Adam Campbell
Benefitting the Climbing Grief Fund
Adam Campbell is a record-holding life-long mountain adventure athlete, but no amount of experience could have prepared him for the day he accidentally triggered a massive avalanche that took the life of his beloved wife Laura. In this raw and tender episode, we talk about when things fall apart, emotional coping mechanisms, identity, the non-linear nature of grief, healing from grief, the power of vulnerability, and how just a little bit of kindness and gentleness can go a long way.
Today's episode is sponsored by All The Happier,
a new online course inspired by the lessons you hear on the podcast.
In This Episode, We talk about:
The root of Adam’s love and connection with the outdoors.
His move back to Canada and navigating the divorce of his first wife.
The early days of falling in love with his wife, Laura.
His near fatal climbing accident - falling 200 ft down a mountain.
How gratitude and love were instrumental in his recovery.
Losing his wife, Laura, in a tragic avalanche.
The process of grief, healing and returning to the scene of Laura’s accident
Wise Words
You get humbled a lot by nature, when you're trying to serve for sale, you figure out that you can't control nature, you're sort of responding to it, and using what nature gives you and I think I developed a deep appreciation for that.
I kind of lacked some maturity at the time and didn't see it coming but losing my wife, Lauren, and having that marriage fall apart, it shook me to my core at the time. And I didn't have many emotional coping mechanisms for it and so I actually just buried myself in sports.
I ended up falling about 200 feet down the side of the mountain and it was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life.
I had this vivid image of the mountains behind me flipped upside down and I had time to think, like just how strange it was, that was probably the last thing I was ever going to see.
I started to develop the sense that I was this strong, independent, self-resilient man. The guy that runs up mountains, and I did take some pride in that identity and when I fell off the mountain and broke my body, that entire identity was shattered. I couldn't perform the most basic of tasks, my whole body responded really badly to the pain meds I was on and also the trauma and I swelled up in quite a significant way and having a broken back and a hip, I wasn't mobile. So I was relying on total strangers, like nurses to perform the most basic tasks like, cleaning my body, literally wiping my ass after taking a shit, I couldn't do that I couldn't I wasn't mobile enough. So, here I was the day before this strong, resilient man that would run through mountains, to suddenly being entirely dependent on others. And that was so humbling and as I say, it sort of crushed my entire facade of independence.
So it ended up taking us over an hour to get to Laura and this whole time, Kevin is trying to keep me on task because I'm just on the verge of losing it mentally this entire time, I was very task focused, like I knew that we had to dig frantically. But at the same time, I knew that with every passing minute, Laura's chance of survival was decreasing and it was the most horrific experience in my life having to dig for Laura.
And in the days after her death, I live with the fact that I triggered the avalanche that ultimately killed my wife and I wasn't able to save her.
grief and healing from grief, or learning to live with grief is probably a better way of describing it, it's not linear. It never gets better, it just gets different
I think the more that we talk about hard topics like trauma, and grief, the less scary they are, when we actually get there.
Be kind to yourself, and be kind to others.
Live life with purpose and passion.
LINKS
Website: www.alpinebureau.com/public
Instagram: @adamo1979
Twitter: @campbelladam79
Charity Donation: www.americanalpineclub.org/grieffund