#794 A Long Cold Walk - John Cantor

John Cantor is an adventurer, thrill-seeker and explorer of human limits, who achieved his long-held dream of traversing the Brooks Range solo; a 1,600 km expedition across Arctic Alaska, considered to be one of the toughest solo expeditions on earth. Almost completely devoid of human presence, this environment is full of grizzly bears, wolves and countless other animals. With no previous experience and only blind self-belief, this young surfer from Noosa Heads set himself a near-impossible goal. There were only four documented solo traverses of the range prior to this, all of whom were Americans. After failing on three successive attempts in three consecutive years, John realised he was banging his head against a brick wall, so he took a year off and adopted a completely different approach to the expedition. He broke it down into little battles and worked on perfecting each element. John finally completed the expedition in 31-and-a-half days, setting a speed record for the traverse. During this time, John also battled chronic knee and back injuries, severe anxiety and huge financial costs, working up to three jobs at a time. John’s expedition was featured on the ABC’s Australian Story. Enjoy. 

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