With the calendar turned to December, it is time for the annual litany of retrospectives on the year that has passed. Perhaps the one that I look forward to the most is National Geographic’s annual list of Adventurers of the Year, and this morning they released their list, once again giving us the opportunity to vote for whomever we feel is most deserving as well.
The full list of honorees can be viewed by clicking here. The include such Adventure Blog favorites as ocean rower Roz Savage, rock climber Alex Honnold, and mountaineer Edurne Pasaban. My personal selection for adventurer of the year, Amazon walker Ed Stafford, is also amongst the finalists. There are plenty of other deserving names on the list as well, with excellent profiles in place to remind you of their accomplishments or introduce you to them for the first time.
While this list of adventurers was hand selected by the Nat Geo staff, like last year we’re being given a chance to voice our opinion too. A voting page has been set up that will allow us to vote for our favorite adventurer, with the polls being open between now and January 15th. The person who receives the most votes by that date will be crowned the People’s Choice Adventurer of the Year. Click here to start voting, and bookmark the page to come back regularly over the next few weeks.
Congratulations to this year’s winners. This is a very deserving group of folks who have accomplished some amazing things over the past year.
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Well, I'm gonna take some space here to give my opinion. Before giving my top 3 of NGEO list, I have to give some sort of insights about my idea on teh definition of adventurer. I we need to pick someone, well we need to define first right ?
For me an adventurer will basically get out of his comfort zone, do a challenge, possibly a world first, not a record -that is for athletes, right ? -. So the more dangerous or risks are taken, the longer the adventure, the mental challenge, is it remote ? is it with a TV crew or chopper around…
My pick:
1) Ed Stafford – no comment needed
1b) Superman, Wolverine, Batman and Spiderman
2) Edurne Pasaban – because she took the time to do it right. I just don't like the fact she waited before mentioning her rival didn't reach Ka-mountain.
3) Alex Honnold, he indeed pushed risks where there is no mistake allowed.
Some interesting picks of last year for me:
Xavier Rosset (300 days alone on an island)
Yves Rossy (fusionman) – becaus ehe invented his flying wing that made American army jealous 🙂