Me? Oh, there's not much to tell...

Who am I? Just a Derksen in the wilderness.

 

So why stick around? That's the big question isn't it, the one we're all trying to answer? (Okay, the other, for the moment is probably whether that's snot in my moustache - and the answer to that is easy: nope. Definitely not. Just frost condensation. I swear.)

 

So here goes - this is my story: I used to think that the most important thing in life was to get out and adventure. Specifically on mountains or extreme environments, pushing yourself to the limits - ultramarathons, backcountry skiing, rock climbing, mountain biking, skateboarding, paddling and whatever else I could find. For years, I edited the winter and summer adventure sections and wrote a column in Vue Weekly, Edmonton's local indie paper (now defunct), titled Outdoors Insider, where I wrote about my exploits and those of others like me. Some of my work even made it into publications like The Ski Journal, Canadian Geographic and The Globe and Mail.

​

But outdoor adventure was never the sum of me. I didn't just want to be the Outdoors Insider. I was always as fascinated by a great indie band's opus (ask me about Hey Rosetta), a philosophical treatise, a fine craft beer, bushcraft, water conservation, Canada's relations with its First Nations, wildlife conservation, good science, bad sci fi, epic mistakes, human folly. But how to define this thing, put a name on it?

​

Then I thought... we are all wandering in the wilderness, looking for the solution to X. And that was the inspiration behind wilderXness.

 

So what will you get here? Anything that explores the wilderness, in one form or another, be it story, essay, song, poem, video, or something else I haven't thought of yet. 

​

So why stick around? Why, for the adventure, of course! 

 

Because I still believe that adventure is the most important thing in life. And I have a feeling, this is going to be a good one...