“We were hallucinating. Everybody saw that polar bear.” Tom’s face glowed with his ever-present smile, and his gregarious enthusiasm drew the attention of everybody soaking in the Bulgarian hot spring. “We edged closer, banging our skis together, shotgun at the ready in case of attack, until we realized it was just a convincing block of ice. Sleep deprivation will do funny things to your mind. We had walked 52 hours in a snowstorm, twice falling asleep walking, and landing face-first in the snow.”
Why, I thought, but Tom continued — “after the expedition, I suddenly had more self-worth and confidence in myself.”
Tom Williams, founder, and CEO of Desert Island Survival, was explaining how an idea that formed over a pint with his mates about walking 367 miles to the North Pole transformed his life from selling software in a London cubical to running a survival company featured in publications from National Geographic to Playboy. Just then, his phone rang. “Hold on. I’m having pirate issues in Panama,” he said as he left the pool.
A Life Less Ordinary
Extreme adventurers are pushing boundaries everywhere, from billionaires blasting into space to amateur aquanauts descending into the ocean’s depths. Recently OceanGates’s submersible Titan’s ill-fated journey to the Titanic proves these endeavors aren’t without risk, so what motivates extreme adventurers to push past limits?
Veteran adventure guide, Jonathan Zambella, says, “What you’re experiencing is way more important than what you’re doing, so it helps slow people down; get them out of this — I gotta go, I gotta go to Okay, I can stop, and I can breathe.”
I met Jonathan on a canyoneering trip to Zion National Park, where he described the moment when he became an adventure guide. He had arrived during the night on February 13, 1996, and pitched his tent in darkness. He said, “In the morning, I looked out the tent window, and my jaw hit the deck, and I was like — I’m home.”
In the following months, he liquidated his life as an East Coast financier and started the first Zion Narrows guide company. Rock climbing and cold water kayaking experiences allowed him to make the first dry suit Narrows through-trip, and his company, ZionGuru, jumped into prominence. When asked if he missed his life back East, he replied, “I knew that my true work was to help others in a different way.” Jonathan’s statement — “The human experience is a qualitative assembly of incredible moments,” is a beautiful window into the adventurous soul.
Insight and Inspiration
Yancy Wright is a certified Leadership & Transformation Coach and founder of Casa Alternavida, a wellness retreat center in Puerto Rico for growth-minded professionals looking for ways to shift out of stress, overwhelm, anxiety, and burn-out. He describes adventuring out in nature as the gateway that opens his clients up to curiosity, the key to helping them shift out of the unconscious behaviors holding them back from ease and flow in life and work.
Trained as a forest therapy guide, Yancy took us on a series of rainforest experiences to better connect to our senses and become present with our surroundings. He used each challenge as a metaphor for the common obstacles we face and helped reconnect us to our body-based wisdom.
For example, water settled and congregated into a flat, muddy spot at a certain point in the trail. He asked, “How do you typically move through muddy situations in life?” Each of us had different approaches. Some tried to avoid it, others tiptoed through it cautiously, and some plowed right through the muddiest part of it. Then Yancy took a different but initially unrecognizable trail that avoided most of the mess. We saw how often we miss opportunities to see new ways of doing something when stuck in old patterns. I learned by doing, which gave me insight into developing a healthier framework for my life.
Skiing to Survive
Everybody, not just billionaires and thrill seekers, finds themselves in situations needing these kinds of transformative experiences. My father killed himself when I was eleven, and my world changed from Rocky Mountain socialite to public scandal. My love for skiing carried me through many tough times. The vision of becoming a helicopter ski guide transformed me from an angry teen to rappelling out of chair lifts with a pack full of dynamite for avalanche control. Bad genetics kept me from fulfilling that dream, but the momentum propelled me into a ski instructing career at America’s premiere mountains.
I specialized in teaching intermediate to expert adult skiers who wanted to ski steeps, powder, and bumps. More often than not, these lessons were more than skiing tips. My clients were doctors, lawyers, and industry leaders who wanted to work hard and play harder. Some were self-aware enough to know they were engaging in something bigger than the activity.
Life — and Mind — Changing
The transformative power of adventure is supported through clinical experience and research. Gary Tucker, Chief Clinical Officer and Licensed Psychotherapist at D’Amore Mental Health, offers some insight into the impact of adventure tourism on the human psyche.
“Extreme adventure tourism is an exciting way to challenge one’s abilities to explore new areas. At a physiological level, this type of activity triggers the release of hormones such as adrenaline and endorphins, which can give people heightened sensations. On an emotional and psychological level, engaging in extreme activities gives people a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction as it can offer a feeling of freedom and liberation from the everyday routines of life, allowing people to access new feelings and perspectives. Engaging in activities outside one’s comfort zone gives people a sense of power to control their own lives, increasing self-confidence.”
Psychiatrist David Kolb pioneered study in experiential learning cycles, which may be the foundational elements of the extreme adventurer’s mind. He co-developed the Experiential Learning Model composed of four elements: concrete experience, observation and reflection on that experience, formation of abstract concepts based on reflection, and testing new concepts. These elements form a spiral learning pattern that begins with an event that’s more effective when it’s beyond the person’s comfort zone.
In Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Kolb defined this cycle as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.” In other words, these adventures are a quest for fundamental knowledge, deeper understanding, and personal transformation.
Adventures can be transformative experiences that challenge individuals to confront their fears, develop resilience, problem-solving skills, and build mental and physical strength. I’ve seen my clients transformed by laying down first tracks on a morning powder private ski lesson before the resort opens to the public. I have watched Tom, Jonathan, and Yancy revel in how their businesses impact their clients’ lives and have seen them practice their art firsthand with profound results.
For a particular group of people, the love of adventure is the fuel that powers them past their comfort zone. It’s more than a shot of adrenaline. It starts a learning cycle where the participant learns more about themselves than the activity they undertake.
Extreme adventurers need more “gas in the tank” to travel past their expanded boundaries. It is that self-discovery that bridges the gap between living a normal life and living an extraordinary life. And they often find the outdoors is the best conduit to fuel that discovery process because of its natural resonance with the soul.
Hi! We are Jenn and Ed Coleman, and together we are Coleman Concierge. It is our goal to inspire you to get out, expand your world, and to seek adventure, even in your own backyard.
