Dispatches from the Field, a new digital program designed to bring The Explorers Club community closer—wherever you are.
Each session kicks off with a 10-minute talk from a Featured Speaker, streamed live to the public on explorers.org and our YouTube channel.
This will be followed by Campfire sessions—intimate, Members-Only breakout groups where you can connect, share ideas, and build relationships.
This edition features West Hansen, MN’12, to present Canary in the Coal Mine: Kayaking the Entire Northwest Passage:
The Drake Passage and the Panama Canal have been the only two shipping routes between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; one treacherous and the other a perpetual bottleneck. For centuries, traders sought the elusive Northwest Passage made infamous by the death of 129 men on Sir John Franklin’s HMS Erebus and Terror. Now, our kayak team successfully completed the route, without support in less than 100 days, signaling the opening of the fastest, safest and soon to be busiest route between the world’s two largest oceans.
Members only – click here to register.
West Hansen
At 50 years old, West Hansen led his first expedition as a National Geographic explorers, leading the first expedition to paddle the entire 4200-mile Amazon River from its most distant source. At 52, he was the first to kayak the entire 2200-mile Volga River (Europe’s longest) in Russia. At 61, he led the first human-powered navigation of the entire 1600-miles Northwest Passage in two tandem kayaks. Former chair of the Texas Chapter, he now is a Texas Chapter Director and works as a private social worker.
