Sarah Outen is a British adventurer best known for being the first woman and the youngest person ever to row solo across the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Alaska.

Not only that, but she has realised a number of books (my personal favourite is Dare to Do) about her epic journeys, and is a huge inspiration to many across the globe.

Frankly, I am absolutely chuffed to be sharing this very brief interview with you.

I always used to consider that I was never really lonely but more recently I think I realise that I was at times lonely but just didn’t acknowledge it. I loved the solitude and space of life at sea and my connection to the animals and universe around me. The connections to home and loved ones was strong, just in a different way to being alongside people physically.

I went to boarding school when I was eight for a few years and so I have always been used to being very independent – both useful and also, I recently realised, not so useful.

Interdependence is best. During the last year of my London2London journey I felt the pang and pull of missing lots of weddings of friends and even my brother. I knew it was time to be home.

Could you tell me more about these internal struggles, and what you did to overcome them?

I really struggled after being rescued from the Pacific in 2012 and part of that struggle was due to my inability to be open about my pain and ask for help.

I think I would have found it easier had I seen other examples of people struggling and reaching out, so once I was able to connect to that part of me and connect with others I was really keen to make sure I shared my vulnerabilities and struggles in the hope that it would help others.

I think rather than overcoming the struggles it was more about riding them, flowing with them and supporting and nourishing myself to recover. Learning about what was going on for me physiologically was really useful and still is – I am fascinated by the effect of trauma and stress on our bodies and the healing power of connection and community in that space.

Exercise, sleep, craniosacral therapy, counselling, time outside, time with others – all of it was useful. I have had some further crashes in my mental health following the expedition in recent years, too and the learning continues – I imagine there will be more crashes in my future, too and I trust there will be more learning.

I have come to rest in the knowledge that healing is not linear, it is often messy but it is also open to us all with the right conditions, intention and care.

During your last big trip, you came to realise that you’re actually pansexual. How does it feel to be an adventurer in a primarily heterosexual male industry?

Essentially, I’ve realised that for me it isn’t about gender but about the person, the soul, the energy.

Sharing with the world that I was in love with Lucy and then engaged and then married was largely wonderful – I think I had one not-so-kind email from someone saying they didn’t want to follow a lesbian journey anymore, which I felt was their loss and not mine.

Again, I was keen to share through my journey, writing and our film ‘Home’ my journey with love and life with Lucy and what it was like to be away. Growing up life was very straight and cis and I really feel that younger versions of me missed out in exploring different ways of being through lack of role models, language and encouragement to explore sexuality and gender.

I wonder if what I am saying here is that the world is largely white cis heterosexual able-bodied and not just the adventure industry. What I love is that social media has given everyone a chance to have a platform, voice and share their stories – that’s where the power to change lies and I have a lot of faith that things, in time, can continue to change for the better.

Is there anyone in particular who inspired you to become a part of the exploration community?

Ellen MacArthur was an early hero of mine as a teenager. Already I was very aware of gender biases and the lack of coverage, support and opportunities open to women. So to see her kicking ass in the Vendée Globe was hugely inspiring and I knew then that one day I wanted a big sea journey.

I love, too, how she has changed tack since her racing days to work on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which is all about accelerating a change towards a Circular Economy – one in which products are designed for re-cycling, re-purposing into other products rather than a linear throwaway system. There is so much happening in that field.

As someone with Crohn’s Disease, I was wondering how you have dealt with health challenges on your expeditions?

I have worked closely with a nutritionist these last few years to help me heal my gut lining, rebalance my gut flora and over this last year support my journey through Topical Steroid Withdrawal (TSW). Essentially the medical system had pumped me full of steroids and immune modulating drugs and had the view there was no other way and that it would only get worse.

I came across a fascinating and hard-hitting documentary  called ‘Preventable’ by Briana Banos which showed me a way out, gruelling as it was. This was to go cold-turkey on all the medicated creams and pills to catalyse my body’s own healing process.

My skin cycled through red raw oozing to sloughing off in dry flakes which I would have to hoover up a few times a day, along with the most intense itching of my life, debilitating fatigue and pain which repeated for months, before easing and slowing in it’s flares.

I am still working to heal and support my skin and overall health but the progress has been so reassuring when I look back at it and where I have come from.

Finally, what’s next?

I am very excited that soon I will start work with my herd of donkeys, offering therapeutic coaching in Oxfordshire while also continuing  training to become a psychotherapist.

One day I will write that children’s book I have been talking about forever…

Last week, I was lucky enough to be able to talk to the legend herself – and here’s how it went.

