I got to know Jim Harris on a trip to Mexico in 2013. We bought cheap street bikes, biked and then climbed Pico de Orizaba, and ended the trip by packrafting out to the coast. At the time, Jim was working as a mountain adventure photographer, videographer, and storyteller, across the globe.
A year later, Jim was paralyzed in a kiting accident. In this conversation, Jim describes learning how to walk, pedal, paddle, and ski again.
Jim describes how his experiences in the mountains—including a wilderness risk management framework—helped him learn to walk again. Jim describes needing to be an ‘active agent’ in his rehabilitation, even though that meant going against the advice of his surgeon.
… the substantial recovery I experienced was due in part to pushing against that culture while leaning into low consequence / high probability risk in the aftermath, e.g. a lot of skinned knees as I relearned to walk.
Self agency is something I learned from time spent outdoors and in the mountains. Turns out those skills are important ones for recovery from big injuries and people who haven’t learned them elsewhere in life face extra barriers.
You can follow along with Jim’s adventures at:
Our Mexico trip:
By Jim, National Geographic
My trip report (and fun video!) – The memory I share early in the conversation, about Jim running down Orizaba, is at 1:31 in the video.
Hi Luc greetings from Australia. Dropping a line to say thanks for these conversations, I find them very informative. I love your takes on risk and preparation, your approach is really helpful. Thanks again, looking forward to seeing what’s next.
Thank you Pete! Much appreciated.
Pithy. Jim is so intelligent and well-spoken. Same goes for the interviewer.
Thank you Ned!
Life is a voyage and how it looks depends on how you see it. Thanks for having Jim here to share his voyage.