James Didier began mountaineering in 2011 in Colorado. Since then he has climbed several significant Alpine peaks in North America and Europe. His most recent adventure was a summit of Europe’s highest peak – Mount Elbrus in Russia at 18,510 feet. James climbed without a guide and on a total budget of less than 1,500 dollars including travel expenses making Mt. Elbrus possibly the most affordable of the seven summits and one of the easiest to get to. James Didier, welcome to The Pursuit Zone.

Mountain Project

Pilgrim Tours

In the summer of 2016, a team of five from Oxford University traveled into the Arctic Circle to ski east to west across the island of Spitsbergen – part of a Norwegian archipelago. They retraced a 1923 expedition that had contributed a great deal of scientific knowledge about the region. Their goal is to conduct new research to tell the story of how the landscape has changed over nearly a century. For 32 days and 180 miles they hauled their sleds across the landscape looking to repeat the photos from 1923 and filming a documentary. Pursuing mountaineering objectives was another part of the Spitsbergen Retraced Expedition led by James Lam and you can learn more at svalbard2016.com James Lam, welcome to The Pursuit Zone.

Ryan Wichelns and Gabe Messercola first appeared in episode 12 of The Pursuit Zone to talk about their Adirondack Traverse. Since then they’ve gone on to create the website primitivecondition.com to serve as a media platform for their outdoor pursuits. In their latest climbing adventure, known as the Brooks Glacier Expedition, they completed the Silverthrone to Brooks traverse in the Alaska Range of Denali National Park. Ryan and Gabe, welcome back to the show.