What's is so fun about that?

The outdoors.

The thrill of summiting a mountain or kayaking through whitewater. The wind and rain whipping at your face. The smell of pine in the morning.

The pain and the danger.

My best friend and I have shared numerous adventures together now and the list of injuries and illnesses on our trips is disturbing. Among them:

• one exploded appendix
• venomous bite from a brown recluse spider
• hypothermia
• dehydration
• dislocated finger

We've been caught above the alpine in a wind and rain storm at forty degrees. We've survived a really bad night in winter sleeping through ten degrees, despite everything being soaking wet. We've ran into a family of bears and a herd of buffalo - on the same day. He's fallen out of a whitewater raft and I've slipped down a mountain.

For years, people have asked us why we do such stupid things. "You're gonna get killed." "You have a child now." "Are you crazy or stupid?"

Here is my answer:

Go out there, out into the wilderness, where nature is God and we are subject to her whims. Smell the air around you. Take a look at the vegetation, the birds the animals. At night, gaze at the stars and try to imagine which three or four or five you see in the city. Listen to the leaves rustle or a chipmunk scamper.

Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, that man can make beats that.

Now, add the adrenaline of scaling a cliff trail, or rafting through rapids or reaching the summit of a mountain. The challenge, the risk, the enormous sense of achievement when you have reached your goal.

So now I ask, are you crazy or stupid not to do this?

Yes, with outdoor adventure comes the risk of injury and death. Here's a little secret though: with life there comes a risk of injury and death.

If you are not living life to the absolute fullest, then you are already dead.