Why go on an adventure?
To go in search of silence, to shiver under a gust of wind, to soak in the smell of lichen and the wet earth under our feet, to accept solitude, to be lulled by the evening breeze, to touch the morning dew on the stalk of a fern, to feel the ground tremble under a horde of caribou, to marvel at the appearance of a glimmer of northern lights; these are the reasons why we set off. It’s to meet with the extraordinary in every single detail of our existence on this planet and to become the best person we can be, most of the time, and face solitude in faraway lands. I often feel selfish when I leave my loved ones to find myself. When I leave my family and my friends behind, they are often worried. And I won’t lie, sometimes, so I am.
Leaving forces us to explore unknown interior zones, hostile territories, on the road and in our minds. Crossing rivers and torrents helps me gain strength. I hang on tight and go ahead, always stronger than the day before thanks to the difficulties I’ve overcome so far. We give it our all. We’re cold and very hungry, and at times, we get dehydrated, we test myself every day. We rarely find shelter from the rain, our merino wool clothing gets humid, we shiver and dream of a warming up next to a fire. I chose to go ahead and invest everything in my job, to tell the stories of my encounters along the way.
Trusting our instincts
One by one, the discussions with these extraordinary beings who cross my path change me forever. What more do we need than to remember the connection to nature and the great outdoors that our ancestors treasured? What more do we need than to welcome the arrival of the sun in the morning and to look up at the stars at night? There are times when our mind deviates from logic, when we need to listen to that voice that comes from our gut and urges us to meet the unpredictable and go against the established plans. It tells us to trust our instincts, ignore convention and go for it. There is nothing more magical, after a last look at those we love, than the first steps that initiate the departure.
I am an explorer and adventure filmmaker because I have this intrinsic desire to feel, every day for the rest of my life, in tune with that side of me that is revealed a little bit more during expedition, each race, each difficult experience I face. It is by facing my greatest fears and challenges one after the other that I believe I am able to connect more easily with my community and the environment and to be more honest with myself. Who are we really after a cold night in a tent, during a sustained effort to climb a mountain, or during the final miles of a race?
Understanding our reason for being
Through these moments of doubt that we all experience at one time or another in our lives, we become authentic and transparent to ourselves. Because when we overcome certain challenges in our everyday life or during an adventure, we are not only faced with snow, rock, wind, storms or crevasses on our path, we are also faced with our frailty. By searching for stories to tell in the context of surpassing personal limits, by filming and producing documentaries, I come to better understand my essence, my reason for being.
My feet have stomped the ground in many places, my arms have endured repeated paddle strokes, my toes have suffered frostbite. Despite all of that, I am still at the start of this exploration, the one that pushes me to seeks for even more answers, to find what defines me as a woman. Some of the expeditions I have taken part in the last years have allowed me to go forward on the path of gratitude for my existence. I have had the good fortune, during these experiences, to meet people who have impacted my pilgrimage in unknown lands. With this book, I have the chance to recount some of these encounters and show the path I took from one expedition to the other. It is after having lived some adventures that I wondered if I could transpose into my daily life some of the notions that I learned in the field in order to improve the time spent at home between two expeditions.
Each trip in nature, whether it was short or long, gave me lessons and inspired theories that guide my path today.
