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The Age of Anxiety:
Ages 35 to 55
Roving and Wreck Diving
Deep-Ocean Expedition on The High Seas
The Earth's true frontiers lie far beneath the waves, where strange life forms and sunken ships consort in the murky depths. Deep Ocean Expeditions (www.deepoceanexpeditions.com) embarks in August for a series of journeys to the deepest waters in the world's oceans. Private adventurers jonesing for a fresh perspective can hook up with DOE's mother ship, the MV Alucia, and dive with scientists in two-person submersibles called Deep Rovers, reaching depths of 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) below sea level. In 2007 destinations will include sites near the Gulf of Mexico, Central America, the Great Barrier Reef, and Bikini Atoll. "Anyone who needs to escape the tedium of a desk job or is looking to grab life by the horns and taste it in a different way," says DOE general manager Belinda Sawyer, "should see the silent ocean at abysmal depths." The privilege ain't cheap ($50,000 a year in "sponsorship"), but who can put a price on a new lease on life?
Peaks and Empowerment
Mountain Climbing in The Andes
Sometimes a change of scene isn't enough to ease urban ennui. You need a bold accomplishment. Climbing Aconcagua, the Stone Sentinel, the tallest peak in the Western Hemisphere, is a stirring way to renew the life force. The 22,835-foot (6,960-meter) summit is no walk-up. It requires alpine mountaineering skills (crampons and ice ax) and the ability to endure cold-weather camping. But Andy Bourne, the American Alpine Institute's International Program Coordinator, says doing the 23-day North Face traverse with AAI ($4,100; December, January, and February; www.aai.cc) "is one of the least technical ways in the world to get to nearly 7,000 meters [22,966 feet]." That's why Himalaya aspirants test their high-altitude mettle here. AAI's typical global assortment of climbers takes three days of mule-assisted hiking to get to base camp (13,800 feet [4,206 meters]). From there it's several days of double carries to Camps 1 and 2, the latter at 19,200 feet (5,852 meters). Rest days in between ensure acclimatization—and, says Bourne, help account for AAI's 96 percent expedition success rate. Much of the climbing is on scree, some of it on 30-degree snow slopes, and summit day is tough—more than 3,600 feet (1,097 meters) of gain. But behind you behold the South Face, one of the biggest (nearly 10,000 feet [3,048 meters]) reliefs in the world, and from the summit, peaks and arid valleys stretch into oblivion. Back in your cubicle, that photo of you on the top will keep the demons of burnout at bay.
Guidelines: "Climbing Aconcagua—overcoming an obstacle, even if self-imposed—is a cure for the complicated life." —Andy Bourne, American Alpine Institute
Salmon and Self-Reliance
Simple Living in Alaska
When the rat race overwhelms you, a cabin in the wilds of Alaska—say, on a virtually uninhabited islet off the coast of Kodiak Island—will get you back to basics. The floatplane drops you off at one of the four state park cabins in 47,000-acre (19,020-hectare) Shuyak Island State Park (www.dnr.state.ak.us/parks/cabins). The dwellings are scattered more than a mile from one another along the island's rugged coast, nestled in a virgin Sitka spruce forest and overlooking a rocky shoreline where harbor seals and sea otters cavort and bald eagles soar. Hike to the ranger station to rent a sea kayak from Mythos Expeditions ($145 for three days; www.thewildcoast.com), then explore sheltered coves, fish for salmon, and watch for humpback and gray whales. Your tidy spruce abode ($75 a night in summer) is outfitted with cooking gear, a propane stove, and four platform bunks. Out back, there's a stocked woodshed and a gravity shower in the bathhouse. The Shuyak abodes are an experience in splendid solitude that makes Henry David Thoreau's shack on Walden Pond look like a subdivision.
Anxiety | Conquest | Enlightenment | Innocence | Reason |
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