There's this video that's been in my "watch later" queue on YouTube for... I don't even know how long.

It's a short film about sailing through the Northwest Passage. It's ~25 minutes long, which is not a huge undertaking, so I'm not really sure why I've been putting it off. Like, that's so, so doable. Regardless, today's the day I went for it.

And I'm really glad I did.

Honestly, if I'd known Renan Ozturk was involved, I'd have watched it a hell of a lot sooner. He's the adventure filmmaker behind projects like Meru with Jimmy Chin and Conrad Anker. I was sort of surprised to see him on a boat since he's more of a climber, but The Polar Passage is no joke so it actually makes a ton of sense.

As cool as it would be to go on some extreme epic like that, I'm not sure if I can wrap my head around the risk of getting trapped between ice near the North Pole. You know what: trapped is putting it lightly. The risk is getting crushed.... like Luke Skywalker had he not escaped the trash compactor. Now, with snowboarding involved, I could probably be persuaded... 

However, sailing and I have sort of a weird relationship.

I spent some time on a sailboat in the Caribbean a number of years ago, and it was life-changing. Clear-blue waters, more stars than I think I've ever seen, solo night-passages at the helm while surrounded by bioluminescent waters... It was unreal. And at the same time, I discovered that, despite the amount of time I've spent on the water throughout my lifetime, apparently I get sea-sick now that I'm an adult. Make that make sense, why don't ya.

Something from the film did stick with me, though. The crew did get stuck. They got boxed in by the ice and thought they were going to be shipwrecked. When the winds changed, it jogged the ice flow loose enough that they thought they might be able to zig-zag their way to open water.

So they had a choice: make a break for it and deal with everything that was bound to go wrong while possibly getting unstuck, or stay still and definitely remain stuck. 

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Our Daily MAP Year Prompt
334/365

Would you stay still or go for it?

onward. 

For more on this daily column and The MAP Year Project, read the backstory here. And if you know someone who'd appreciate this, pass it along.