Outdoor Retailer - Summer 2019 - 60

How I Got Here: w/ Ben Clark
WINDOWS WIDE OPEN AND CRUISING AT 70 M.P.H.,
a humid Tennessee wind kept whipping the frayed Jimi
Hendrix sticker on my windshield. Bobby Weir and Jerry
Garcia wailed vocals from the Grateful Dead's HundredYear Hall album. The natural ambience of mold growing
in the carpet served as a constant reminder of the previous
summer's escapades, when I had lived out of this truck.
Going down the road, feeling bad...
It was 1999, and I was 19 years old. I had just seen my
51-year-old father unconscious on a gurney after double
bypass surgery at Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville. My
whole life lay ahead of me. I was scared. I was confident. I
was going to make a move.
I stared out beyond the wide gulf of the Cumberland
Plateau to the Smoky Mountains 150 miles away. Fixated.
My next step was not going to be easy. Why not play to win
and put it all out there? If I was going to die from heart disease like every other Clark, I told myself, why not go for it? I
had nothing to lose.
I don't want to be treated this a-way...
That afternoon, I decided to commit to the life I have
now known for the past two decadses. It's a life of pioneering, storytelling, high-stakes success-and failure. How
did I get here? I chose a path, made decisions a step at a
time, a day at a time, and a challenge at a time. Why did I
continue after failing a lot? I found meaning.
Going where the water tastes like wine...
Back in Knoxville, I solidified my plan: Go to Mexico
and climb 19,870-foot Pico de Orizaba in January. I sold
my Michael Jordan rookie NBA card to finance the expedition, and when I reached the summit of that mountain-two days before the end of Christmas break from
architecture school-I listened to Neil Young.
Listening and "hearing" the music are not always handin-hand metaphorically, and by the time the next autumn
rolled around, I could now add "college dropout" and "budding documentary filmmaker" to my resume. I had decided
I would rather focus my life on climbing Mount Everest
and reporting on what I discovered in the high Himalayas
than becoming an architect.
Four years later, at 27,200 feet on Everest's North Side high camp, my
dad and I had a conversation via sat phone-I had done just what I said
I'd do, and he had survived his battle with heart disease. But like anyone,
he wondered...now what are you going to do? I had no answer.
I still don't and that's part of what drives me.

Following
the Heart

When you realize that life is short, you follow
your own tune to the Himalaya-and when
you end up home, you give back all you can.
by Ben Clark
60 OUTDOOR RETAILER

/ Summer 2019

THERE IS NO ROAD MAPTOACAREER PATH INTHE OUTDOOR INDUSTRY.
And like a great climb, partners are necessary to be a part of the community and also to pull you back in during those times you question truth
and consequence or because of the high peaks. I got a badge for my first

Carlo Nasisse

HIGH GROUNDED
Clark began his
filmmaking career
with a successful
documentary and
podcast about
summiting Everest.

Outdoor Retailer - Summer 2019

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