5 Years at ExWeb

Last month I marked five years of writing for adventure news site ExplorersWeb (or ExWeb for short). It all began with a speculative email to Rowan White, a Japan-based adventure nut who had recently acquired the site and was in the market for new writers. I hadn’t been writing about adventure for long, but had spent the best part of a decade penning scientific papers, so I threw my hat into the ring.

Thankfully Rowan replied positively and I started off by reporting on the Spring 2018 Everest season. If you haven’t heard of ExWeb, it’s a news site which has acquired legendary status among the adventure community for reporting on high altitude mountaineering, polar expeditions, ocean rows, and all manner of challenging human powered travel. As Rowan explained a few years ago, ExWeb’s style of reporting is a little different.

“Rather than just passing on updates from social media and PR teams, we give context to what’s going on, cut through the noise, and try to give credit where credit is due.”

In essence that means that we try to give credit and a voice to the folks who are often at the cutting edge of their field, but who remain lesser known, even to many in the wider adventure community.

Rowan White and his son in New Zealand. Photo: Rowan White

Part of our work also involves providing context to record claims (many of which can be tenuous) and the associated PR bluster. It didn’t take long working at ExWeb for the scales to come down from my eyes regarding this. That process really started for me when Rowan hired Arctic traveller, author and editor Jerry Kobalenko to take the reigns as editor of the newly invigorated site (ExWeb had originated around 20 years before and was in dire need of a refresh by 2018).

I owe Jerry a huge debt of gratitude. My writing has improved dramatically over the past five years thanks to his sharp editorial skills. By my maths he has edited around 400 of my articles for ExWeb. As well as being an excellent writing mentor, Jerry has become a good friend, and in March 2020 we had planned to sled for 40 days along the frozen coastline of Baffin Island. Alas the Covid-19 pandemic had other ideas and we had to abort just two days before flying out.

Governor General Julie Payette of Canada presents the Polar Medal to Jerry Kobalenko. Photo: MCpl Mathieu Gaudreault, Rideau Hall, OSGG-BSGG 2018

Over these last five years we’ve covered a huge volume of stories - so many that I’ve forgotten half of them. I think the stand out moment for me was reporting on extreme skier Andrzej Bargiel becoming the first person to complete a full ski descent of the world’s second highest mountain, K2. I remember being on tenterhooks watching Bargiel’s GPS tracker, fully expecting it to cease updating permanently. The chances of a fatal accident were pretty high in my mind.

After writing about Bargiel’s descent for ExWeb, I managed to get a story on his achievement in the UK national newspaper Financial Times, which was a huge moment for me as a budding outdoor writer. The knowledge and skills honed at ExWeb has allowed me to write for other national newspapers and well known outdoor magazines such as Outside, and Rock and Ice. And in addition, I’ve been able to make contact with and interview some incredible people - Reinhold Messner, Pat Morrow, and Borge Ousland to name a few. Things have turned out far far beyond my wildest dreams.

One of the other big stories during my time at ExWeb was the debacle of Colin O’Brady and the claimed ‘Impossible First’ expedition in Antarctica. Australian Mountaineer and author Damien Gildea subsequently penned a brilliantly researched article entitled ‘Crossing Antarctica: How the Confusion Began and Where Do We Go From Here’ which I highly recommend. It is surely one of the best pieces we’ve published in the past five years.

Damien Gildea, a voice of reason on mountaineering and polar adventure

Part and parcel of writing for ExWeb is the odd negative experience. Some adventurers have oversized egos and don’t take kindly to a news outlet providing a different perspective on their rose-tinted PR. The worst case of this occurred last year when mountaineer Nirmal Purja accused mountaineering reporter and good colleague Angela Benavides of racial discrimination in her work. His accusatory social media post went out to millions of followers. Purja’s claims were of course utterly unfounded, and clearly a mark of frustration that Angela (who is brilliant by the way) was pulling back the curtain a little too close for his comfort. I didn’t hold Purja in particularly high regard before this incident, but now I have even less time for him.

Denis Urubko and Angela Benavides, at a sponsor event in the Pyrenees. Photo: Angela Benavides

In the past few years, ExWeb has continued to grow. In June 2020 Lola Digital Media acquired ExWeb from Rowan, and our stable of regular writers (Angela Benavides, Martin Walsh, Rebecca McPhee, Kristine de Abreu and Kris Annapurna) was supplemented with staff writers from Lola, allowing Jerry to marshal 4 articles into publication every day. Recently Lola was rebranded as AllGear Digital, and received a $40 million investment. As well as ExWeb, AllGear own other well-known outdoor titles such as Gear Junkie.

So it seems good times are ahead, and although I now have less time to write due to work commitments, I look forward to contributing to ExWeb for many years to come. Currently, even though I’m not writing much, I supply a good proportion of story leads, which is still quite a fulfilling role. Thank you to Rowan, Jerry and all the talented ExWeb colleagues for a brilliant journey to date. And thank you to everyone who has read our work and supported us from around the globe!

Notes 2023

Ash Routen