Mark Kalch » extreme

Friday Stoke

Mark Kalch — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:46:29 +0000

After last week’s Friday Stoke I had imagined it would be back to normal (ie. less about me and more about proper cool folks). Well, apologies but this week it is all about me again, or more accurately one of my expeditions.

Expedition Amazonas, a human powered source to sea paddling descent of the Amazon River was, for me, a life changing experience. It showed me the sort of things I could achieve and on a simpler level, was a catalyst that led to me pursuing adventure and expeditions as a way of making a living. It was a tough descent, but now, I look back on even the hardest parts with a smile. Those uncomfortable times were where I grew the most. Where I learned the most.

So, I am stoked to be able to finally show below a little 3 min trailer about the journey. For one reason or another this footage is being turned into something useful about 2 years late, but, hey what can you do? I am just stoked to be able to relive the expedition again. Perhaps going back to what it was like on the river provided the push for me to decide upon the 7 rivers, 7 continents project. Whatever the case, check it out. I hope you enjoy. A 15 min cut of the footage just won top prize at the Gravity Adventure Festival in South Africa which was pretty cool.

On a side note, I leave France on Monday, headed to Tanzania via London to lead a pretty special group of people up Mount Kilimanjaro. It’s a place that seems to put a very big smile on my face every time I step foot on it’s slopes. Now, I know your grandma climbed Kili the other year and, for Pete’s sake Chris Moyles and Cheryl Cole managed to top out, but you underestimate a nearly 6000m mountain at your own peril. Plenty of people summit Kili and get their photo taken at Uhuru Peak, but you know, plenty don’t make it. Lack of prep or just bad luck dashes the hopes of many on the mountain each year. So, think about having a crack at the summit without the use all your limbs. Next week I will lead a mixed group of able-bodied and amputee trekkers towards the top of Kili, with one of our team being a quad amputee (yes that’s right, quad). It will be an amazing, interesting and challenging climb for the trekkers as they try to reach the top of Africa and for myself as I try to get them there. I am so amped to meet the inevitable obstacles that will be thrown my way.

I won’t be updating from Africa but will be sure to let you all know how it goes up on my return. I get a week at home afterwards, chilling and surfing before I head back out to take another group up. The things we do. Lucky I dig it!

Enjoy your weekend!

Next descent is…

Mark Kalch — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 22:12:48 +0000

When we finished our full human-powered source to sea descent of the Amazon River I was elated to have achieved such a hard fought goal. I also kind of figured it might take me a while to get back on a big river again. Well it has been a good many months now and walking across Iran in it’s entirety earlier this year might have been the trigger, (or is it final straw?) but I reckon it might be that time again…

The next hardest thing after having decided to complete a human-powered descent of the longest river on each continent is coming up with a suitable ordering. With the Amazon done I am left with 6 pretty special rivers to complete. How do you choose the next? I have spent a good number of weeks now researching furiously and scribbling notes in my journal in some sort of mad equation hoping to come up with a result. I considered so many factors and by some luck I have managed to make sense of my quasi-mathematics to find a winner.

In 2011, I will make a full human-powered source to sea descent of the Mississippi River in North America (or more accurately the Red Rock – Jefferson – Missouri – Mississippi). At a touch under 6300km this river system is the 4th longest in the world behind just the Nile, Amazon and Yangtze rivers. A whole lot of paddling! I am amped to soon be on such a magnificent river. No hippos, crocs or gun-toting rebels on this descent but a waterway as mighty as the Mississippi is taken lightly at one’s own peril. Complacency leads to mistakes which leads to failure. Not an option for me I am afraid!

I have a pretty accurate put-in date which I will reveal soon, as well as announcing in the coming weeks some pretty cool sponsorship news. I plan to make the descent largely alone (ie. no team), but I would be stoked if anyone were to join me for a wee paddle if they so desired.

Friday Stoke

Mark Kalch — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:54:48 +0000

Usually, the “Friday Stoke” post is all about folks, other than me, doing awesome stuff and most often displayed as a video clip. Today is different.

I have ranted before about my distaste (or at the very least unease) with continually “whoring” myself in the name of self-promotion. Something I do realise is a necessary evil. I am my own business after all.

But I am super stoked to show you guys today my latest published article. It has been a very good run with articles for me over the last 4 months with 5 features published in some pretty wicked magazines. However the one with which I am most proud appears in this month’s Wend Magazine out of the US.

A gnarly 7-pager, with a bit of everything about this year’s walk across Iran. The photos that the guys at the mag chose from the bunch I sent through came out superbly. All shot with a pretty simple Sony Alpha A230 DSLR (and to be honest a good number on auto!). No matter they look ace!

