{"id":40248,"date":"2022-06-04T02:13:54","date_gmt":"2022-06-04T08:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-colorado-adventurer-faces-his-biggest-challenge-yet-late-stage-cancer\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:54:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:54:22","slug":"a-colorado-adventurer-faces-his-biggest-challenge-yet-late-stage-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-colorado-adventurer-faces-his-biggest-challenge-yet-late-stage-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"A Colorado adventurer faces his biggest challenge yet: late-stage cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Polar
Polar explorer Eric Larsen photographed at the Snodgrass Mountain trailhead near his home in Crested Butte on Wednesday. (Dean Krakel\/Special to the The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

MOUNT CRESTED BUTTE \u2013 \u201cI used to think that North Pole expeditions were the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done, but \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever Eric Larsen says next is going to be the world\u2019s most heinous sufferfest. This is the explorer who crawled and swam 53 days through the melting Arctic Ocean to reach the North Pole in 2014, likely the last human-powered trek ever to the globe\u2019s northernmost point.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s (almost) pedaled to the South Pole. He climbed Mount Everest and reached both the North and South poles in a 365-day period in 2009 and 2010. He\u2019s hiked, pedaled and paddled across Colorado, Wisconsin and Kansas.<\/p>\n

The renowned polar explorer has put one foot in front of the other in 40-below-zero blizzards, sleeplessly staggering with minimal rations to find the exact point where his compass spins. He knows how to persevere through hardship in the world\u2019s loneliest, frozen, lunar landscapes. What possibly could be harder?<\/p>\n

A stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis early last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat followed was \u2026 the most difficult thing that I\u2019ve endured, that made our polar expeditions look like a cakewalk,\u201d Larsen said toward the end of a funny, motivating slideshow presentation of his polar adventures that, as of recently, has taken on a new level of inspiration.<\/p>\n

Larsen, a father of two, has always gleaned lessons for the world from his polar jaunts. He returned from the North Pole in 2014 with a firsthand account of a rapidly melting ice cap. His push for a speed record to the South Pole in 2018 revealed how melting polar ice caps are threatening everyone. He championed the notion that adventure is everywhere by biking, hiking and pack rafting from eastern to western Colorado in 2017, then doing the same self-made triathlon in his home state of Wisconsin and then again in Kansas.<\/p>\n

Now back home in Crested Butte, doctors tell him they can\u2019t find any cancer but there are more scans coming. He\u2019s got a new lesson to teach and it didn\u2019t come as easily as crawling and swimming to the North Pole in 53 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy role in adventure, I feel like, is shifting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Eric
Eric Larsen spent 53 days skiing and swimming to the North Pole in 2014, an expedition many suspect will be the last human-powered mission to reach the top of the world as a warming climate melts the ice cap, making it impossible to traverse. (Eric Larsen\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Larsen didn\u2019t want to talk about his cancer. He wrote a few updates on his Caring Bridge webpage, but mostly, he kept it to himself. Doctors in January 2021 told him he had maybe three years to live and they wouldn\u2019t be good years. He relied on that grit that kept him leaning into frozen whiteouts, putting one foot in front of the other, to fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to white knuckle it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After chemotherapy, radiation, a particularly gnarly surgery and an infection that kept him bedridden for three months, Larsen was at the Gunnison pool, wading through the water when a guy came up and asked if he was Eric. He was a bit further along in his battle with colorectal cancer. He thanked Larsen for the inspiration to keep fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, bam. I felt so much better. I was just in so much pain and not talking to anyone. I saw that the way I was trying to get through this was not working at all,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019d think that I\u2019m 50 and I would have learned a few things over the years. So, yeah, big surprise to no one but me, but it took that intense moment with a stranger to really change my perspective. Maybe I need to talk about this stuff. Maybe I need to share this defining thing in my life. There was a time when I didn\u2019t think I was ever going to see my kids ever again. Now, it\u2019s time to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Eric
Eric Larsen and partner Ryan Waters spent 53 days hiking, skiing and swimming to the North Pole in 2014, an expedition many suspect will be the last human-powered mission to reach the top of the world. (Eric Larsen\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Larsen has been a public speaker for as long as he\u2019s been trekking across polar caps. He\u2019s got that down. Earlier this month at the Colorado Outdoor Industry Leadership Summit in Mount Crested Butte hosted by the state\u2019s outdoor recreation office, he captured a crowded ballroom with hilarious retellings of his adventures. (Clicking through a dozen slides showing viewers Antarctica, the Arctic Circle, Greenland, Manitoba and more, all looking like the inside of a pingpong ball.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to make polar travel really interesting,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most boring sports in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Larsen makes it fascinating. He\u2019s the last of a breed of polar Explorers who traversed frozen landscapes that won\u2019t be icy much longer. His firsthand accounts of rapidly melting polar caps \u2014 and harrowing photos and stories of swimming gear across open expanses of sea \u2014 punctuated with dire warnings of a warming climate.<\/p>\n

And Larsen pushed everyone he met to find their own thrills in the outdoors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdventure can happen on any scale, in any place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Larsen\u2019s \u201cAdventure is Everywhere\u201d message resonated with Ryan O\u2019Donoghue, the executive director of First Descents, which shepherds young adults with life-threatening illnesses into the outdoors for therapeutic experiences on rivers, mountains and beaches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really hit home,\u201d O\u2019Donoghue told Larsen after the explorer\u2019s talk in Mount Crested Butte. \u201cThe idea that adventure is everywhere, that\u2019s a belief we hold true at First Descents. We witness it every day through our community of young adults impacted by cancer who embrace adventure to support their ongoing healing journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donoghue hopes to enlist Larsen in his mission, getting the polar explorer to work with his global program of young cancer warriors.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d be amazing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Polar
Polar explorer Eric Larsen helps his son Merritt, age 9, with homework in their home in Crested Butte, Colorado on Wednesday. (Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Larsen has only begun to open up about his journey. He\u2019s still in it. While preliminary scans do not show any cancer, his journey doesn\u2019t have an end date. Yet. He\u2019s recovering from an ileostomy reversal and mentally preparing for more scans in September. He\u2019s adjusting to his new digestive system \u2014 minus a foot of colon. And he\u2019s still assessing how his new \u201ccomfortable relationship with death\u201d might be tapped to help others.<\/p>\n

Larsen\u2019s wife, Maria Hennessey, has friends who are fighting cancer and never talk about it. As Larsen shares more details about his journey, they are finding ways they can show up for people who are quietly enduring illnesses. The cancer community shares a dark bond, with veterans of the invader\u2019s shadows able to guide the newcomers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still so fresh for Eric, but it would be a missed opportunity for him to not do this,\u201d Hennessey said.<\/p>\n

\"Polar
Polar explorer Eric Larsen photographed in his home in Crested Butte, Colorado with his wife and partner Maria Hennessey on Wednesday. (Dean Krakel\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

And Larsen rarely misses opportunities. His experiences in the coldest places on Earth give him the physical and mental fortitude to keep going through the blizzard. His cancer is giving him a new type of strength, one he\u2019s still studying but he knows will be just as useful as those lessons learned in the whiteouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I don\u2019t want to have cancer, but the perspective I\u2019ve gained is incredible,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s hard because I\u2019m still in it, so everything is evolving, but, really, this is a gift. It sounds so weird to say, but I feel totally different than I used to. I feel like I need to pay this forward, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

was told he had maybe three years to live, but his latest scans haven\u2019t detected any cancer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2370,233,28,61,976],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cancer","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-outdoor-recreation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84595,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40248\/revisions\/84595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40248"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}