Why bother leaving the house?
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0:01 - 0:02I essentially drag sledges for a living,
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0:02 - 0:06so it doesn't take an awful lot to flummox me intellectually,
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0:06 - 0:07but I'm going to read this question
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0:07 - 0:10from an interview earlier this year:
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0:10 - 0:13"Philosophically, does the constant supply of information
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0:13 - 0:16steal our ability to imagine
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0:16 - 0:18or replace our dreams of achieving?
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0:18 - 0:21After all, if it is being done somewhere by someone,
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0:21 - 0:24and we can participate virtually,
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0:24 - 0:27then why bother leaving the house?"
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0:27 - 0:30I'm usually introduced as a polar explorer.
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0:30 - 0:32I'm not sure that's the most progressive or 21st-century
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0:32 - 0:37of job titles, but I've spent more than two percent now
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0:37 - 0:41of my entire life living in a tent inside the Arctic Circle,
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0:41 - 0:44so I get out of the house a fair bit.
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0:44 - 0:48And in my nature, I guess, I am a doer of things
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0:48 - 0:52more than I am a spectator or a contemplator of things,
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0:52 - 0:56and it's that dichotomy, the gulf between ideas and action
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0:56 - 0:59that I'm going to try and explore briefly.
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0:59 - 1:03The pithiest answer to the question "why?"
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1:03 - 1:05that's been dogging me for the last 12 years
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1:05 - 1:08was credited certainly to this chap, the rakish-looking gentleman
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1:08 - 1:10standing at the back, second from the left,
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1:10 - 1:13George Lee Mallory. Many of you will know his name.
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1:13 - 1:17In 1924 he was last seen disappearing into the clouds
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1:17 - 1:18near the summit of Mt. Everest.
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1:18 - 1:21He may or may not have been the first person to climb Everest,
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1:21 - 1:23more than 30 years before Edmund Hillary.
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1:23 - 1:26No one knows if he got to the top. It's still a mystery.
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1:26 - 1:29But he was credited with coining the phrase, "Because it's there."
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1:29 - 1:32Now I'm not actually sure that he did say that.
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1:32 - 1:34There's very little evidence to suggest it, but what he did say
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1:34 - 1:37is actually far nicer,
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1:37 - 1:40and again, I've printed this. I'm going to read it out.
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1:40 - 1:42"The first question which you will ask
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1:42 - 1:44and which I must try to answer is this:
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1:44 - 1:48What is the use of climbing Mt. Everest?
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1:48 - 1:51And my answer must at once be, it is no use.
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1:51 - 1:54There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever.
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1:54 - 1:56Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior
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1:56 - 1:58of the human body at high altitudes,
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1:58 - 2:01and possibly medical men may turn our observation
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2:01 - 2:04to some account for the purposes of aviation,
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2:04 - 2:06but otherwise nothing will come of it.
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2:06 - 2:09We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver,
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2:09 - 2:11and not a gem, nor any coal or iron.
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2:11 - 2:14We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted
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2:14 - 2:18with crops to raise food. So it is no use.
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2:18 - 2:20If you cannot understand that there is something in man
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2:20 - 2:23which responds to the challenge of this mountain
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2:23 - 2:26and goes out to meet it, that the struggle
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2:26 - 2:30is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward,
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2:30 - 2:33then you won't see why we go.
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2:33 - 2:37What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy,
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2:37 - 2:40and joy, after all, is the end of life.
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2:40 - 2:42We don't live to eat and make money.
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2:42 - 2:44We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life.
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2:44 - 2:49That is what life means, and that is what life is for."
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2:49 - 2:53Mallory's argument that leaving the house,
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2:53 - 2:55embarking on these grand adventures is joyful and fun,
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2:55 - 2:59however, doesn't tally that neatly with my own experience.
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2:59 - 3:02The furthest I've ever got away from my front door
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3:02 - 3:05was in the spring of 2004. I still don't know exactly
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3:05 - 3:08what came over me, but my plan was to make
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3:08 - 3:12a solo and unsupported crossing of the Arctic Ocean.
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3:12 - 3:15I planned essentially to walk from the north coast of Russia
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3:15 - 3:18to the North Pole, and then to carry on to the north coast of Canada.
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3:18 - 3:21No one had ever done this. I was 26 at the time.
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3:21 - 3:23A lot of experts were saying it was impossible,
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3:23 - 3:27and my mum certainly wasn't very keen on the idea.
