The Explorer

Often times I have been asked why I do the things I do. I usually answer, casually and without much thought, something along the lines of “because it’s fun.” Funny the way the powers that be operate, as recently, on a mountain, I was in a position to ask that same question of myself.

Paddling throughout Western China last year, many times the bowels of the river canyons would spread just wide enough to catch a distant glimpse of a White Himalayan giant breaking through the horizon like the razor edge tooth of a shark penetrating the ocean surface. The sight is thrilling, nowhere else in the world is there a mountain range with such ferocious seclusion. I couldn’t help but let my mind drift through thoughts of how the torrents of water beneath my craft were once frozen crystals of ice, residing high in the Himalaya, anxiously awaiting the pre-monsoon sunrays to release their energy into this kinetic liquid force. I immediately became obsessed with the notion of retracing the waters pathway to its source. This place, lofted on the summit of earth’s greatest vertical life-forms, is home to water, but a place where we men and women can only be visitors. However, spending moments in mother earth's living room is where I decided I wanted to spend the next chapter of my life.