Sidetracked #28

Always A Little Further

In adventure, success often comes from pushing past limits, breaching comfort zones, stretching your abilities. But the thing about adventure is that success is not guaranteed – nor is safety.

This volume of Sidetracked explores the edge between success and failure. In ‘Cold Comfort’, Lena Drapella shoulders responsibility for the first time on an Antarctic sailing voyage. In ‘The Beautiful Flight’, Tim Howell obeys his gut instinct and turns around high on the mountain. And in ‘Together’, Fay Manners tells the powerful and moving story of her friendship with Line van den Berg – a friendship tragically cut short when Line was killed in an avalanche.

Failure and loss can cost us much, but sometimes there are intangibles that we gain as well. Humility, acceptance, perspective, determination, motivation, experience. This selection of stories asks what happens when we are confronted by incomplete objectives, unmet expectations, and tragedy – but there are success and beauty here too.