Fireflies Patagonia / Men’s Fitness
This March I shot a big Patagonian bike tale from the remotest Cochamó region and wrapped it up in 1500 words for Men’s Fitness magazine. I hauled an electric Specialized gravel bike 400km through virgin forests and charging glacial rivers to get the story. Hope you can taste the blood, sweat and beers that went into it.
Taking the ego out of adventure / Geographical
I wrote this feature story for @geographical_magazine recently, asking what expectation we should have of modern explorers in the wake of the climate and environmental crisis.
I got to interview both Ernest Shakelton’s and Neil Armstrong’s biographers about what role historical explorers of land, sea and space felt they had to report on its problems as well as its beauty on their return to civilisation.
I then turned to today’s explorers with the help of my friends at @shefadvfilmfest to ask if modern explorers are bringing back stories about our troubled planet as much as selfies.
The conclusion was that planetary advocacy by today’s adventurers is still in a nascent state, but the public appetite is growing. I think we are going to see a lot more expeditions into the world’s wild places in the coming years that put the planet rather than the self at the centre of the story.
GEOEXPLOREJUNE2021_GT 12.14.07 pm
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#adventureactivism #enviroadventures#adventure #adventureforourplanet#enviornmentalism #freelancewriter
Democratise the mountains / Thomson Reuters Foundation
A feature story and photo package for Thompson Reuters Foundation today about the Chilean grassroots campaign Queremos Parque that is on the brink of convincing the government to create a 1,420km2 national park on the doorstep of the capital.
The campaign’s plan is to create recreational opportunities in this rampantly unequal country for the majority who are geographically and economically excluded from accessing the national park system. Also Queremos Parque believes the park creation will protect the glaciers and Santiago’s water supply from the advance of the mining industry.
You can read the article here.
Storytelling and photography from an Earth Rise Productions expedition.
A Park for the People / Geographical
The feature story above is from the October 2020 clandestine expedition I organised into the Río Colorado Estate and was published by Geographical magazine in their January 2021 edition. For this expedition I put together a team of mountain guides, conservationists, activists and hired a mule herder to take us for five days into a 350,000 acre wilderness area on the outskirts of Santiago. Our aim was to explore the citizen led Queremos Parque (We Want a A Park) campaign that has gained majority support in the parliament and senate to declare an accessible national park for the capital’s 7million that would potentially be the biggest conservation story in Chilean history. Along the way our team made the first ever recorded ascent of Cerro El Barco and the highest known descent of the Rio Colorado by packraft.
Many thanks to supporting comment from Senator Alfonso de Urresti, Kristine Tompkins, James Hardcastle from the IUCN, Viviana Callahan, Tomás Gonzales and Felipe Cancino; as well as expedition logistical support from Alpacka rafts, Patagonia Chile and Fundación Plantae.