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3:27 - 3:29(Laughter)
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3:29 - 3:32The journey from a small weather station on the north coast
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3:32 - 3:34of Siberia up to my final starting point,
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3:34 - 3:37the edge of the pack ice, the coast of the Arctic Ocean,
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3:37 - 3:40took about five hours, and if anyone watched fearless
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3:40 - 3:43Felix Baumgartner going up, rather than just coming down,
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3:43 - 3:46you'll appreciate the sense of apprehension,
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3:46 - 3:49as I sat in a helicopter thundering north,
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3:49 - 3:52and the sense, I think if anything, of impending doom.
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3:52 - 3:56I sat there wondering what on Earth I had gotten myself into.
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3:56 - 3:58There was a bit of fun, a bit of joy.
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3:58 - 4:00I was 26. I remember sitting there
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4:00 - 4:02looking down at my sledge. I had my skis ready to go,
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4:02 - 4:04I had a satellite phone, a pump-action shotgun
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4:04 - 4:06in case I was attacked by a polar bear.
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4:06 - 4:09I remember looking out of the window and seeing the second helicopter.
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4:09 - 4:12We were both thundering through this incredible Siberian dawn,
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4:12 - 4:15and part of me felt a bit like a cross between Jason Bourne
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4:15 - 4:18and Wilfred Thesiger. Part of me
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4:18 - 4:24felt quite proud of myself, but mostly I was just utterly terrified.
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4:24 - 4:26And that journey lasted 10 weeks, 72 days.
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4:26 - 4:29I didn't see anyone else. We took this photo next to the helicopter.
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4:29 - 4:31Beyond that, I didn't see anyone for 10 weeks.
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4:31 - 4:33The North Pole is slap bang in the middle of the sea,
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4:33 - 4:37so I'm traveling over the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean.
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4:37 - 4:41NASA described conditions that year as the worst since records began.
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4:41 - 4:44I was dragging 180 kilos of food and fuel and supplies,
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4:44 - 4:47about 400 pounds. The average temperature for the 10 weeks
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4:47 - 4:50was minus 35. Minus 50 was the coldest.
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4:50 - 4:57So again, there wasn't an awful lot of joy or fun to be had.
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4:57 - 4:58One of the magical things about this journey, however,
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4:58 - 5:01is that because I'm walking over the sea,
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5:01 - 5:05over this floating, drifting, shifting crust of ice
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5:05 - 5:07that's floating on top of the Arctic Ocean is
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5:07 - 5:09it's an environment that's in a constant state of flux.
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5:09 - 5:11The ice is always moving, breaking up, drifting around,
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5:11 - 5:15refreezing, so the scenery that I saw for nearly 3 months
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5:15 - 5:18was unique to me. No one else will ever, could ever,
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5:18 - 5:23possibly see the views, the vistas, that I saw for 10 weeks.
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5:23 - 5:27And that, I guess, is probably the finest argument for leaving the house.
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5:27 - 5:31I can try to tell you what it was like,
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5:31 - 5:33but you'll never know what it was like,
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5:33 - 5:36and the more I try to explain that I felt lonely,
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5:36 - 5:39I was the only human being in 5.4 million square-miles,
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5:39 - 5:44it was cold, nearly minus 75 with windchill on a bad day,
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5:44 - 5:48the more words fall short, and I'm unable to do it justice.
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5:48 - 5:52And it seems to me, therefore, that the doing,
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5:52 - 5:57you know, to try to experience, to engage, to endeavor,
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5:57 - 6:02rather than to watch and to wonder, that's where
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6:02 - 6:05the real meat of life is to be found,
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6:05 - 6:09the juice that we can suck out of our hours and days.
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6:09 - 6:11And I would add a cautionary note here, however.
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6:11 - 6:13In my experience, there is something addictive
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6:13 - 6:18about tasting life at the very edge of what's humanly possible.
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6:18 - 6:20Now I don't just mean in the field of
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6:20 - 6:22daft macho Edwardian style derring-do,
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6:22 - 6:24but also in the fields of pancreatic cancer,
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6:24 - 6:26there is something addictive about this, and in my case,
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6:26 - 6:29I think polar expeditions are perhaps not that far removed
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6:29 - 6:30from having a crack habit.
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6:30 - 6:34I can't explain quite how good it is until you've tried it,
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6:34 - 6:38but it has the capacity to burn up all the money I can get my hands on,
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6:38 - 6:41to ruin every relationship I've ever had,
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6:41 - 6:46so be careful what you wish for.
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6:46 - 6:48Mallory postulated that there is something in man
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6:48 - 6:51that responds to the challenge of the mountain,
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6:51 - 6:53and I wonder if that's the case whether there's something
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6:53 - 6:56in the challenge itself, in the endeavor, and particularly
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6:56 - 6:59in the big, unfinished, chunky challenges that face humanity
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6:59 - 7:03that call out to us, and in my experience that's certainly the case.
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7:03 - 7:05There is one unfinished challenge
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7:05 - 7:08that's been calling out to me for most of my adult life.