But it is not just the look of the article, or even the way the words came together which make me so amped. It was the way in which Kyle and his team at Wend approached the task from their end. I had become a little too used to putting together a piece for publishing, emailing it off with a bunch of photos, collecting my money and running for the hills! That is not how it works at Wend Mag. They actually give a toss about what goes into their magazine and make sure only the best makes the cut. Back and forth, with edits and re-writes, ideas thrown about from myself and Kyle, till finally we came up with something they were stoked about.

I have a nice shiny PDF of the entire article which I am sorely tempted to put up here for your reading pleasure, but you know what? I reckon that might be doing Kyle and Wend Magazine a bit of a dis-service. Never fear though! You can get a sneak preview of the article here. Better still you can subscribe to the digital edition of the magazine here, for FREE! Hard to beat that! (Just saw I also scored a double-page photo spread in the mag as well, with a shot of the Persian Gulf at the end of my walk. Check out page 4-5. Sweet!)

Nice surf here yesterday. Clean, 1m and sun shining. Not looking so hot for the weekend (waves that is), but hey can’t win em’ all! Enjoy yours!

Being humble

Mark Kalch — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:09:23 +0000

I dig Twitter, Facebook and my website for enabling me to alert other people on what I am up to and to interact with others about their goings on. One thing that pains me so much is “whoring” myself on these same applications.

Latest tweet: Just wrote a new article! Look at me, I am so brilliant! (or something to that effect).

I still struggle to get my head around the fact that my business and myself are one and the same. It is difficult for me to constantly shout out to people about what I am doing without feeling that I am patting myself rather too hard on the back at the same time. It is a constant battle to post or tweet about my latest article or latest project (which I must do to stay in business) and at the same time think, “You plonker! You’re not so great.”.

So it is always refreshing and delightful to meet or hear about folks who are at the top of the game and either do not need to tell everyone about how good they are or just don’t feel like it. You know who I mean. The quiet bloke sipping water at a BBQ while everyone is drinking beer. When asked what he does, quietly responds with something about athletics. You find out later he is a world champion javelin thrower. Or the guy who plays for the local footy team in Perth, Western Australia. Oh yeh, you mean the West Coast Eagles? What about the girl who does a bit of paddling? Turns out she is Nikki Kelly, one of the best kayakers on the planet!

In a crowded room of people, these guys would never tell you exactly who they are. I would like to think I conduct myself (whatever level I am on – I am not a world champ at anything…yet!) in the same manner in a social setting. But here I am on the internet pushing myself like Burger King and Microsoft! What a bummer! The things we do!

Onyx River

Mark Kalch — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 08:22:02 +0000

I am looking forward in one way or another to running all the rivers in my 7 rivers, 7 continents project. The vastness of the Volga, the isolation of the Nile, the Huckleberry Finn-ness of the Mississippi and of course the sheer uniqueness of the Onyx River in Antarctica.

I am still in the preliminary stages of planning and research but the Onyx looks set to be a river to remember, not least because it is just 40km long! A touch less than the 6000km plus kilometres of the Nile, Yangtze and Mississippi Rivers each! According to that source that is never wrong and oh so accurate at all times (!), Wiki, the river runs only for a few months each year in the Antarctic summer. Word is that it has been run before, at least in part by some Kiwi researchers who were stationed down there.

The landscape that the river passes through is magnificent. Pure Antarctic desert! Bleak but unforgettable terrain.

The logistics, permissions, cost and overall feasibility of running this river are all up for question. But in spite of any obstacles I may encounter I would hazard that it will not be the most difficult of my 7 rivers. Tough? You bet! But with a distinct lack of crocs, disease, men with guns and corruption I will take on whatever it can throw at me.

How will I run this bad boy? It looks in parts to be a very shallow, low volume river so I would be extremely reluctant to haul a 14 foot raft down it. Portaging for long stretches can be a real drag (no pun intended!) Kayak would seem, at first glance to be my best bet. It really does depend what further research reveals. Perhaps something that I talked a little about in a recent post might be in order!

Friday Stoke

Mark Kalch — Fri, 28 May 2010 07:45:49 +0000

It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks for me with limited to no internet access. Simple tasks like a quick reply to an email or researching a topic became missions that I had to plan ahead for. A real drag! The flipside was that I seemed to get a lot more done when it came to sorting presentations and punching out articles. Something to definitely think about! No internet access is not a bad thing. I also got outside a lot more to the beach and for some mountain running. The whole reason to live in the French Pyrenees!

For true stoke however you cannot beat the boys who surf the coast of Ireland. Wet, cold and pretty dismal, but the reward for these hardcore okes is pretty epic! There are a few good trailers of the surf doco, Relentless around. Check them out then go buy it! It has been out for a while now but it makes a refreshing change from the oft repeated surf paradise locations.

