My Drowning (And Other Inconveniences)

September 24, 2021 8:44 AM

Link to Outside article. Tim Cahill recounts his experience of drowning while on a Colorado River raft trip and the aftermath. (Archive link).
posted by elmay (19 comments total)

As it so frequently does, Outdoor manages to make me deeply long to do things and deeply long not to do the exact same things.

Fortunately for my long term health, I am fat and lazy and thus not prone to doing those things no matter how many Outdoor articles I read.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:07 AM on September 24, 2021 [10 favorites]

Dang.

I came on Tim Cahill's work by chance, when I was browsing in a bookstore and was drawn by the title to his anthology Pecked To Death By Ducks. It was when he was still the "doofus" he mentions in this article - a lot of his essays were indeed the kind of "comedic misadventure" he discusses. But he also knew when to cut the comedy and get serious; that kind of thing is a masterful tightrope walk, and he pulled it off. I'm probably now the age he was when he was writing all those works, which is a bit alarming.

....If you want a really fun read, his book Road Fever is the story of when he and the Canadian distance driver Garry Sowerby attempted to set a world record for the fastest time driving the Pan American Highway, from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska. Their record of twenty-three days, twenty-two hours, and forty-three minutes still stands.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:22 AM on September 24, 2021 [5 favorites]

I like that he went to Base Camp on Everest. I like Everest stories and films, and have often thought that, if there were any place for me on that mountain (there's not), it would be at Base Camp. I used to work at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, and Base Camp seems similar: a temporary tent village set up to provide as many of people's needs as possible in a place without infrastructure. My favorite part of my job at Michigan was helping people solve problems and find what they needed, and the sense of being part of something big that was really important to the people there was also something I loved.

[side thing: I never supported Michigan's "womyn-born womyn" policy, and last worked at the festival 20 years ago. Just to be clear. I'm trans and non-binary positive]
posted by Orlop at 9:44 AM on September 24, 2021 [11 favorites]

Thought it was neat how this piece was really about story-telling.
posted by storybored at 9:46 AM on September 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

if 'darien gap' doesn't mean anything to you, do read road fever.

nice link, terrific story, by a master.

...My face turned blue, I’m told, then gray, and then my heart stopped beating altogether. Flatlined. I died that December day on Tequila Beach. This created a great deal of consternation—and it has tended to complicate my relationships with others ever since.

[my emphasis, ed.]
posted by j_curiouser at 9:47 AM on September 24, 2021 [6 favorites]

As a writer, I loved this:

And what that has to do with the soul is this: You are part of it. I am part of it. Every human being is part of it. As soon as you are born, your parents start telling your story. As a child, you will skin your knee or walk naked into your parents’ dinner party; later you’ll suffer a broken heart, maybe hit the zone in your chosen sport, have children of your own. And that all becomes part of the human story. It folds into the Great Story Arc and alters it, if only very slightly. And there, in that blinding curve of energy that lasts forever—that is where your soul resides.

posted by Orlop at 9:51 AM on September 24, 2021 [8 favorites]

great read, when I got to the part where he mentioned being 71...well, damn...


if 'darien gap' doesn't mean anything to you, do read road fever. I am fascinated by the Darien Gap and will add this to my book list!
posted by supermedusa at 9:51 AM on September 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

As it so frequently does, Outdoor manages to make me deeply long to do things and deeply long not to do the exact same things.

Yep.
posted by Orlop at 10:00 AM on September 24, 2021

Cahill is, as EmpressCallipygos says, a wonderful writer. He is funny, but never nasty-funny, and he's very good at knowing when turn down the humor and just be direct or humble. His stories always have a laugh that shakes my belly and a description of nature that touches my soul.

And when I read one of his adventures, it makes me long to be back in my own outdoor places (Isle Royale, Lake Vermilion, etc.): his love of the outdoors is a through-line that always resonates.

(I didn't realize he was as old as he is -- but then, I've been reading his books for decades, sooo...that's on me.)
posted by wenestvedt at 10:17 AM on September 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

Outside is always so good. If you enjoyed this, there's a great podcast (yeah, I know) from Outside that's called The Science of Survival. There's also a book called Deep Survival that you might enjoy.
posted by fiercecupcake at 10:26 AM on September 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

Every time a cough racked my ribs, I hoped that someday I’d have a chance to save Justin Kleberg’s life. I’d break every single one of his ribs and maybe a few of his fingers for good measure.

