Meeting Explorers
By Fredrik Sträng
In this podcast we go to the moon, to the challenger deep, and everything in between.
Meeting with Explorers interviews contemporary adventurers who have ventured into the unknown and pushed the boundaries for what is possible.
This is a deeply connected portrait of the people behind the most extraordinary accomplishments and an encounter with their everyday life.
Meeting ExplorersMar 17, 2022
Tamara Lunger - A dreamer in love with the mountains.
She is an Italian ski-mountaineer and alpinist who has ventured to the high Himalayas to scale 8000 m peaks in winter. She says, "Each moment I spend in the mountains helps me be increasingly aware of who I am and be more grateful towards life." I’m eager to talk to Tamara about choices in life, how to push the extremes, risk acceptance, and where the love from jagged peaks derive from. In Tamara’s own words, "I am a dreamer in love with the mountains."
www.meetingexplorers.com
Pamela Shanti Pack - The ultimate fighting with a rock.
She is the high priestess of very wide cracks and the ruthless world of inverted off-widths, a search she describes as "the ultimate fighting with a rock." She has made "over 80 first ascents", many of them in Vedauwoo, Wyoming. Pamela is a woman with many talents in love with immersion in landscape and who practices her passion at the highest level.
I'm curious to learn more about her crossroads in life, how to jump back on the horse after accidents, the art of handling suffering, the importance of partnerships, the perils and opportunities that come with perfectionism, the challenges in being content in life, and her perspective on how to live a satisfying explorer's life. Be prepared to be swept away in this warm and inspirational conversation as we touch on everything from the human condition, the history of off-width, to the mystery of life itself.
Steve House - the art of alpinism.
Steve is perhaps most notable for his ascent of the Central Pillar of the Rupal Face, a 4100m wall on Nanga Parbat in northern Pakistan with his fellow climber Vince Anderson. They completed the climb in a little over a week and the accent won him and Anderson the prestigious Piolet d'Or accolade.
Steve House, knows that “success must never be assured.” The times he succeeds he learns that success is as temporary as the snow in spring. There are no words of the “climax” on the summit, no words of victory. Instead, Steve talks about suffering through freezing cold bivouacs, the discomfort of high altitude, and the deep emptiness after a high success.
www.meetingexplorers.com
Damien Gildea - Mapping and climbing virgin peaks in Antarctica and “The 8000-er Mess”.
Damien is a contributing editor of the American Alpine Journal, he has worked for the prestigious Pilot d'Or, he has led a team that was following the footsteps of Robert Falcon Scott, he is author of several books and an avid Antarctica explorer who is combining his aptitude for vanquishing virgin peaks with science as he measures their elevation.
Together with some researchers, Damien notes that some study “has led to the remarkable situation where it is possible that no one has stood on the true highest point of all the 8,000-meter peaks.” Through meticulous analysis of summit photos, satellite imagery the researchers contend that merely half of the mountaineers claiming a summit of Annapurna (8,091 meters) had reached the highest point, and almost all climbers on Manaslu (8,163 meters) had not topped out on the summit.
“The summit is the summit, but climbing is more than summits.” Damien Gildea
www.meetingexplorers.com
Laura Dekker - Youngest person to sail around the world solo.
New Zealand-born sailor Laura Dekker successfully completed a solo circumnavigation arriving in Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten, 518 days later at the age of 16 breaking the record for being the youngest to singlehandedly sail around the world, between the years 2010 – 2012.
However, her circumnavigation was not uncontroversial. A Dutch court stepped in, owing to the objections of the local authorities, and prevented Laura from departing while under shared custody of both her parents and suddenly she was all over the news in Holland.
Dekker later commented about the authorities in an interview, saying "They thought it was dangerous. Well, everywhere is dangerous. They don't sail and they don't know what boats are, and they are scared of them."
www.meetingexplorers.com
Jochen Hemmleb - Did George Mallory climb Mount Everest in 1924?
Did George Leigh Mallory with his fellow climbing partner Andrew Comyn Irvine climb Mount Everest already back in 1924?
The mystery that surrounds Mallory and his much younger comrade Irvine has captivated countless people over the years. Books and documentaries had been published about their epic last climb. Mallory’s idealism and famous response to a journalist who once asked, “why climb Everest”, allegedly Mallory replied, “because it’s there”, a quote that has inspired not only climbers alike but businessmen and leaders. Can the mystery of whether or not they made it to the summit find a conclusion?
www.meetingexplorers.com
Wilson (Wai-Yin) Cheung - The only Chinese Arctic expedition tour guide leader in the world.
Embracing the spirit of adventure, combating climate change, protecting wildlife, how hard work pays off, and putting the magnifying glass on how it’s like to be a Hong Kong-based explorer.
Wilson has pledged to raise public awareness of our earth, as well as the solar system. He participates in all levels of school talks annually and encourages the younger generations to have an in-depth understanding of the relationship between humankind and mother nature. Moreover, Wilson has led several science educations programs for youth in the polar region. He believes these programs can cultivate our next generation to undergo scientific exploration further.
www.meetingexplorers.com
Raha Moharrak - First Arab woman to have climbed Mount Everest.
Raha Moharrak is the first Arab woman and youngest Arab to have climbed Mount Everest and the Seven Summits.
