Ray Zahab - Pushing the limits

Explore: A Canadian Geographic podcast

"I've done a lot of hard things. At last count, I think I've done 33 or 34 expeditions, and I would say this was the hardest thing I've ever done. Chemo and the monoclonal therapy that I was doing... I was a mess. I would build myself up (between treatments) over the course of a few weeks, where I'd have a seven or ten-day decent period where I would go and do stuff. I was on Baffin Island in February, across the Paalik Valley, a combination of skiing, trekking and snowmobile. Doing it!"

When Ray Zahab says something is the hardest thing he’s ever done, you know that means it was unbelievably hard. He’s coming off a battle with cancer in which he somehow managed to work in an expedition in the Canadian Arctic at the coldest time of the year. Ray Zahab is not just a friend of this podcast, he’s a friend. We’re about the same age, we live near each other in the Gatineau Hills, and we’ve had a lot of laughs together, usually over coffee on my front porch.

Like many people, I was worried and saddened to learn about his cancer diagnosis last year. Like many, I was then even more concerned about his decision to go ahead with a Baffin Island expedition in February, in between chemo treatments.

And I also know this. Ray is one of the most positive people I've ever met.

He is someone who faces risks head-on and weighs dangers from every possible angle. He’s set records for getting to the South Pole on foot and for running across deserts in the blazing summer heat. He has carried out expeditions in the harshest environments on the planet. Ray’s decisions around his cancer treatment were done in close consultation with his doctors and family.

It’s not likely what most of us would have chosen. It worked for him.

This is his story to tell. He does so beautifully.