Pyrenees Buddies Race

Mark Kalch — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:12:13 +0000

I am pretty amped and so grateful to be living in such a beautiful place as the Pyrenees. Central London was fun but it was a stretch to get out into the great outdoors often enough. Here, they are literally at my doorstep! Yesterday, I headed to Anglet just near Biarritz to hunt down the SUP World Tour stop. In the end, quite frustratingly could not find the action but saw the awesome local paddlers and surfers ripping it up. Today, we jumped in the car and headed east to find the Pyrenees Buddies Race – a short, speed creeking event. In other words, whitewater kayakers doing timed runs of a short technical course. Fastest wins. I managed a couple of nice photos of the lads on their runs.

After a beautiful drive through the mountains we found the site and settled down to watch the action. Just a small event but with the vibe of a much bigger affair. Everyone digging the atmosphere. I only had with me a compact digital but decided to take a quick bit of footage anyway. The below clip I put together in quite a rush just now. Excuse the lacklustre editing and enjoy anyway! C’mon shoulder!!!

Expedition School Pyrenees

Mark Kalch — Wed, 05 May 2010 08:56:06 +0000

Recent visitors to my site may have noticed a banner announcing the imminent arrival of the “Expedition School Pyrenees” to run August 20th-22nd. Today I am formally launching the event.

The Expedition School is an opportunity for all of you to spend 3 days with me in the adventure playground of the French Pyrenees, learning and putting into practice the skills necessary to undertake your own extreme journey. Activities over the weekend include white-water rafting, mountain trekking, equipment selection clinic, discussion and planning sessions, sponsorship proposal writing, photography and videography class and very importantly a whole lot of fun! The school aims to encourage discussion, exchange of ideas and deliver practical exercises in a relaxed and inspiring environment. However, it is not a holiday camp! Participants are expected to get involved in discussions, share their own experiences, ask questions, help pack the van, sort kit and generally be part of the team. Sounds a bit like an expedition doesn’t it?

The event takes place in the adventure playground of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region in the south of France, close to the Spanish border. Nearby towns include Biarritz, San Sebastian, Bayonne, Bordeaux, Pau and Toulouse, making for easy access from the UK and all parts of Europe and the US. Big mountains, fast rivers and sweet surf make this part of the world an ideal base to live adventure. Add in to the mix the famous GR10 trekking path and the closing stages of the Tour de France route and it is difficult to ask for much more in a venue.

Throw in prize give-aways from companies like Zeal Optics and Rab (you can win just by getting involved online!), as well as participant-only deals on Suunto watches and it shapes up to be an awesome event! I am so amped to be putting on the weekend myself, I cannot wait!

For the full run-down on the weekend click here, or you can access the school pages by clicking on the Expedition School banner at the top of the home page. On these pages you will find an overview, FAQs, costs and a full itinerary.

Places are limited on the Expedition School weekend so get in quick! I am stoked to be in a position to host such an event and can guarantee it will be a time to remember, both for the knowledge gained and the fun had.

For enquiries please email mark@markkalch.com OR phone +44 (0)7817 018224

Pure stoke

Mark Kalch — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:16:39 +0000

Nothing too insightful today. Just some pure stoke to get you going for the weekend! I am off to Wales for some hill walking. Not exactly high adrenalin (unless we get lost…again!), but out of the city and into the mountains is good for the head and body. In a couple of months (after my shoulder has come good) I hope to be spending more of my days partaking in the below from a true adventure playground (more on that soon!).

What are you up to? Anything that could be included in such a clip? If you are, awesome! If not – make a plan!

Notes from the road

Mark Kalch — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:15:44 +0000

Actually, notes from my desk. I just thought that sounded like a snappy post title. On expedition it is obvious your emotions and psychological state are in a continuous state of flux. You have good days and you have bad days. The weather sucks, you have picked up an injury or you just feel like having a bit of a whinge. Of course you are going to feel down on the world. Alternatively, there are the good days. You reach a mountain pass just as the sky clears to reveal a endless blue sky and a massive sweeping, green valley surrounded by snow-capped peaks (possibly also indicating a day of welcome descent!). Life is good! As you descend into a village nestled into the valley you are stopped by people in fields, working in shops or just passing by. You are invited for tea, lunch, dinner, whatever. These are the times that allow you to push on through those other days that are not so cheery. But, an expedition would not be so if these 2 worlds did not exist together. The good days may make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside but it is those hard days with your head in your hands and adrenalin pumping in your gut that make it just as worthwhile and even more memorable.