National Geographic: Top Ten Adventurers of the Year, 2012

Canoe and Kayak Magazine:  Best Kayak Expedition of 2011

Paddler Magazine: Top Ten Kayak Expeditions of All Times

For forty years, outdoor recreation and expeditions have been integral and essential to my life: Sea kayaking, rock climbing,  mountaineering, skiing, and mountain biking. I’ve written about some of the expeditions in my books and others in magazine articles.  A few are recorded in blog form on this website (see drop-down menu under this heading, expeditions.)  And many many wonderful journeys, often in my own backyard in Darby or Fernie, with a close cadre of good friends, are logged only in my memory.

Short list of Major Expeditions

• First rock climbing party to make big wall ascents in Sam Ford Fiord, Baffin Island. (Featured in American Alpine Journal and Fifty Favorite Climbs.)
• First ascent of Lamo-she Peak (6070 meters), Sichuan Province, China
• Kayak passage around Cape Horn.
• 3,000 mile kayak passage from Japan to Alaska, following a 10,000 year old aboriginal migration route.
• Unsupported crossing of the western Gobi of Mongolia on a mountain bike.
• Several first ski descents in the Tien Shan and Pamir Alai ranges of Kyrgyzia, volcanoes of Kamchatka, and Appolobamba of Bolivia.
• Five expeditions to northeast Siberia in search of a shaman’s dream.
• Recipient of three Polartec and four Gore-tex grants for outstanding adventures.
• First complete circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island.