An Adventurer At Last!

By Alyssa Roenigk | June 1, 2010 |

“Every life comes with a story … and possibly a great adventure.” – Kobi Yamada, greeting card philosopher

When I created this site a few years ago, I did it for two reasons: to promote my first book, which was coming out at the time, and so I would have a place to write about my reporting adventures. Anyone who knows me knows I can’t go to the mailbox without also going on an adventure. They also know the only thing I love more than a good adventure is telling stories about a good adventure.

Still, when I saw the final design for the homepage, I cringed. In the upper left-hand corner, below my name, were the words, “journalist, author, adventurer.” Adventurer?! I didn’t say adventurer! That wasn’t in my design notes. I am no adventurer. Jon Krakauer is an adventurer. Bear Grylls is an adventurer. I don’t climb mountains. I don’t brave the conditions. I don’t own an ice axe or crampons. Sure, I love a good adventure. But the drive-a-bobsled, ride-in-a-stunt-plane, hang-with-Australian-surf-gang-members, snowboard-with-Olympians, feed-baby-cheetahs, wakeboard-at-Gitmo, hunt-down-tickets-to-Super-Bowl-XL kind of adventure. I’ve never been on a real adventure, the kind they write about in National Geographic or Outside magazine. I am not adventurer. I am a fraud.

Until now. This past weekend, I earned that third qualifier. That 10-letter word no longer feels like a four-letter one. Because, over Memorial Day weekend, I went on a real adventure. As part of my reporting for a story on big-mountain snowboarding icon Jeremy Jones, I spent three days hiking, camping, climbing and split-boarding in the High Sierras. It was the most exhausting, exhilarating, intense, amazing adventure I’ve had the privilege of taking part in, and three days later, I’m still trying to process it all.

I wrote about my adventure for ESPN.com, and you can read that story here. My ESPN The Mag story on Jones will be out in the fall, so stay tuned. It’s going to be a good one!

A few photos from my adventure:

TENT CITY, OUR HOME FOR THE WEEKEND …