Explorer Felicity Ashton recounts her solo skiing expedition across Antarctica, explaining exploration for her and many others is not merely a choice but a fundamental need.
“It took me a long time to realize that not everybody has that same itch to go. There's a commonality amongst all the explorers that I've written about is that, largely, it's not their choice. They're not deciding, ‘Oh, I'm going to do this.’ It's almost taken out of their control. They have to go and do it. There is no other option.”
Growing up, there was nothing in Felicity Ashton’s childhood or DNA to suggest that she’d become an explorer or the first woman to ski solo across Antarctica – perhaps because none of the explorers she had read about, looked anything like her.
“Most of the explorers we were taught about at school were men, for a start, and men at the opposite end of the 20th century who had very little in common with me or the way that I saw the world, and probably would have no understanding of why a woman would want to go and do these things.”
Throughout her journey, Ashton experienced both failures and successes – each time coming away with new experiences and life lessons. Central to these lessons is the importance of staying curious while being able to balance the risks with the thrill of adventure.
“It's a really tough decision to make whenever you're out in the field of where is that line between adventure and madness? When is the moment to push beyond all reason and when is the point to go? Now we need to fall back. And this is where we get to the famous quote from Shackleton: ‘I would rather be a live donkey than a dead lion.’”
In her book Life Lessons From Explorers: Learn how to weather life’s storms from history’s greatest explorers, Ashton shares how she weathered storms, dealt with isolation, and found the motivation to keep herself going. She also includes anecdotes and stories from the Vikings to David Livingston, Shackelton to Amelia Ehrhardt.
“Often what history records and what we see on the surface is not an accurate representation of the true story, and the truth is probably far more similar to what we ourselves have experienced throughout our lives than we care to admit.”