Everybody has a childhood dream, but relatively few of these come to fruition.
In Mark Sky's view, we are frequently taught to champion logic as we reach the cusp of adulthood. Passion and aspiration take a backseat as the demands of the real world sink in: get a job, make money, build a sensible career path. Many of us forget all about those youthful dreams when we hit our 20s and 30s.
Sky did not. He embarked on a fully human-powered odyssey spanning 15 countries and more than 24,000 kilometres. Bicycles, kayaks and his own four limbs were the only things carrying him on this trip, which began in 麻豆社国产and culminated nearly 7,000 metres above sea level on Mount Aconcagua: the Western Hemisphere's tallest point.
Aconcagua wasn't the only mountain Sky climbed. He tried to summit the highest peak in every nation he passed through, managing 12 successful ascents.
This mission appeared to be improbable at best. Sky felt every bit of the heat, cold, hunger, thirst, fatigue and loneliness that assaulted him over the course of 22 gruelling months. Nefarious individuals tried to rob him. There were unplanned encounters with crocodiles and Colombian soldiers (more on that later).
Sky, who is known on Instagram as supermarks_adventures, headed out in May 2023 and beat the odds to finish his "Expedition Squagua," not returning home until late February of this year.
No sacrifice, no victory
Adventures demand sacrifice, particularly an undertaking of this magnitude.
"As you get older, when you have friends who've passed, you realize that maybe you're not going to live forever like you once thought you would," Sky said. "There's never a good or a right time to do something like this. You're going to have to give up everything in your life: everyone you love, your community, your job, your business, your home, everything.
"It was actually a really hard decision because you sit there and weigh out the pros and cons, but when you're sure you want to do something in your life … the one thing I definitely don't want to have when I'm older is regrets from not doing the things I really wanted to do."
With that resolve in mind, Sky got to organizing Expedition Squagua. The task was harder than anticipated, for numerous factors had to line up: weather patterns, climbing seasons, availability of external resources and so on.
Most would have been content with a bike journey, but Sky is a top-flight endurance athlete with events like the Eco-Challenge and the Adventure Racing World Series on his resume. He knew his physical fitness levels would hold up and wished to do something truly unprecedented.
Mountaineering meant adding a lot of extra equipment to the mix. Sky didn't just have to ride his bike across thousands of kilometres—he did so with a Gore-Tex wardrobe, three pairs of gloves, climbing boots, harnesses, ice screws, crampons, dual ice axes and his usual camping gear weighing him down.
Phase 1 of Expedition Squagua began in Sky's driveway and carried on through the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. He did, in fact, scale each country's loftiest peak: including the 5,656-metre dormant Mexican volcano Pico de Orizaba.
Then he reached the Panama-Colombia border. On a map, it looks like a convenient land bridge into South America. It's anything but.
'My entire life flashed before my eyes'
The region connecting Central and South America is known as the Darién Gap. It is one of Earth's most inhospitable areas with diverse terrain, hazardous fauna and fearsome weather patterns. No roads exist through this place, which is also devoid of law enforcement and medical services.
Most who brave the Darién Gap are desperate migrants. Sky knew exactly what he was getting himself into, and with vehicles like aircraft and sailboats out of the question, he had to kayak across 500 kilometres of rough ocean to Colombia.
Prolific Canadian adventurer Frank Wolf joined in for this leg of the voyage, which yielded a harrowing episode worthy of Hollywood.
Sky and Wolf had planned to bed down at an Indigenous village built on stilts in the Darién jungle. The settlement's chief evicted them just before dark, forcing both men to paddle an extra 10 to 15 kilometres across open water. A thunderstorm rolled in as they held onto each other's boats for dear life.
Eventually washing ashore, Sky and Wolf found themselves amidst numerous modestly-sized crocodilians. The former picked up his machete and went to investigate the nearest building, a lighthouse.
Men bearing automatic firearms rushed to confront him.
"At that moment in time, my entire life flashed before my eyes," Sky recalled. "I was like, 'why did I even start this trip?' I thought it was the cartel, but it turned out to be a secret Colombian military base and we got taken captive that night. We didn't know if we were going to be shot and killed. We didn't know if we were going to be held for ransom. We had no idea."
More than two dozen soldiers detained the travellers for about 24 hours, but ultimately released them without further incident.
By April of last year, Sky and Wolf had successfully navigated the Darién Gap.
Emotional, spiritual and special
Super Mark proceeded to tackle mountains in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile before the climax of his grand quest. At least one such foray up Ecuadorian peak Chimborazo failed due to avalanche conditions, but he soldiered on toward the Andes' crown jewel: Mount Aconcagua.
Once again, the 麻豆社国产native upped the difficulty level. Most climb Aconcagua by its relatively unchallenging northern route, but he opted to try the Polish Glacier Direct: a technical path with a maximum slope of between 45 and 60 degrees. Hailing originally from Poland, Sky embraced the excitement of pushing himself—with nobody to render aid if things went wrong.
Finally he found himself on top of Aconcagua, alone. No other mountaineers were on the Polish Glacier Direct at his time of summitting.
"I remember just breaking down. I was full of emotions running through me like I can't even explain," Sky said of the moment. "I was trying to process the fact that I rode my bicycle from Canada for almost 600 days and never, ever gave up. I realized this dream didn't start [in 2023] when I started the trip. It started a couple years before that, when I was planning. Just a very emotional, spiritual and special experience for me.
"I thought I would never get to the finish line, and then fast forward 20 months… I was afraid to go back home. Life is very simple out there—it's not easy, but it's simple. Every day is a new environment: new people, new culture, new food."
One thing Sky did lack, other than perhaps rest, was fellowship. He elaborated: "After being on the road for that long on your own, you realize—even though you meet a million people—how lonely you really are. That was definitely one of the hardest things for me, and one of the biggest life lessons is how important community is."
Sky's community is no doubt eager to learn more about Expedition Squagua. They won't have to wait much longer: his book, The Professional Kid, is due to be published this spring.
