BANFF – Climbing, swimming and crawling his way through a soup of frozen slush, frostbite is at hand, help is hours away and the horizon is nothing but ice-clogged sea in Karl Bushby’s eyes.
At this point, in 2006, the British adventurer is eight years into his Goliath Expedition, a mission to walk around the entire world, but here, in the frigid grip of the Bering Strait – one of three “gaps” to cross during the trek — the journey seems to hang by a thread.
“The ice in there never settles. It's always broken. It's always a mass crush freight train of moving ice that's going in all directions driven by strong currents and winds,” says Bushby of the 80-plus kilometre choke point that connects Alaska to Russia’s easternmost point.”
“It’s a constant struggle.”