When I was in college I learned a bit about rock climbing and descending steep areas. Our college was located below the Rimrocks in Billings, Montana, an excellent location to learn about climbing. The Rimrocks vary from about 300 to 800 feet high and are sandstone cliffs that tower over the city, the remnant of an ancient inland sea. Our climbing was relatively primitive by today’s standards, but we did have harnesses and ropes and learned to rappel down the steep rocks without injury.

College students undertake much more arduous adventures these days. I don’t think that technical climbers even use the term “rappel” very often. The common term these days is “abseiling.” Abseiling comes from the German, abseilen, meaning “to rope down.” Abseiling is used in mountaineering and also in certain industrial activities such as building maintenance, construction, bridge inspection and the like. Search and rescue teams use the technique to assist those who have fallen or need help as the results of accidents. Abseiling from a helicopter is used both in rescue operations and certain military operations. By using a descender the rate of descent can be easily controlled. The climber wears a climbing harness to secure him or her self to the descender.

That is virtually everything I know about abseiling. I’m not a rock climber. So I was intrigued recently to see that the word has become associated with kayaking. No, there isn’t a technique for hooking onto a descent rope while sitting in a kayak. The abseiling technique is used to get the kayak and the paddler down over a waterfall to access the river below for a whitewater adventure in a place that is not accessible by any other technique. There seems to be something in the spirit of whitewater kayakers that attracts them to stretches of water where no one else has before paddled. Usually these are fast-moving streams at the bottom of canyons.

Richard Bannister is a 35-year-old dentist whose goal is to abseil the highest waterfall in the United Kingdom, the Falls of the Glomach in Scotland, then kayak the gorge below. The plan is for the adventure to unfold in about a month. There is plenty about the adventure that involves an encounter with the unknown. An emergency exit from the kayak leaves a combination of wading, swimming and climbing as the only means of getting out of the canyon. An injury means that the same adventures have to be undertaken with the injury.

Some people seek out risk and find it be exciting.

Graham Hughes is attempting to visit every UN-recognized country in the world without flying. He’s traveling only by land and by sea. So far he has been arrested in Cameroon, Guinea, Cape Verde and Congo on charges that range from spying to people smuggling. So far he has gotten released each time he has been arrested.

Graham Hoyland is trying to be the first person to have climbed the highest mountain on every continent and also sail the seven seas. The seven peaks have been climbed by some. The seven seas have been sailed by others. Hoyland wants to be the first to have done both.

Norman Surplus is attempting to be the first person to circumnavigate the globe in a gyrocopter. He’s been grounded in Japan since 2011 trying to get permission to fly over Russia.

There are people who have invested their entire life savings in caving adventures, jungle explorations, mountain climbing in war zones and all sorts of other adventures. I haven’t signed up for any of them, yet.

I’m too old and probably could never get into good enough physical shape, but I am attracted by the adventure of Kevin Vallely, of Vancouver, Canada, who plans to row the Northwest Passage from west to east starting in July of next summer. The team is hoping to complete the row within three months. That is about as long a weather window as they will get. They plan to form two-man teams so they can row 24 hours a day in shifts. Until recently, the Northwest Passage was accessible only in steel-hulled ice-breakers. Throughout the 19th century voyageurs and explorers tried without success to find the elusive water route across Canada. Until very recently no such passage existed. Travelers had the choice of a series of very long portages, including some intense mountain passages, or going so far north that they traveled on ice. But the world is warming up. If Vallely’s team succeeds it will be a personal triumph for the team, but it will also be a clear sign that the world has changed. The dramatic environmental changes that have opened up the passage each summer have consequences that we do not fully understand.

I shan’t be going on any of those expeditions. I’ll follow a few of them from the comfort of my home using my computer.

My personal goals seem to lie in other arenas.

I’d like to be a member of a team of people who lower the suicide rate in Pennington and Meade counties of South Dakota. It will take a long-term commitment, involve raising funds, demand teamwork and vigilance and perhaps even a bit of luck. It is a really big goal.

I’d like to be a member of an expedition that journeys with persons of differing abilities working for justice, work with dignity, fair pay, and access for those who live with chronic disability. Using a wheelchair for mobility shouldn’t mean that you have fewer human rights than your neighbors. Being born with a cognitive disability shouldn’t mean that you are forced to live with strangers in a group home. That journey is a long road and we’ve only taken a few steps.

How about a quest for a community where everyone who worked full time was paid enough to live above the poverty line? That would require inventing new systems, envisioning a different economy and probably tackling fierce challenges such as human greed, corruption, and prejudice.

I may have a few years behind me, but I think I’m still up for some really big adventures.

Copyright © 2012 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.