On Tuesday this week (9th August 2011) I was introduced by a friend of mine to one of their oldest school friends. This meeting had been talked about for 6 months but due to busy schedules has only just happened. You see the person I was meeting tends to be quite busy on extreme cold weather expeditions. The reason for the meeting was that this mutual friend believed that he would be just the sort of person to offer me the kind of adventure that I've always craved.
So to the topic at hand and what I thought may be a tentative sounding out exercise by both of us. I could not have been more wrong and what was soon laid out in front of me was a very simple proposal. This guy wants to cross the Greenland ice cap (again) in spring 2012 and if I'm keen to be on the team then I'm in. The team as I write is just the two of us, though another pair may be added as I write this.
Apart from my very genuine concerns around the dangers of such a trip this was really quite a simple decision for me to arrive at. The dangers are real as are my fears, however, a lifetime of desiring adventure meant that anything other than an assertive "yes" would leave me full of regret. A huge debt of gratitude must go to my mutual friend as it was her recommendation that I would be a good person for the trip that carried so much weight with my now expedition teammate.
I have a huge learning curve ahead of me and it's already begun with the significant challenge of raising funds for the trip. However, I feel my mindset is right at the moment and if I can stay positive, open and enthusiastic I think there's a very real chance that I could be updating this blog in 9 months as one of the few people lucky enough to have crossed the Greenland ice cap unsupported and unassisted.
No comments:
Post a Comment