by: Geoff Ficke
In 2007 a film documentary on extreme skiing was introduced to the public at the Tribeca Film Festival. The movie, “Steep….Without Risk There is No Adventure” is a stunning homage to daredevil, pioneering athletes who test themselves in ways that defy logic as exercised by more timid, placid souls. Risking one’s life in pursuit of bigger, meaner, steeper, ever more remote mountain challenges and attacking these seemingly insurmountable obstacles on a pair of boards strapped to the feet is an amazing display of courage, recklessness and fortitude that is rarely seen in today’s play it safe society.
The movie tracks the birth and growth of extreme skiing as the world’s most challenging sport. In 1971, Bill Briggs successfully skied down Wyoming’s Grand Teton Mountain, from peak to the foot of the famous, jagged rock. This is credited as the birth of extreme skiing. At the time it was considered a near impossibility to conquer Grand Teton on ski’s, owing to the sheer drops, thin snow cover and rock crevices that had not only never been skied, but were not well charted.
Brigg’s is interviewed in Steep and famously stated, “If there is no risk, there is no adventure”. His accomplishment, and his aversion to country club, resort skiing, opened the eyes of a whole generation of swashbuckling ski entrepreneurs who began to seek out the most daring and dangerous mountains and glaciers to conquer. Many of these devotees of Bill Briggs, the pioneers of extreme skiing are interviewed and filmed in death defying runs down some of the planets most difficult mountain terrain. The photography is breathtaking, the sight of a tiny speck of humanity taking on the ever changing face of these dangerous mountains is humbling and the athleticism, strength and courage that these exceedingly brave men, and women, display is awe inspiring.
I recently saw Steep again. My first viewing left me sapped by what I had witnessed as an amazing athletic feat performed against overwhelming odds. There was no great financial incentive involved. These extreme skiers were challenging themselves in the greatest, most perfect possible way, by placing their most precious commodity, their lives at risk.
My second viewing reinforced all that I took away from my 2007 theatre introduction to the film, but I left with something else this time. These brave athletes were actually exponentially increasing their adventure by equally enhancing their risk, by facing potential death or serious physical harm in full pursuit of the greatest possible reward they could achieve. The possibility of failure is a large part of what motivates this type of risk taking and makes the achievement of success even more satisfying.
This is the basis of all human achievement. People that play it safe are numerous, productive and ordinary. We need them, and plenty of them. However, they are not visionary, entrepreneurs, creators or engines of invention for business or society. Only risk takers propel advances that improve our lives and the world in which we live, and all risk takers are willing to face the possibility of failure.
We live in a time of economic uncertainty. A job for life, a common piece of the employment compact in past generations, is no longer tenable. And yet, we see politicians, unions and social activists continually chanting for artificial inducements to create jobs. This never works, but they keep on crying for something more to be tried; another “jobs bill’, or shovel ready project. The avoidance of risk is exactly what dooms this type of social engineering.
Innovation creates economic opportunity. In order for there to be innovation, we need to get the government out of the way and allow for the reality that if you try to succeed, you might fail. This is life. Artificially propping up everyone with a safety net will only sap creativity and hamstring risk taking.
The extreme skiers portrayed so gloriously in the movie Steep are actually more than great, courageous athletes. They are role models for living life to the fullest, getting into the game, entrepreneurial greatness and pushing personal limits. Fewer and fewer of us are willing to participate fully in the great game of life. Risk is a tonic for the lethargy and torpor that so many people’s lives have become. As Bill Briggs so aptly stated, “If there is no risk, there is no adventure”.
