Adam Shoats Explains How to Plan an Expedition

Adam Shoalts is an explorer in residence for the Canadian Geographic Society and has done some amazing expeditions in Northern Canada.
I asked Adam what his advice for trip planning was considering he is a huge researcher, I wanted to know what advice he would give to people and what resources he would suggest and what process he would suggest they do before they go.
A lot of the expeditions he does, especially if it’s an official one, he likes to research it as meticulously and extensively as possible. But there is also something to be said for old fashioned adventure and doing trips more spontaneously, especially if you are just doing it for fun.
Adam likes to do both, the more spontaneous adventures and the ones that take years of planning. But for the ones that require more planning for any sort of wilderness travel, it pays off to do your homework. Do as much research as you can on the area you’re going into.
Most of the rivers in Canada, you can find a published book on. It may have been published a very long time ago but thanks to the internet it is easier to obtain these, many are online and even some for free, and they can be an excellent source of information as a starting point.
For example the George River, we have talked about that one a few times. There are books that were written on this river 100 years ago but they still have a lot of useful information in them. You can start by reading that and then work your way up chronologically through the decades all the way up to 2022 using the internet, using your library - if you have access to a University library they often have a wealth of information on exploration and all sorts of different fields that it’s hard to get your hands on otherwise because often it hasn’t been digitized in the Geological Survey of Canada files and other files like that that often have really rich information on the land, the geography, the roots.
A lot of research is done nowadays on a laptop looking at Google Earth, zooming in carefully and studying what you’re actually seeing there. The more you practice that the more you can read from the satellite and get a good sense of what the landscape is going to be like.
All of that will help people planning any sort of route and of course there is more specific information if you really want to start making phone calls and tracking people down, you can find people who have been in the area and reach out to them.
If you enjoyed this snippet then check out the entire interview with Adam in video format • Adam Shoalt’s Amazing ... and/or in audio podcast format www.grappleart...
Stephan Kesting
P.S. Did you know I wrote a book about a 42 day solo trip in the Arctic... after a kidney transplant? Check out "Perseverance, Life and Death in the Subarctic", which is a damn good read! More info at www.amazon.com...