dogsled2
In 2008 I was asked to join Will Steger on a dogsledding expedition to Ellesmere Island for National Geographic. We spent two months traveling in -40 temperatures. We slept in tents. Much of the land we crossed hadn’t seen visitors in recorded history. I’m sure native people had traveled there, but global warming has revealed land that hasn’t been exposed in thousands of years. It was the closest I’ve ever come to truly exploring the unexplored.
Editor’s Note: Ben Horton has gotten around. As a National Geographic photographer he’s covered every sort of adventure from diving with sharks off the Costa Rican coastline to dogsledding on Ellesmere Island. And he wants you to go, too. And if you don’t go to the arctic, or the Brazilian rainforest, maybe his imagery will inspire you to go somewhere you’ve been meaning to for a long time. Even if it’s just to the other side of the state you’re living in. Horton gives us the story behind nine of his favorite images from the last half decade or so. Images that represent a deep love of our planet, and protecting it.