S3E7: Evan Hanson - 'Two Summits in Seven Days'

 

Adventure travel is only one possible facet of travel, but it is also one of the most exciting. The challenge of adventure traveling - of climbing mountains, of whitewater rafting, of staying alone in the desert - is enough to get any traveler to try it. Evan Hanson, however, is not just any traveler.

Evan Hanson may be sixty-four years old, but he has lived the lives of at least seven men. He has traveled for many, many years, he considers himself a consummate explorer, and he has come to visit Hayden and bring wisdom to share with the world. Evan shares his definition of adventure, as well as what got him into adventuring and advice on how to start adventuring.

Evan’s story, “Two Summits in Seven Days,” details Evan’s journey as he and his friends decided to hike both the Matterhorn and Kilimanjaro. It was expensive, difficult, took place in two different hemispheres, and they hit a great deal of roadblocks along the way. Despite the odds, though, he succeeded, and counts it among his greatest achievements. “Be ambitious when you’re planning, but plan well,” Evan says. “Don’t let obstacles deter you from reaching your goals, and you will be successful.”

Evan shares the two biggest obstacles of adventure, as well as the two main elements to making travel work. Hayden and Evan discuss overcoming roadblocks and the importance of a sense of challenge. Incorporating your passion into your adventure travel is not an easy task, but it does build character, which is vital to adventure traveling.

 

0:41 - Hayden begins discussing adventure travel and why people adventure travel. 2:42 - Hayden brings on Evan Hanson, who Evan has been traveling since his 20s; Hayden asks what makes him still do these things. Evan talks about his definition of adventure, which he sums up as “certain uncertainty,” as well as what got him into adventuring. 10:26 - Evan gives advice on how to start adventuring. He says the two main elements are balance and prudence. If you keep pushing the envelope, the envelope eats you. 15:52 - Hayden and Evan discuss the history of the location that you’re in and how you can stand in the same spot something incredible happened and feel what happened in that spot. 17:26 - Evan starts telling his adventure story of climbing two different mountains in two different hemispheres, titled “Two Summits in Seven Days.” Evan was a desert survival instructor in Saudi Arabia, and he and his fellow instructors decided to climb both the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. It was going to be expensive, and difficult, but they were determined. When they went up in the mountain to get acclimated to the elevation, it snowed, in July. When they were finally ready to climb the Matterhorn, it took them six hours, but it was worth every moment. They had to immediately head out to Tanzania after their descent and a night of sleep, and when they arrived, they had lost their food bag, so they decided they had to climb even more quickly than the normal...