WARREN MACDONALD: MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER, KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Recent appearances on Larry King and OPRAH

	Warren Macdonald Questions and Answers

At the beginning of your ordeal you tell yourself this is the ultimate test, one you've been preparing for all your life. Explain.
I've never shied away from taking the hard road, and in some ways I think I spent a lot of my life testing myself. I've never felt comfortable with how easy we've made things for ourselves, and from a young age I set out to make sure that if everything was taken away from me, all the comforts of home, I'd still be OK.

The chapter called “The Reclamation” describes your recovery and rehabilitation. What were the major hurdles and milestones?
At first, all I saw were hurdles. I couldn’t even sit up for the first few weeks. The single biggest step would have to have been when I realized I could lift myself up of the bed using part of the bed frame above me. It meant I wasn't at the mercy of the, lets say "not so gentle" nursing staff who up until then had to roll me, broken pelvis and all, to change my bed sheets. I worked out a way to stop them from hurting me, and doing so, took some of my power back. Swimming for the first time in a wild river was huge as well. I desperately wanted to get back to nature, and that swim gave me my first taste of what might be possible.

In the book you describe your ascension of Cradle Mountain less than one year after the accident. How did that change your life?
Climbing Cradle Mountain proved to me the power of the human spirit. It proved to me something that I think I already knew, and that is that we are capable of far more than we could possibly imagine. I'd already learnt through traveling and my time in the outdoors that the world is our oyster and that it's up to all of us to make out of it what we will, but in climbing Cradle I realized that knowing is one thing. The real rewards only come when we take action.

In the book you thank Geert van Keulin, your trekking partner who went for help while you were trapped, for doing what he had to do and doing it well. How did his role in the events of April 9th 1997 affect him?
Geert took the outcome of my accident quite personally at first, suffering from what is commonly known as "survivor guilt" for a long time afterwards. It was really only after we met again back in Australia a few years later, and he saw how I'd gotten on in my life, that he really accepted that he couldn't have done any more.

The rescue was broadcast on TV in Australia. How did it feel watching that footage for the first time? How does it feel now?
The first time I saw that footage I watched it with a degree of curiousness. You have to remember I only had a one-dimensional view the whole time I was trapped, so I found it fascinating to see things from the different perspectives offered by the camera. The second time I watched it was different. I watched it with a close friend of mine, and it was quite emotional as the memories came flooding back. It still feels strange watching it now, especially considering how close to death I'd been at the time.

Since the accident you've had many accomplishments including becoming the first above-knee amputee to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro (Africa's tallest mountain), the Central Pillar route on Weeping Wall (a 600ft frozen waterfall in the Canadian Rockies), and the United States' tallest vertical rock face, El Capitan (in Yosemite National Park, California). What's next?
I'd like to climb "The Chief" (overlooks Squamish just north of Vancouver) this summer. I'm also planning a trip to Antarctica for next November, and would love to do something in Nepal at some point... At the same time though, I'd like to find some time to relax.

You say in the book's epilogue that people often ask you whether the accident provided you with direction, and was it, eventually, a positive thing? What's your answer?
I didn't need that rock to fall into my lap to provide me with direction. I already had direction, and knew what I wanted to do. What it did do was to make me more focused. It made me realize that knowing what you want to do isn't the same as doing what you want to do, and that none of us are here forever so we best get to it in making things happen for ourselves.

You travel the globe as a motivational speaker. What's your message?
I'm not overly comfortable with the term "motivational speaker". It conjures up images of evangelical preachers...I set out to stop people in their tracks. Through seeing what I've been able to achieve after what happened to me, I want people to stop and think about what it is that they want to do with their lives, and what it is that’s stopping them from doing it.