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7:08 - 7:10Many of you will know the story.
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7:10 - 7:12This is a photo of Captain Scott and his team.
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7:12 - 7:14Scott set out just over a hundred years ago to try
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7:14 - 7:17to become the first person to reach the South Pole.
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7:17 - 7:19No one knew what was there. It was utterly unmapped
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7:19 - 7:21at the time. We knew more about the surface of the moon
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7:21 - 7:24than we did about the heart of Antarctica.
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7:24 - 7:27Scott, as many of you will know, was beaten to it
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7:27 - 7:29by Roald Amundsen and his Norwegian team,
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7:29 - 7:32who used dogs and dogsleds. Scott's team were on foot,
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7:32 - 7:34all five of them wearing harnesses and dragging around sledges,
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7:34 - 7:38and they arrived at the pole to find the Norwegian flag already there,
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7:38 - 7:42I'd imagine pretty bitter and demoralized.
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7:42 - 7:44All five of them turned and started walking back to the coast
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7:44 - 7:48and all five died on that return journey.
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7:48 - 7:50There is a sort of misconception nowadays that
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7:50 - 7:53it's all been done in the fields of exploration and adventure.
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7:53 - 7:55When I talk about Antarctica, people often say,
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7:55 - 7:56"Hasn't, you know, that's interesting,
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7:56 - 7:59hasn't that Blue Peter presenter just done it on a bike?"
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7:59 - 8:03Or, "That's nice. You know, my grandmother's going
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8:03 - 8:05on a cruise to Antarctica next year. You know.
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8:05 - 8:08Is there a chance you'll see her there?"
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8:08 - 8:10(Laughter)
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8:10 - 8:13But Scott's journey remains unfinished.
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8:13 - 8:16No one has ever walked from the very coast of Antarctica
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8:16 - 8:17to the South Pole and back again.
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8:17 - 8:20It is, arguably, the most audacious endeavor
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8:20 - 8:23of that Edwardian golden age of exploration,
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8:23 - 8:25and it seemed to me high time, given everything
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8:25 - 8:27we have figured out in the century since
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8:27 - 8:31from scurvy to solar panels, that it was high time
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8:31 - 8:33someone had a go at finishing the job.
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8:33 - 8:35So that's precisely what I'm setting out to do.
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8:35 - 8:38This time next year, in October, I'm leading a team of three.
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8:38 - 8:41It will take us about four months to make this return journey.
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8:41 - 8:44That's the scale. The red line is obviously halfway to the pole.
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8:44 - 8:45We have to turn around and come back again.
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8:45 - 8:47I'm well aware of the irony of telling you that we will be
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8:47 - 8:50blogging and tweeting. You'll be able to live
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8:50 - 8:53vicariously and virtually through this journey
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8:53 - 8:56in a way that no one has ever before.
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8:56 - 8:58And it'll also be a four-month chance for me to finally
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8:58 - 9:02come up with a pithy answer to the question, "Why?"
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9:02 - 9:07And our lives today are safer and more comfortable
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9:07 - 9:10than they have ever been. There certainly isn't much call
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9:10 - 9:13for explorers nowadays. My career advisor at school
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9:13 - 9:16never mentioned it as an option.
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9:16 - 9:19If I wanted to know, for example,
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9:19 - 9:21how many stars were in the Milky Way,
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9:21 - 9:23how old those giant heads on Easter Island were,
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9:23 - 9:26most of you could find that out right now
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9:26 - 9:28without even standing up.
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9:28 - 9:31And yet, if I've learned anything in nearly 12 years now
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9:31 - 9:34of dragging heavy things around cold places,
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9:34 - 9:38it is that true, real inspiration and growth
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9:38 - 9:42only comes from adversity and from challenge,
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9:42 - 9:45from stepping away from what's comfortable and familiar
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9:45 - 9:48and stepping out into the unknown.
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9:48 - 9:51In life, we all have tempests to ride and poles to walk to,
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9:51 - 9:53and I think metaphorically speaking, at least,
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9:53 - 9:56we could all benefit from getting outside the house
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9:56 - 10:00a little more often, if only we could summon up the courage.
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10:00 - 10:03I certainly would implore you to open the door just a little bit
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10:03 - 10:06and take a look at what's outside.
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10:06 - 10:07Thank you very much.
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10:07 - 10:16(Applause)
- Title:
- Why bother leaving the house?
- Speaker:
- Ben Saunders
- Description:
-
Explorer Ben Saunders wants you to go outside! Not because it’s always pleasant and happy, but because that’s where the meat of life is, “the juice that we can suck out of our hours and days.” Saunders’ next outdoor excursion? To try to be the first in the world to walk from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back again.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 10:37
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