Why do I do this?
Well, I feel like I'm a young man trapped in an old man's body.
And if I stop doing this, I'm afraid that I'll become an old man trapped in an old man's body.
And believe me, it's better to be young and trapped than old and trapped.
My name's James Kerr and I'm 66 years old. I work for Columbia Sportswear developing iPhone apps.
I'm not a religious person.
I believe that our life's value are in soaking up all the experiences that we have been granted.
Every chance I get, I want to fill my time with an experience
that I can look back on at the end of my life and say,
"Wow, that was a life well lived."
I guess my goal in getting outdoors, is to be able to say at the end
that I lived it to the fullest and had adventures.
In my 30's I worked construction long enough to go climbing for
a period of time until I ran out of money and then I'd get another construction job
and work until I had the money to go climbing again.
Some of the best adventures I've had
were in the Alaska Range.
We did seven expeditions to the Alaska Range in the late 70's and early 80's.
We were able to actually walk on glaciers that had never been walked on before.
We climbed peaks that had never been climbed before.
We did first and second ascents throughout the range.
Some of our expeditions were unique in that we'd ski in and out of the range from
the highway instead of using airplanes.
So, a typical approach would be 100 to 150 miles
on skis just to get to the climb.
I have to admit that I've had a fair amount of luck.
I've had quite a few close calls where I could have died and didn't.
I've had avalanches almost sweep me off of an ice route.
Been walking along a ridge and had a cornice break out
from under me and drop me 40 feet over a 4,000 foot abyss.
From the accident site, I had to crawl about two miles back to the tent.
And when Keith took my boot off we discovered
that I had broken my leg.
So, we thought our safest course of action was to stay in place.
We had four days of food and fuel left.
And even though we had told our pilot that we
didn't want a lot of contact with him, we thought he would probably fly over and check on us.
And sure enough, four days later, Jay Hudson flew his Cessna over the top of us.
Two hours later I was in the Anchorage hospital.
So,I was pretty hard on my body in my youth.
I did a lot of construction work.
I carried heavy loads in the mountains until my knees
and my back were pretty well shot.
So, I started looking for an activity that would give me
the adventure, but have a little less stress on the body.
One of the aspects of both mountaineering
and sailing that I enjoy is the team work aspect. There's no bond of brotherhood stronger
than two guys on a rope on a big north face in the mountains.
But when you're 100 miles offshore
on a small sailboat with a crew of three guys in heavy weather
that comes pretty darn close.