Ep. 956: Crossing Baffin Island on Skis - Valerie Gagne
Adventure Sports Podcast
Curt Linville
4.6 • 580 Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2023
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Skiing: Valérie Gagné, Ray Zahab, Kevin Vallely Cross Baffin Island on Skis – 7-Day Arctic Expedition Post-Ray's Cancer Diagnosis and Chemo. In February, Valerie, Ray Zahab, and Kevin Valley crossed a section of Baffin Island in the Canadian arctic on skis. A 7-day expedition was made even more impressive since Ray was accomplishing this adventure after being diagnosed with cancer in September and going through chemo treatments.
Valérie has been an athlete all her life, competing in cross-country skiing and rowing internationally. Since retiring from high performance sports, Valérie has competed in various ultramarathons and has been on multiple expeditions to some of the most remote places on earth, including the Atacama desert and the Canadian Arctic. Valérie has also guided expeditions in the Canadian Rockies, Siberia and Death valley for various non-profits organizations, and for renowned adventure companies including National Geographic and Kapik1 expedition company.
Valerie's goal through crossing Baffin Island on skis was to inspire people to reach beyond their perceived limits, get out there and accomplish what they thought might be impossible.
Learn more:
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https://www.impossible2possible.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, folks, welcome to the adventure sports podcast. My name is Mason. I'm the host here. And today's |
| 0:19.0 | episode is a special one. It's a friend of an |
| 0:22.0 | alumni of the show. Ray Zahab was one on the show a few years ago or last year. Gosh, time just flies |
| 0:28.8 | on this show. I'm telling you, you have so many episodes, so many people. But yeah, Ray is a long-time |
| 0:34.5 | adventurer. And his friend Valerie here who are interviewing Valerie Ray and a guy named Kevin Vallee all did |
| 0:42.2 | a huge adventure last year that was crossing Baffin Island, a section of Baffin Island, |
| 0:47.5 | this beautiful island, gorgeous mountain scenery and glaciers and coastal environments in the Canadian Arctic, and they cross it on |
| 0:56.8 | skis in winter. It was a seven-day expedition. The goal was to support Ray to complete this because |
| 1:04.0 | Ray had just been diagnosed with cancer and was going through chemo treatments. So Valerie and Kevin |
| 1:09.6 | were there to support and also do this. |
| 1:12.1 | And it was in support of Impossible to Possible Foundation, the nonprofit that brings youth on completely free expeditions to remote places around the world. |
| 1:22.5 | Ray's doing God's work. He's taken young folks, and that organization Impossible to |
| 1:27.9 | possible is taking young folks on completely free expeditions to experience adventure. It's life-changing |
| 1:33.4 | stuff. I mean, you know this as a listener of this show, how impactful, how life-changing |
| 1:38.7 | adventure is. So the fact that they were raising support and getting out there and doing their own |
| 1:43.1 | adventures is pretty incredible. |
| 1:45.3 | So a no-brainer to talk to Valerie about this amazing idea. |
| 1:48.3 | Valerie herself has been an athlete her whole life, cross-country skiing, rowing, |
| 1:53.0 | and she eventually moved on past performance sports and did this amazing adventure in the Atacama Desert. |
| 1:59.4 | She's guided in the Canadian Rocky, Siberia, |
| 2:02.1 | Death Valley, all over the world. And she holds down a normal job working at an airport. So it's, |
| 2:08.1 | you know, a lot of these folks we talk to on the show have careers that are not just adventure |
... |
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