Karl Krüger was a natural pick to highlight in Life on Orcas Island.
He is our local stand-up-paddleboarding phenom (there are some others, too, all of whom I call “the windriders” when I catch sight of them downwinding East Sound on beyond-blustery days while I’m washing dishes in my kitchen).
Karl just published an account of his recent 15-day, 420-nautical-mile leg of a larger Northwest Passage goal that he plans to spread out over the next three or four summers.
The article is in 48° North (a sailing magazine), and I highly recommend reading it. I just finished it and want to read it to my kids after I finish posting this.
All day, I paddled with the Arctic gaping wide to my left. I’d be lost forever if something happened and I drifted over the horizon. It would have been so easy to just disappear. So easy.
I love reading both the factual details of his journey and the deeper wisdom he gained.
In the Arctic, you are forced to accept your insignificance. You must exist in a space of brutal honesty and humility. If there are obstructions in your psyche, nature will reveal and grind away at them. Ignorance of this fact has crushed many expeditions. The tiniest decisions invite dire consequences, and traveling alone amplifies these realities. My body was enduring the physical challenges of an Arctic journey, but those first days showed me that it would take all of my faculties to find my way. The charts are inaccurate and the compass is increasingly useless as you near the poles. Thick fog formed rapidly, and the low points of tundra slipped away over the horizon very quickly. I had no choice but to dig deeper for navigational clues.
When you move into the vastness, you learn to ask for the way and promise to do the work needed to follow the way. The way opens, always. However, you must have gratitude, and you must do the work, without fail. Over time, a person becomes attuned to the tiniest impulses that come from within, and the smallest external clues. It is very important to follow these impulses — they can save your life, because they always open toward the path.
To read the entire article, go here.
Read another post highlighting Karl here.
