My Adventure: by Dianne Whelan
Dianne Whelan is an award-winning Canadian filmmaker, photographer, author and public speaker. First it was the high Arctic in This Land. Then it was Mount Everest in 40 Days at Base Camp. Most recently, extreme British Columbia filmmaker Dianne Whelan completed a solo epic journey in 500 Days in the Wild (actually 1,800+ days) as she hiked, paddled and skied the longest trail in the world.
500 Days in the Wild, an independent documentary film which follows filmmaker Dianne Whelan’s 6-year journey to complete all 16,000 miles of the land and water trails across North America on the world’s longest trail. The 2-hour documentary weaves together adventure, personal reflections, stunning wildlife, and human connection on the rigorous and beautiful TCT Trail, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast, as well as the Arctic Ocean. 500 Days in the Wild dives deeply into both the physical and emotional travails of tackling an almost impossible task-one which no one else has accomplished to date. 500 Days surprises with cinematic action, intimate experiences, and visual poetry.
Advice to Others:
The thing about nature…. when you climb a mountain that you don’t think you can climb, and then suddenly you’re up there and you could do it… it meant hurting a little bit, but then you’re up there, that goes into all other areas of your life when you get home. It goes into what you think you’re capable of emotionally, what you think you can do in your job… it carries everywhere. You’ve raised the bar everywhere in your life.
