Climbing Legend Offers Life Lessons and Insights for a Better 2025

North Face team member and world-class adventure sailor shares thoughts for life.

Polar Passage Arctic Adventure: Field Notes with Renan Ozturk / Sony I Alpha Universe

While many of us deal with everyday hassles, from traffic to line-ups for morning joe, pioneering big-wall climber and adventure sailor, Mark Synnott, was busy navigating the Northwest Passage, a quest that fewer than 400 people have done.

Being crushed by ice, freezing to death, or being scuttled in boat-busting storms would be just a few of the perils he faced.

Grab his latest book, ‘Into the Ice’, about this epic sailing journey filled with history, climate challenges, determination, and grit.

As we set sail into 2025, here are some life thoughts from New York Times best-selling author, pioneering big wall climber, adventure blue-water sailor, and skier, Mark Synnott.

Adventure On SI: What is your 'why' and what is most impactful that each has provided you in your life?

Mark: "When I was about ten years old, I made the mistake of asking my dad, ‘What happens when you die?’ His reply: You’re worm food, Mark. Needless to say, I’d been hoping for a different answer, something a bit more uplifting.

"This set me off on a path of trying to find answers to some tough questions, and it was while I was on that search that I found climbing.

"Finally, I had stumbled upon a pursuit that consumed me so entirely that I was able to escape, at least for a little while, from the hamster wheel that was spinning endlessly inside my head."

SI: If you could share a couple of things that stand out as helping you navigate roadblocks, challenges in life - both personal and sport (could be the same)?

Mark: "Create your own meaning by caring deeply about something, anything. That deep care creates orientation and purpose, which is something that I see as essential to a happy existence.

"But you do somehow have to find that thing that moves you, and for me it has always been adventure and exploration through skiing, climbing and sailing. Communing with nature in the raw wild places of this planet is so vital for me."

SI: What are you doing today that matters and any suggestions or ideas for giving back to the community (sport, where you live, planet, etc.)?

Mark: "The way I have been giving back is mostly through storytelling and hopefully inspiring people to get out and explore the world like I have.

"If through my articles, books and films I’ve been able to make people care more about our planet and the plants, animals and people who call it home, then I think I can say that I’ve had a positive impact on our world."

More About Mark

Mark Synnott is a New York Times bestselling author, pioneering big wall climber, sailor, IFMGA mountain guide, and one of the most prolific adventurers of his generation. When he’s not in the mountains or out on the high seas, he can be found at his home on a dead-end dirt road in northern New Hampshire.