Passport
Tori James shares her approach to exploring the world
Tori’s travel insights
• Exploration is about connecting, not conquering
• Challenge yourself; try something new
• Leave things better than you found them
Growing up on a farm, Tori James spent much of her early years outdoors, building shelters and playing in muddy streams. She describes herself as an ambitious, adventurous child who went to bed reading the survival guides that lived on her bedside table, and credits the Duke of Edinburgh Award with developing her love of human-powered exploration. Even so, James says she could never have predicted that, one day, she might be the youngest British woman – and the first Welsh woman – to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
Today, James is a professional adventurer. Alongside her successful ascent of the world’s highest peak in 2007, she was a member of the first all-female team to complete a gruelling 650-kilometre ski race to the Magnetic North Pole (the Polar Challenge) in 2005, and in 2014, she set the record for the longest non-stop open-sea kayak crossing in UK waters (200 kilometres from Land’s End to Pembrokeshire).
Yet ahead of her first expedition at the age of 18, which she spent mapping the crevices of Iceland’s Vatnajökull glacier with the British Exploring Society, James recalls doubting her ability to last a month out in the cold without the comfort of a hot bath. ‘It’s only by stepping out of our comfort zone that we understand our true potential,’ she explains. ‘That’s when the magic happens.’
While James has spent much of her life traversing some of the world’s most remote landscapes, when it comes to travelling, she believes that there are lots of ways we can all push ourselves besides embarking on physical challenges. ‘I often ask people, when was the last time you did something for the first time?’ she says. ‘How did it make you feel? As we get older, new experiences become less frequent. It’s important to keep trying new things.’ One of her own recent challenges has been learning to speak Welsh. ‘I grew up in Wales but, my goodness, the thing that takes me out of my comfort zone these days is plucking up the courage to speak in a new language.’
However, James also encourages would-be adventurers to not be put off by the stereotypical image of the rugged, hardy explorer. ‘I am such a believer that, with the right support and skills, everyone can bring something to an expedition,’ she says. Sometimes, she adds, it’s only out in the field that someone’s hidden talents emerge. A diverse team can be key to a successful trip, particularly given the role of exploration in today’s world.
‘Historically, exploration has been about people finding nature’s hardest obstacles and trying to either overcome them, or beat them,’ says James. ‘But now, for me at least, exploration is about connecting, not conquering. It’s about our connection to the living world around us, it’s about sharing its importance once we’ve returned and it’s about figuring out how to do adventure sustainably. And that’s about more than just “Leave No Trace”; we should be leaving things better than
we found them.’
These days, and particularly during the pandemic, most of James’s adventures have been a little closer to home. In May, she and her young family embarked on a 24-hour cargo-bike camping trip from Cardiff city centre along the River Taff to a wild, wooded camping spot, where they spent the night. An adventure by cargo bike was something that James hadn’t seen anyone else try, and she wondered whether it could be done. ‘I’m still very much about unsupported travel,’ she says, ‘but I wanted to prove that you don’t have to go all the way to the Himalaya to have an adventure. You can find them on your doorstep – and you can bring the kids as well.’
