“Adventure needs women”

Explorer calls for more women to embark on adventures, and for men adventurers to start thinking more like women.

Mikael Strandberg has ridden a bike from Chile to Alaska, Norway to South Africa and New Zealand to Cairo. He also explored the 3,500km unknown Kolyma River in North-Eastern Siberia by canoe and skis. And he's now planning an expedition in the Middle East. In this provocative article, written exclusively for WideWorld, Swedish-born Strandberg who has been an explorer for 23 years, argues that if expeditions are to continue being financially viable and keeping the public hooked, adventuring needs more women - and men to start thinking like women.

It was the Explorers Club´s 102nd Annual Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. A young guy named Andy Skurka, elected Man of the Year by Backpacker Magazine, had just recounted the story of how he crossed the U.S. by foot from west to east in record time.

”Nothing is impossible! Anyone can do it!” he summarised, displaying a photo of himself posing in the sunset, his gaze fixed beyond the horizon, muscles flexed, back straight. It was an oft-seen image of male adventure and exploration. I think I saw Buzz Aldrin, astronaut and second man on the moon, who was sitting near me in the audience, smirk. Female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova simply left when the so-called adventurers entered the stage. Passionately, she had told her own story, conveying her fear and amazement and incomprehension at life while she rampaged around the moon 48 times – the first woman ever to do so.

At that same event last year, this is how the famous American mountaineer Ed Viesturs closed his lecture: “... and then the mountain spoke to me, saying: ´Have faith in me, Ed, and you will reach your final 8,000-metre peak.´ And look, there I am on the mountain top!”
The Annual Dinner carried the theme ”What´s Left to Explore”. I think very few of the 1,100 spectators enjoyed the adventurers´ talks. One of our neighbours at the table, the editor of a well-known American outdoor magazine, told me: “Every day, as I receive letters and articles from people making expeditions and wanting to sell their material, I ask myself: “Hasn´t adventure come further than this? Is it still just white men with icicles in their beards dishing out the same old silly story?”

The other night I went to the monthly lecture at Travellers' Club in Stockholm. I try to go there frequently. I like the surroundings at Sällskapet: the atmosphere, the lectures, but most of all the people. The members of the Travellers' Club are from all over the world and have the most extraordinary experiences. I also go there to get inspired and maybe find an idea for my next expedition. This time it was a young fellow giving a talk. He was a great guy and it was an interesting lecture – technically – but I am so fed up with the attitude of today's so-called explorers. They are always the 'best on earth' and they only talk about themselves – incessantly. And it is always the same message: 'Everything is possible!'

But we´ve known this for maybe 3.2 million years – since 'Lucy' first went out for a excursion.

The reason why I´m bringing up this very important subject, is that every week I get a number of e-mails from men and women, young and old, who want to take off on an expedition or adventure. The majority want to know three things: What kind of equipment should I use?, How do I get sponsors? and ”How do I get the media interested in me so I can make a living selling articles and lecturing?

There is only one answer: Our view of adventure and expeditioning must be renewed. Firstly, there has to be an interesting story. Times are gone when a spectator finds it interesting to listen to the hackneyed theme of ”anything is possible”; a story centred around dirty underwear, heroic struggle and white men with icicles in their beards who have managed to reach the North Pole using a shopping cart and an oar as their only means of transport. Secondly, we need more women narrators. We need a female perspective. Men have to start thinking like women. I think this is crucial to whether the public will continue being interested in expeditions at all.

There are still considerable differences in how a story can be told. Take this account of an all-male Swedish expeditions in the Himalayas:

“It´s been tough and troublesome. Our backpacks weigh about 15 kilos, but all has turned out well. Today we struggled for six hours. Tomorrow we will continue, and then we will use our final camp at 7,500 meters. We will rise at about 12 o´clock local time, put our tents up and melt snow for water. We won´t sleep much, but we are feeling all right.”

Incredibly boring for everyone except the storyteller´s closest relatives or someone else in the know. Now compare it with another account from an expedition on the same mountain, at the same time, but this time written by a woman:

“Why am I never satisfied? I´m thinking I should have exercised more. Actually, I´ve been exercising at least five days a week. I think I should have been more mentally prepared. Actually, I´ve been preparing for five years. I don´t think I´m a good enough climber. But that's the way I am in everyday life as well: I could be better at cooking, decorating, fashion, my job. I could be a better wife, friend, and so on. Maybe I need the inherent power of dissatisfaction to be able to hold on and not give up my dream of climbing an 8,000-metre peak. Now I'm going to give it a try.”

It's wonderfully thrilling and full of drama! The fact that the men reached the top and not the woman is utterly unimportant. What is interesting is her story. This is how tomorrow´s adventurers must think to survive. Another option for adventurers trying to make money from the lecture circuit – try talking about someone else for a change. Which is what I did in New York. When I took the stage after Ed Viesturs, I talked about the Siberians and their everyday life, which makes a contemporary expedition look like a school outing by comparison. The response was fairly good – a ten-minute standing ovation.

For more information on Mikael Strandberg, visit: www.mikaelstrandberg.com