"I couldn't have done something like this when I was young, because I had to put together all the lessons that I had learned from earlier expeditions. I started going on expeditions [climbing Mount McKinley, for example] when I was 19 years old. These lessons that I learned (not only mountaineering, but sailing, kayaking and skiing) were the lessons that I needed to apply to this 2000-plus-mile [3,219-plus-kilometer] crossing of the Northwest Passage.
I wanted to mix it up. I didn't want to paddle a sea kayak the whole way. So I ended up sailing a lot of the way. I [skied]. I [mushed] a dogsled. I even hitched a ride on a sailboat for 24 hours. For me that was one of the goals behind the trip, to make it interesting by applying all these other sort of expeditionary tactics and skills that I learned over the last 24 years.
I was a lot more willing to take risks ten years ago than I am now. I did about two-thirds of [the trip] alone. Ten years ago I did not have the psychological grounding to go alone for so long. I knew that I'd either quit or go crazy. So I waited until I thought I was ready, and that happened to be when I turned 40."
—Writer-photographer Jonathan Waterman
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