The Explorers Page #5

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Yes

Why?

There are no jobs

But your future, does your

future look good?

Yes, I think so

Peter Pan was my hero,

you know

I wanted to live

a Peter Pan existence

I wanted to fly away to

Never-Never Land

and run wild with

the Lost Boys

You know,

I think it's every kid's

dream to get out there

and bash his way through

the jungle

and have wild adventures

and extreme encounters

and get himself into as

much trouble as possible

And now I get paid to

do that

which is the greatest

privilege of my life

Man, this place is just

amazing, just amazing

An explorer is somebody

who has to look deeper into

things than things were

looked into before

It's about going into

territory

which geographically

has been explored before

but emotionally perhaps

has not

Mozambique at last

I just hope I don't step

on any land mines

Red danger sign

Danger! Mines!

What kind of damage could

a mine like this do?

Take off a lower leg or

take off a limb

It's primarily a weapon

that's designed to maim

rather than kill, although

there's every chance

in the world

that it would kill a small

child or an elderly person

One of the most inspiring

people

I've ever met in my life

was a five-year-old girl

named Isabel

She was a land mine victim

living in Mozambique

And I think I forgot that I

had the camera in my hand

and suddenly I was looking

at a five-year-old girl

fighting to learn

to walk again

That was an incredibly

potent and

emotional moment for me

and I don't think it's one

that I will ever forget

When I turned 21,

my parents and I were on

a camping trip

and we were sitting around

the campfire

And we decided to count

the number of times

we'd moved in my 21 years

And we had moved home

And at that point I

realized that

although I wanted to become

an explorer of some kind

I had already spent

my entire life doing that

Danger certainly adds

an element of spice

to what I do and

I love that

I love the sense that

there's something at stake

Today is a hell of a lot

tougher than

yesterday was and it's

been quite scary, actually

We've been surrounded by

a forest fire

I need the adrenaline,

yeah, I mean

otherwise I'd still be

at law school studying

contracts

Hello

What's the problem?

I don't have to quote

this camera

I know my rights

I think the first time

I got into real trouble

I wasn't enjoying it all

I was absolutely terrified

But once I saw myself get

through that situation

I think that's probably

when the addiction

kicked in

Okay, well you don't have

to hassle me all the time

I know I'm foolish and I

know I'm reckless sometimes

But, you know

there is a certain amount of

appeal in riding that edge

You can't really understand

life or

appreciate it or

understand it or

the scope of it until

you've flirted with death

a little but

understood the other side

Exploration is often

a solitary venture

a journey to understand

yourself

and your place

in the world

Heidi Howkins craves

dangerous places

For her, risking death on

a thin cornice of snow

is how she explores life

Who could have guessed that

this little girl would

grow up

to be a high altitude

mountaineer?

There was one influence

in her life

that might have given you

a clue? her father

She describes him as

an eccentric fitness fanatic

He passed along his passion

for ultra-long distance

races

But Howkins quickly

got bored

She wanted something more

For me, those are just

physical challenges

They're not mental

challenges

Yes, sure, you get to

the point where

to continue running

after 24 hours

you've got to have

some kind of mental urge

But it's, there's no danger

There's no risks,

there's no fears

But risk and fear are at

the core of mountaineering

While an earlier generation

of climbers

would have been satisfied

with conquering one

world-class peak in a year

Howkins hopes to conquer

two:
Everest and K2

without the aid of

supplemental oxygen

It really doesn't matter

that I'm female when

I'm up there

What matters is that

I'm a good climber

And that's a great feeling

That's something that

definitely gives me a charge

It'd be nice to share that

with other women

It's just that there aren't

that many of us

My legs are saying,

"No more up!"

Howkins knows all too well

that once she sets foot on

a mountain

she puts her life in peril

While climbing Kanchenjunga

in 1997

she was struck by a massive

avalanche

Although buried

in deep snow

she found the strength to

claw her way to the surface

In 1998, her expedition was

hit by another avalanche

The slabs of snow missed

her

but she was helpless as

members of her team were

swept away

Two were killed

Despite the danger

Howkins returns year after

year to these mountains

You have to confront your

own mortality

like that every day on

an expedition

if not every hour,

or every minute

It becomes something

that you know sort

of like your fingers

and your toes

You're certain that

it's there

and you're fully aware

of it

You're catapulted into

a totally different realm

when you're facing that

fear

that terror, that mystery,

the unknown

Why do climbers like Howkins

scour the earth

for extreme vertical places?

Why do they eagerly seek

out life on the edge?

Why do I do this if it's

so cold and

so uncomfortable and scary?

Because I don't want life

to be easy

You know, I find greater

meaning in my life

when I go out and struggle

to get something I want

On Baffin Island, 300 miles

north of the Arctic Circle

there is a wall of granite

more than twice

as high as the Empire State

building

It's not the world's highest,

it's hardly even famous

But no one has climbed it

For four world class

climbers

that's an irresistible

challenge

I think, to me personally

true adventure requires

an uncertain outcome

It's gotta have this big

question mark hanging over it

It's probably the hardest

piece of big wall

climbing that I've done

Maybe that's what

it's all about

pushing yourself so far

out there

that you can't really

turn around

You have to keep going

Basically, a trip like

this is a journey

It's a journey of exploration

into a beautiful wilderness

like Baffin Island

I don't have a death wish,

I have a life wish

And these trips bring you

closer to life

than anything I can imagine

Howkins's journey is becoming

increasingly difficult

She is approaching

the death zone

Above 26,000 feet

the air is so thin

that the brain is deprived

of oxygen

It becomes hard to think

straight

Every fiber in your body

is telling you to stop

to sit down, to die,

essentially

You've moved beyond your

survival instinct

There has to be something

beyond reason

that's pushing you

to continue moving

especially to continue

climbing up

Howkins isn't the first

woman

to try climbing both Everest

and K2 in a single year

In 1995,

Alison Hargreaves had

successfully climbed Everest

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