We Can Do Hard Things

In the fall of 2025, gravity-defying ultrarunner Kilian Jornet summited the seventy-one 14,000-foot peaks in the continental United States, taking just thirty-one days to do so—while traveling solely by bike. It was an astounding act of human endurance, and yet, for Jornet, this wasn’t even the hardest project he’s faced. Which makes you wonder, what is hard for Jornet? Or for pioneering whitewater paddler Ben Stookesberry? Or record-setting single-speed champion Alexandera Houchin and others cut from the same cloth?

There’s one great way to find out: Ask them.

Photo by Pablo Durana

STACEY BARE
Veteran, activist, 2014 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year

What’s the hardest adventure thing you’ve done and why was it hard?

Hiking a hut-to-hut trip in Norway with my wife Makenzie, a trip that was described to me as “graduate level of hard even for Norwegians.” She was three or four months pregnant. Factoring the post-holing in wet heavy snow over the high passes and all the