There's a thing, it seems, when artisans just get better and better and better. Musicians, actors, writers, painters, probably doctors as well, certainly carpenters and house painters. Efficiency kicks in and large steps get taken with very little motion.

"Spry"
posted by From Bklyn at 12:01 PM on September 24, 2021 [6 favorites]

From the Outside crew, the writing of Cahill, Junger and Krakauer has all aged pretty well. Pelton's, less so.
posted by snuffleupagus at 12:52 PM on September 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

I subscribed to Outside for several years, not because I'm super-outdoorsy, but because the writing was so good. Clearly I made a mistake in letting my subscription lapse.

I'm glad Cahill survived and this is an amazing piece.
posted by mogget at 1:01 PM on September 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

I did not know the origin story of Outside, which makes some sense now:

It all started back in 1976, in San Francisco, where Rolling Stone magazine tasked three employees to create an “outdoors” magazine. Michael Rogers outlined the structure, and Harriet Fier was there, I think to make sure it stayed classy. I was around for reasons that have never been adequately explained.

Picture three young editors in a cubicle in a former coffee warehouse with every outdoor-type magazine published in America piled against the walls. There was a lot of talk, but the concept we came up with for Outside can essentially be boiled down to this: “literate writing about the out of doors.”

They certainly seem to be doing a pretty solid job.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:58 PM on September 24, 2021

Also, I don't know if Bill Bryson actually wrote much for Outside but I sort of lump him in mentally. Mark Bowden too. Wiki points out Anne Proulx is a contributor, I didn't know that.

The Rolling Stone feel was most evident in Pelton's thing of taking the Hunter Thompson style to international conflict zones.

I'd suggest there's a certain amount of Jim Harrison in there too, especially in Cahill's writing.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:03 PM on September 24, 2021

I really should make a front post in tribute instead of detailing here but: I've enjoyed Tim Cahill's writing over the years, and the outdoors community truly lost a giant last month, whose work you should also devour. RIP, David Roberts {a wonderful obit written by John Branch).

{I have also nearly died twice in water, once caving, once out of a raft. Water: incompressible. Must remember)
posted by Dashy at 5:18 PM on September 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

Drowning, World Health Organization, 27 April 2021:

Key Facts:

• Drowning is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide, accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths.
• There are an estimated 236,000 annual drowning deaths worldwide.
• Global estimates may significantly underestimate the actual public health problem related to drowning.
• Children, males and individuals with increased access to water are most at risk of drowning.

Scope of the Problem:

In 2019, an estimated 236,000 people died from drowning, making drowning a major public health problem worldwide. In 2019, injuries accounted for almost 8% of total global mortality. Drowning is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death, accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths. The global burden and death from drowning is found in all economies and regions, however:

• low- and middle-income countries account for over 90% of unintentional drowning deaths;
• over half of the world's drowning occurs in the WHO Western Pacific Region and WHO South-East Asia Region;
• drowning death rates are highest in the WHO Western Pacific Region, and are 27-32 times higher than those seen in the United Kingdom or Germany, respectively.

More in the article.
posted by cenoxo at 6:25 PM on September 24, 2021

I rafted down the Grand Canyon most of 40 years ago and Lava was scary - all the crew were clearly and appropriately worried about it. It was a family trip and my then 9 year old nephew was so excited that he fell out of the raft after we made the run and were in an eddy watching other boats come through. (we had multiple adults hanging onto the kids and the rafts through all white water). We intentionally swam another rapid - one much safer than Lava where the structure had no rocks to be pushed against - or undertow - jumped off a cliff to do it. That water was COLD in May - I cannot imagine doing that trip in late fall or winter. We've backpacked in the canyon and are contemplating another trip and thinking about rafting it again but am definitely thinking about the age thing now. That whole question of how long can one keep doing trips into remote strenuous places is on my mind as I get ready to head to the Arctic in a few weeks. No desire to find out what it's like to die that way. And count me as another one thinking I should re-up my subscription to Outside.
posted by leslies at 5:59 AM on September 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

What a great read. I'm in the UK and have never heard of Outside, but it's right up my street - thanks!
posted by penguin pie at 3:57 PM on September 26, 2021 [1 favorite]