Most depictions of adventure involve risk. But what does this mean?

Usually at least one of two things. The first is 'Red Bullism': perilous physical feats performed by athletes jumping from cliffs, flying and flipping down steep terrain or scaling brutal crags. The second is 'Questism': adventurers completing a fun but physically arduous expedition into some unknown. 

These adventures can be incredibly compelling, but they represent a form of 'leisure' risk: risk assumed freely out of fun or curiosity, disproportionately by people with privilege. But how else does risk operate in adventure? The Real Risk Takers explores this question, as ever searching for answers with social or environmental consequences.

Photo: Stephen F. Evans, in Hannah Parry's piece: Abdullah

The journeys involving the riskiest steps into the unknown go far beyond adventure, which is too frivolous a word to describe them. These stories are important in their own right, and guard against an inflated sense of leisurely adventure as heroic. Hannah Parry’s humanising account of Sudanese refugee Abdullah is one such story.

Social and political risk in adventure can be assumed voluntarily. Amy Jones is a photojournalist documenting abusive animal industries around the world - work that involves infiltrating powerful organisations and witnessing gory acts. She writes powerfully about her work. 

Often the most carefree adventures carry the most risk, because travelling carelessly is most likely to unwittingly impact others. Dr. Anu Taranath’s book, Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World, invites us to reconsider our travel through the lens of identity, race, difference and social justice. Writing with deep compassion, Anu explores how we can reduce our burden on other cultures and learn more in the process. She told us more about her work.

Photo: Amy Jones/Moving Animals, in Amy Jones' piece: The Slaughterhouse

Conversations around decolonisation may be growing, but this isn’t a new conversation. Canadian outdoor educator Bob Henderson writes in this Edition about the fascinating ‘anti-expedition’ of 1971, undertaken by three Norwegian mountaineers. The aim? To not climb a sacred mountain. 

The risks of complacency are also embedded in seemingly innocuous items, like maps. Tempting to see as objective representations of reality, maps are in fact subjective interpretations with powerful consequences. But a growing group of radical geographers, activists and artists are exploring the risks and possibilities of radical mapping. Our Editor Sam Firman delves into the world of counter cartography.

Belinda Kirk is another leading thinker on the risks of not doing things - in this not adventuring. Drawing on two decades of leading expeditions and researching hunter-gatherers, neuroscience and psychology, her new book Adventure Revolution argues that adventure is so essential to wellbeing that to not adventure is far riskier than adventuring. We asked her to elaborate.

But this Edition doesn’t mean to suggest that physical risks in adventure can’t be serious and inspiring. On this note we sat down with pioneering vision-impaired freeskier and multiple Paralympic gold medalist Mac Marcoux, and his guide Tristan Rodgers, to discuss the particulars of vision-impaired skiing and what the future holds for vision-impaired freeskiing.

Finally, we finish with a call to action to support organisations using skateboarding as a tool of empowerment despite a number of risks. This work is in particular danger in Afghanistan, with the Taliban's re-rise to power and their prohibition on women's sport. 

Stay risky, in the right ways!

The Team @ Adventure Uncovered.

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