High Sierra Topix

I highly recommend the Nat Geo video attached below. It has some great photography and film images, and Skurka's talk hits some really high notes, at least to me. There is the best onsite bear story ever, and his emotional response to moving through the land is very genuine and touching. Hope you find it inspiring. Harlen.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMf7TypZwtc

Awesome thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Yep, one of the best outdoor videos on YouTube. His presentation at Google (I belive), a backpacking how to, is well done also.

Glad you liked it. I too find it a remarkable video presentation on many levels. His trip preparation, and execution are inspiring, as is his level of fitness and endurance. I believe he succeeds on these trips for all of the above reasons, but perhaps the most important arrow in Skurka's quiver is his pure enjoyment of the experience.

He really wants to be out there, doesn't he? He seems to deeply enjoy the esoteric (yet common to many of us here) connection to the land. That connection must deepen the longer one travels, both in time and distance don't you think? I have never gone on anywhere near the length of his trips, but I have stayed in the mountains for long periods- long enough to fall into what an old mentor called "mountain time."

Andrew Skurka really pushed near the limits of this sort of experience on this long trip in the north lands. Long miles, difficult terrain, exciting and extreme wildlife adventures- grizzly bears, caribou herds, and hordes of mosquitoes, but most impressive were the long periods of solitary travel in true wilderness when he was high in the arctic Brooks Range.

I find that Skurka has that clear ring of truth that we search for, and rarely find. At the end of the video (beginning around 29.40 minutes) he uses that same honest and thoughtful voice to speak deeply about wilderness and our experience of wild nature.]