Firstly, could you tell me more about your initial big expedition where you led the first unsupported women’s crossing of the Greenland ice cap?

It was in 1992, I had always had this dream to ski to the South Pole, and I then realised being a high school teacher that I could not afford it. And then in 1988 it was the 100th anniversary of Fridtjof Nansen crossing the Greenland ice cap and there were several expeditions planned by just men who didn’t want women on their team. So I realised I should get a woman with me, and we had a truly great time.

What sort of attraction does the open ice have for you?

A good question because as I grew up in Norway, I loved skiing ever since I got my first skis at three years old. Living in the outskirts of Oslo, with its beautiful ski routes and treks, where we would go on winter and easter holidays, I always had this daydream for going out into wide open spaces. I really like the wet and wind, I really feel alive when its stormy sometimes.

Following the 1992 expedition, you became the first woman to ski unsupported to the South Pole. How did that come about?

Well, after doing the Greenland crossing there was a Norwegian guy who skied solo and unsupported to the North Pole. So after getting a crew together I came back and I said to my husband I think I should do this and he said I think you can do it. So I got support from friends and family. The hardest part is always getting that funding.

I was wondering how you’re able to secure these sponsorships?

They’re hard, like you know with this solo trip, I felt as though I moved into the men’s arena in Norway so I really had to get Norwegian sponsors. There was another Norwegian explorer who got an Italian sponsor so I got in contact with them and they said okay, if you can make it! They said that they would pay me when I came back, so I took out a bank loan and then I made it and they paid me.

Are you still living in Oslo?

I’m actually in a little place by the forest and a little pond with my Siberian husky.

What was it like living there as a child, and when did you realise that you didn’t want to follow the typical female expectations?

I remember one story, I was around 12 with my friends on a school trip to Germany. There were about six or eight girls, exchanging dreams. All my friends were dreaming about big houses, fancy cars, handsome husbands, and I was very naive and was thinking, ‘how boring! To think about something that will come automatically when you grow up!’ And then I told them my dream was to ski to the South Pole and they laughed and said it was stupid, was impossible, was a boy’s dream. And that was the first time I had the sense that I didn’t have the same dreams as my friends. As I grew up, my friends got married and I began wondering if I even wanted that life, wanted kids.

How hard would you say it’s been to be a female in a male dominated industry?

I think it was harder but it’s changing now, you know that. Now it’s many women who have skied to the South Pole but in my time it was definitely harder.

I think you’re very modest and very successful, and was wondering how you define success?

Well I think that if I myself am content with what I’ve been doing and have achieved, I think that’s a success. No one else can tell you you’re a success because you should know within yourself that this was good.

What is the worst thing that’s ever happened on an expedition?

I think it was when Ann Bancroft and I had an attempt to ski to the North Pole from Siberia and the ice was breaking in the middle of a night during a heavy storm. It was cold and I heard something so I went out to see it and woke Ann up. I heard this sound and looked out and there was this big wall of ice coming closer and closer, so Ann took the sleds and I got the tent and when I took the last screw out of the tent the first shock of ice came over me. Had I been laying in that sleeping bag for 15 more minutes we would have been crushed down to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. And I still get this feeling during springtime when you hear the breaking of ice.

We also got attacked by a polar bear. He followed us for a bit but I relaxed a little so I put the revolver on Ann’s sled in front of me and when I turned, he was coming right at us. I couldn’t reach the revolver so I aimed this signal pen at him and hit him in the breast, he was just a few metres away and began to move away immediately.

How do you deal with fear in these situations?

I was swallowing my heart, I think he was heading to my sled because it looked like a seal and then we crossed over an open river in dry suits and he stopped following us.

Who is a female role model that you look up to?

That’s not an explorer? I remember reading biographies and was reading about Marie Curie when I was a kid, and my friend said that I couldn’t do something like that. And also my mother, she’s a really good skier, she was not a very stereotypical mother, she wanted to go cross country skiing as a whole family on weekends whereas my friends mother stayed home and made Sunday dinner.

Are those all your books behind you? I read you’re an insatiable reader – could recommend some books?

I read all the classics in my 20’s, so now am reading a new translation of the Plague by Camus and I have several books on the go right now. I got another one today in the post and it’s actually the Bird Histories, about a professor focusing on the importance of water. With Covid, I actually have a lot of time to read.

I have one last question regarding what’s next?

We want to do one waterway for BAE on each continent, so if we can find a solution for this pandemic, we will go to New Zealand in 2022.

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And so, there it is! This interview was a lot of fun, and I hope that you guys enjoyed it just as much as I did. If you have any more questions for Liv Arnesen, let me know in the comments below!

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