Endurance and Survival
“We don’t know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward.” Isabel Allende
On Friday, April 13th the Whistler Writing Society will be hosting the Outdoor Endurance and Survival reading event at the Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Centre in Whistler. You might ask yourself what does Stella know about outdoor anything? Basically I don’t. Sure, I live in an outdoor sports-obsessed community, but I remain a proud city-girl. Our audiences however, have asked for an event that showcases the writing of outdoor adventurers, explorers and athletes and I like to deliver.
The event, hosted by our very own Leslie Anthony, will explore the kind of physical and mental grit it takes to endure extreme conditions and situations outdoors. The following authors will be featured:
Erik Bjarnason is a career firefighter with the North Vancouver City Fire Department, a long-time member of North Shore Rescue and an avid mountaineer. Surviving Logan is his harrowing story of survival and recovery after being trapped on the second-highest peak in North America, Mount Logan in the Yukon Territory, during an extra-tropical cyclone.
Kate Harris was named one of Canada's top modern-day explorers and has won several awards for her nonfiction writing. Weaving adventure and deep reflection with the history of science and exploration, Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road explores the nature of limits and the wildness of a world that, like the self and like the stars, can never be fully mapped.
Jan Redford lives with her family in Squamish, B.C., where she mountain bikes, trail runs, climbs and skis. Her book End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage and Motherhood is a memoir about survival and courage. Mountains challenge Jan, marriage almost annihilates her, and motherhood could have been the last straw...but it isn't. How she climbs out of the hole she digs for herself is as thrilling and inspiring as any of her climbs—and just as much an act of bravery.
Paul Suter is a long-time resident of Whistler, BC. An endurance athlete of international standing, his career was cut short by the crippling effects of multiple concussions. He went from competing in Ironman-distance triathlons to being unable to take his dog for a five-minute walk. His memoir, Flat Out in Pieces, published by Tidewater Press, takes us into the life of an athlete forced to reinvent himself after suffering a serious concussion.
Hope you’ll join us.
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