Before setting on a big Adventure or Expedition, there is a full list of things I do to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. I call this doing your home works. Let’s jump right into the subject!
First things first: WHERE and WHAT
Where are you heading too and what are you going to do there.
For example if you are going on a trip in the Arctic (let’s say Kuujjuaq for example) to photograph MuskOxen, then the where is Kuujjuaq. In the same example, to photograph Musk Oxen, you might have to follow herds with skis and a sled to pull your things behind you and not carry all that weight on your back. So the what will be Ski and Sled. You will notice here that to choose the what, I didn’t pick Photography because it is only the end result. To get there, you have to Ski and Sled.
Now that you’ve got all that figured out, you will have to think the second what: WHAT are the dangers?
No matter where you go and what you do, danger exists. But if you know about it, you can live with it fairly easily. Therefore you have to be conscious about the main dangers where you go. Using the same examples, the Dangers would be Polar Bears, Cold temperatures, Frozen water breaking beneath you, and getting lost.
Step 2: HOW? How am I going to cope with the danger?
In that case, since you know the dangers in your way, you just have to get prepared, in getting prepared, I mean getting the proper gear for example, Bear Banger, Bear spray, line and bells, Hot warm clothes and gloves. Next to the proper gear, you have to learn to use it and learn how to cope with your environnement. Therefore, DO YOUR HOMEWORKS, learn how to properly recognize fragile Ice and good Ice, learn how to find your direction in the wild (with and without a compass), learn how to get warm and stay worm in extreme cold temperatures and learn animal behaviour for Polar Bears. If you need to take an Arctic survivalism bootcamp, go do it. If you are going for an expedition, believe me you will have to be self sufficient, even in tricky moments, so you better be well trained ;).
Step 3: Now that you are trained let’s gear up!
Now that you know the dangers and where you are heading two, you know what type of gear you are going to be needing. Therefore, gear up! You need a sled, a good tent, extreme temperature sleeping bags and ground mats, and emergency kit with first aid and survival tools, multiple layers of clothes, anding with very hot windbreakers, sunglasses for snow etc etc.
Step 4: Prepare yourself, Phisically and Mentally
Since you are preparing for a big expedition, you will have to take a lot of different steps into your preparations such as body conditioning, (taking cold shower every day, cold bath once a week, learning self control and focus in stressful situations and training physically for endurance and musculation).
Still when it comes to workout I suggest two routines. One that will be specific to the effort you will make during the expedition, and an other one much more generic, that I suggest you do 5 times a week. But for body preparation, I’ll make a whole video on the subject.
Step 5: Transports
Know what transports you will take, at what time, what replacement if one can’t show up etc. Still in our example, you would need to take a flight to Montreal or Quebec City, then get a Bus to Baie Comeau and finally, take a small 5 sits plane to Kujjuaq.
Step 6: Communication
I don’t think I have to explain that one: Take sim card for the location you are going into and if you have stricktly no network, take a satellite phone. It is expensive, but it might save your life.
Step 7: Food
In most expeditions, you are far from human activity, so you either hunt, pick up and cook, or get some dry frozen food. Most of the time, we do the second option as it is less expensive in terms of energy spending, and in most expeditions, we are very close to survival situation, so the fewer energy spent, the better.
In Adventures however, you could find some local places to go for a typical lunch, and that has to be done when you do your reaserches.
Step 8: Camera gear and Power supply
Basically, you always want to bring back some memories, but you need strong power supplies for that. In that case, I suggest you take some solar pannels with a Huge battery storage. I’ll give links to good options in the “my gear” section of the website.
Step 9: BE CLEAN
Since you are going to become an explorer, adventurer or traveler, you have responsabilities. One of them towards the environement, be clean, pick up your trash, try to use green energies and spread the word!
Final Step: ENJOY
You will have good days, you will have bad days, some days will be exhausting, some will be amusing, but in the end, live your adventure/expedition/trip/LIFE to the fullest. No matter what you do, it won’t last. Since everything have an end, just try to enjoy things as they are :).
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