Top land, camp, take off the next day. It doesn’t get much better than this.
Last winter I “sat down” with Judith Mole and the Paraglider.com via skype to discuss the Rockies Traverse, the expedition I completed with Will Gadd in August/September of 2014. The expedition was filmed by ReelWaterProductions and produced by Red Bull Media House for their “Explorers Series”. Judith has held onto the podcast until the film was released, and with the upcoming premiere at the Banff Mountain Film Festival in November, 2015 the time has finally come.
Many people don’t know that Will and I met the day before the expedition began. In the podcast I discuss the group dynamic that evolved, the stress of completing such a dangerous mission combined with making a great film, crashing for the first time, and sending it through the most awesome terrain that has maybe ever been flown. We completed the line from McBride, BC to the US Border, a straight line distance of 702 kilometers by flight only- ie all forward progress was done in the air. This style of vol-biv was a new precedent, but we also discovered it was the only way we could have done it. The terrain for the first 1/3rd of the expedition was ridiculously deep, and getting out by foot would have hellishly difficult. Will and I were awarded the National Geographic “Adventurers of the Year” for the feat, which made it very special indeed.
To date, the Rockies Traverse pretty much tops the list on the Rad factor for me, I still can’t believe we pulled it off. It was often intense, but we had some pretty awesome laughs too:
Time for a break on Kinebasket lake, day 4. Will Gadd catches up on some serious reading.
Listen to the podcast here.
