Grit and Tenacity

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MW Editor’s Note:  Adam Shoalts is a Canadian Adventurer-Explorer. The Toronto Star calls him “Canada’s Indiana Jones”. He is a historian, archaeologist, geographer, and Explorer in Residence of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society. He’s also a father of three sons. This is an article about Adam’s 4000 km trek across Canada’s Arctic Circle, solo,and the character qualities it takes to face such feats. 

David Discovers Adam Shoalts

Having finished two more day-hikes with friends in Ontario’s vast Algonquin Provincial Park, we stopped by the Visitor’s Centre for a break. One sweep through the bookstore, and my eye caught the Adam Shoalts display.  His book “Beyond the Trees” intrigued me. Hiking and canoeing 4000 kilometres across Canada’s Arctic Circle ALONE! 

For the next several weeks, I was caught up in the adventure, the risk, the challenges of traveling across one of the most barren and vast lands on earth, alone!  Perhaps it’s the solo aspect of Adam’s trek that captured me. Reading Shoalts’ account, I felt like I was back in my twenties, testing my own limits, cheating death, and surviving to tell the story!

David Tackling the Alps

When I was 22, having graduated from university in architecture, I spent a summer in the Austrian Alps volunteering as a caretaker’s assistant at a 500-year-old castle.  On my days off, the German caretaker, Arno, and I would hike various peaks in the Ober-Pinzgau Valley. 

Grossvenediger, Austria’s second-highest mountain at 3,666m (12,028 feet) was a trek across glaciers and cravasses until we reached the summit.  Standing on a narrow 1 metre wide peak with a 1,220m (4000 feet) drop on one side. We were grateful for crampons, ropes, and icepicks! With a total ascent and descent of 5500m (18,000 feet) in one day, needless to say, altitude sickness hit me hard. But I overcame it!

Another trek brought me to near death. In a nearby valley, our trail paralleled a cliff some 100m (300 feet) below us. That cliff then dropped straight down nearly 300m (1000 feet).  The challenging part was the trail required Arno and me to cross over a snow-packed field that was around 250m long (800 feet).  

While on that stretch of snow-packed trail, my foot slipped.  Next thing I know, I was sliding feet first on my stomach towards that 300m cliff!  As much as I tried digging my shoes into the snow, I couldn’t stop myself. My hands couldn’t grip any snow either! My mind was racing. I pictured myself going over the cliff to my death. 

About then, my feet hit a boulder jutting out of the sloping icefield. I was about 3m away from the cliff! With a rope, Arno helped me back up to safety.

Adam’s Northern Adventure

As I read further into Adam’s adventure across the Arctic Circle, what intrigued me about him was his character, particularly his grit and tenacity. “Steady as she goes.” That ole phrase kept coming to mind. 

When Adam arrived at the Coppermine River, he knew it “promised to be a gruelling, exhausting upriver battle that would exceed anything I’d yet attempted.”  The Coppermine River is about 845km long (525 miles), flowing north to the Arctic Ocean.  The challenge before Adam was that he was going south on a north-flowing river! 

When you hit a wall, what do you do?  Give up? Raise the white flag? Admit defeat?  For Adam, aborting his adventure trek would have implications beyond just being rescued. His credibility as an explorer would be on the line. Since his teens, his entire life, things were set in motion for adventures just like this one in the Arctic Circle.  Now, in his early thirties, what would Adam do?  What would you do?

Here’s what was going through Adam’s mind.

“Lying in my tent, listening to the noise of the nearby river, I thought over what I had to do if I were to succeed in getting up the Coppermine. Against a current that powerful, brute strength would count for little. My only chance was to rely on agility, careful decision-making, and above all, determination.”

Sometimes, when faced with an insurmountable obstacle, a guy can question his abilities. His lack of confidence and insecurities, fueled by fear, overwhelm him. “Do I have what it takes?” is a God-given, innate question every man of any age is asking. 

Here’s what Adam thought next, lying in his tent.

“Now more than ever, the idea of the tortoise racing the hare was my guiding philosophy. Only with a great deal of patience and persistence could I overcome the river’s seemingly impossible current.”

Needless to say, Adam succeeded! Eventually, he canoed into Baker Lake, Nunavut, 4000 km and 102 days after he started his trek in the Yukon. Imagine the feeling of success. He proved himself able!

Circling back, on some things Adam said (page 182 of his book Beyond the Trees), I’m struck with two words:  patience and persistence. 

Patience is a steady pace that understands risks, and that time need not rush a good thing. I can have patience with people. Patience with the young men I mentor. Patience with myself. Not rushing things. Recently, I built two stile and rail barn doors for our home’s library. My mind clearly envisioned the finished project, but I also needed to remind myself that it takes time to do things right. Patience in the journey calms the soul from rising tides of anxiety.

Persistence is not bull-headed stubbornness. It’s determination that regardless of the obstacles ahead, there is a way around them to achieve greater goals. Persistence in pursuing a woman to marry. Persistence in completing your education. Persistence in pursuing a life with God. Persistence in becoming a man not bound by dysfunctional addictions, but by a depth of character that produces leadership our world is hungry for.

What adventures are you going on?  You might not be game to tackle the Arctic Circle solo, as Adam did, but as a young man, there are adventures both internally and out there that need your undivided attention. 

What’s it going to be?

Warrior On!

MW Editor’s Note:  Follow this link to learn more about Adam Shoalts. https://adamshoalts.com/

Also, check out this documentary of Adam’s trek across the Arctic Circle: Beyond the Trees Documentary

Thanks to Adam for curating photos for this post. Check out future articles about Adam.