On the question of why she climbs mountains, her laconic answer is, “because I was told I couldn’t”. According to her, nobody believed she could do it. Being the first Saudi woman to climb Everest was far from what people expected. She has literally eradicated that stereotype and is now one of the leading Saudi females who are recognized to break barriers and defy all norms. She says that she is honored that she’s now part of history, but she doesn’t think it would mean anything if it doesn’t change anything.
www.meetingexplorers.com
Dennis Åsberg & Peter Lindberg - The mystery around the Baltic Anomaly.
Dennis and Peter are most known for their astonishing finding of the Baltic Anomaly on 19th June 2011 which undoubtedly fits as a case for the X-files.
A circular object, 60 m in diameter, the wingspan of a Boeing 747, resting 90 m below the Baltic Sea, and it looks like an underwater UFO. Dennis and Peter aren’t specialists in UFOs, nor have they argued that their finding is an alien spacecraft but the mystery surrounding the object is mesmerizing, to say the least, and the more they have investigated the case, additional questions about the nature of their discovery has surfaced.
www.meetingexplorers.com
Billi Bierling - Keeping track of all great climbs in the Himalayas.
A person who had no real ambition as an adolescent became a distinguished Himalayan historian, keeping track of all the ambitions climbs in the Himalayan Database.
Billi became the third German woman to successfully climb Mount Everest on May 21, 2009, and has reached six of 14 of the highest peaks in the world. Billi knows the Himalayas better than anyone and is considered the authority on mountaineering in this region by The Outdoor Journal.
In this interview we talk about her crossroads in life, exploratory climbs in the Himalayas, sacred mountains, how much circus there really is at Everest, how the future of mountaineering in the Himalayas.
www.meetingexplorers.com
Erden Eruç - First to circumnavigate the world by human power.
The first solo circumnavigation of the world by human power by Turkish-American engineer Erden Eruç.
In July 2007, Erden set out from Bodega Bay, north of San Francisco, aiming to become the first person to circumnavigate the planet solo, entirely under his own power—no motors, no sails, no means of propulsion other than his own strength. His plan was to travel across three oceans and six continents by boat, bike, and foot, more than 74 000 km or 40,000 miles in all, and climbing six of the seven summits, apart from Vinson Massif in Antarctica.
Vanessa O'brien - From top of the world to the deepest place on earth.
Vanessa is a former business executive in the baking world who swapped to an adventurous life with top of the world as well as to the deepest place on earth, the Challenger deep, in her CV.
During the economic recession in 2009 Vanessa decided to quit climbing the corporate ladder and instead, over a lunch a friend of her suggested “why not climb Everest?”. Said and done, Vanessa gave herself a time limited goal to climb Everest and since then, adventures and exploration has been the guiding light in her life.
Roger Nilson - World record sailing around the world.
Roger navigated the Orange II boat during Tropheé Jules Verne in 2005, which then became the fastest boat to circumnavigate the world, but his aptitude in navigating in our inner realm is just as fascinating.
Roger has started in ten round the world races and completed eight lapses around the planet. He completed Whitbread Round The World Race (WRTWR) and later named Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) six times. He was in the midst of the formidable Fastnet Race in 1979 when seventeen sailors tragically lost their lives in a perfect storm and in 1985 Roger and his crew was rescued when their celebrity Whitbread Maxirater Drum lost their keel and turned upside down. Rogers formidable list of close encounters with both life and death goes on.
Karina Oliani - Zip-line across erupting volcano.
Zip lining across erupting volcanoes, petting likely the biggest anaconda ever recorded on video, and diving with sharks to raise awareness of the brutal slaughter of these apex predators.
Karina is specialised in Emergency Medicine and Rescue in remote areas and her appetite for adventures has led her to achieve one of the most varied and accomplished extreme medicine careers in the world with over 50 major expeditions under her belt. Everything from cave diving, summiting Everest, special forces jungle medicine training with Brazil’s elite units to crossing the hottest deserts in the world. Karina has pretty much done it all!
Colin Haley - Climbing hard solo, without ropes.
A genuine discourse about the obsession of climbing, risk vs. reward, addiction, and losses.
Colin holds the speed records on three of the grandest faces of the Central Alaska Range: south face of Denali (8:07), north face of Begguya (7:47), and south face of Sultana (12:29).
I am curious to learn what outlook a person who live life on the edge has on the world, if living a fulfilling life instead of counting the years is more sought after and what the future of alpinism hold.
Liv Arnesen - First woman to ski across Antarctica
Liv Arnesen and American polar explorer Ann Bancroft become the first women in history to sail and ski across Antarctica’s landmass — completing a 94-day, 1,717-mile (2,747 km) trek.
Liv have had to endure male screaming out “damn woman” as she overtakes them in the classic Birkebeiner cross-country ski race in Norway and when Liv and Ann pitched their 2001 Antarctic crossing expedition CEO’s have reproached them for not looking strong enough. The arguments against women presence in Antarctica leads back to 1900s with inability of the weaker sex to surviving the hostile conditions. Modern doubts circle around women threatening the male culture with cat-fighting and sexual promiscuity. It’s been a long struggle to prove that women can hold their own in polar regions why Liv and Ann’s traverse over the Antarctica continent in 2000/2001 was so important.