for this year is to ask whether a single map is enough for an adventurous soul. Here is what I’ve discovered so far. Why don’t you try exploring your own local map in 2021?

I’m continuing my experiment of posting links from the archives down at the bottom in case you’ve got time on your hands and an appetite for internet exploring.

Here are some things I’d like to share with you:

 Photography: Beautiful yet Unnerving Photos of the Arctic Getting Greener.

 Tragedy and Triumph on Winter K2 as Sherpas Claim Last Great Himalayan Prize.

 Thirty-six Thousand Feet Under the Sea. The explorers who set one of the last meaningful records on Earth.

 Explore the world (and history) through music. Such a great website and concept.

 Film: I enjoyed My Octopus Teacher. What a beautiful, complex world this is, filled with so much that we do not yet appreciate.

 News: 112 bits of good news that kept us sane in 2020.

 The Adventure Effect: This little film I made with the YHA feels very relevant right now.

 Plans: I’ve put together a bundle of my Doorstep Mile book and the notebook that accompanies it. I hope it will be helpful in making your plans for this year. £5 off, too…

? Blog: My attempt to sit still in a wood for one hour.

Can I help you? Let me know if you have a relevant project that my readers would appreciate. This week we have the Career Change Book Club, the Listening Project walking 6000 miles to all 201 branches of The Samaritans, and fancy getting paid to be an Adventure Inventor and Organiser?

 Thanks for reading. As Austin Kleon says, “This newsletter is free, but not cheap.” To show your support, forward it to someone who’d like it, listen to one of my six audiobooks, or subscribe to my (free) podcast.

If you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here.

Cheers

Alastair

• A Book: There is a fine line between adventure and madness. We Cannot Fail explores the dark psychology of heroic adventure, examining the lives and motivation of would-be heroes driven by insecurity or a search for identity and purpose. Some chapters felt a little too close-to-home for me!
• A Film: After failing to summit Meru, three climbers return to try again. Setting a high standard for climbing and for film-making, the trailer to Meru opens with the line, “I always wondered how I was going to die. Now I know.” You can get the whole film here, or watch it on Netflix.
• A Challenge: I recently had a chat with an adventure / outdoors artist I admire. I said to Jared, “I wish I could draw. How wonderful it would be to sit and pause and really take in the view.”
  His reply, quite rightly, was “you should do it anyway.”
  And so I did. You can see my masterpiece if you’re on Instagram.
  I loved doing it, and I certainly intend to repeat it more often.
  My challenge to you is to do the same. Pause on your morning run, cycle, dog-walk, commute for just 20 minutes, and do a sketch. Be brave, stick it online, and let me know how you get on. 
• An Article: We are all aware of the pleasure, the relief, and the importance of slowing down our hectic lives, but this article from a Harvard Professor reminded me that we can make much more of our time by doing less.