the Adventure Lifestyle magazine

er, "and he would be heading straight for a tree, and you'd hear him saying, 'This could be the end: and then you'd see him laid out at the In style Hulot is often Tintin, bottom of the tree, It was really funny,R the comic child detective whose foibles en route to cracking the case make him an irresistible antihero. In function he is closer to Jacques Cousteau or even Jules Verne, a true herald for Mother Earth and for the jit- tery jubilation that comes with the lib- erty of travel and adventure. Hulot has embraced the role of surrogate thrillseeker for Jean Q. Publique in Paris and the rank and file of the declasse nationwide. What viewers take away from UshuaTa is a message so fundamental it transcends the wild details of UshuaTa's stories: Life is nothing if not possibility, AS JOBS GO. PRODUCER AND HOST OF USHUAiA HAS A LOT GOING FOR IT. JOB DESCRIPTION: Explore nature worldwide. Push the limits of your body. Test your courage. REQUIREMENTS: Extraordinary diversity of skills including hang gliding, mountain climbing, scuba diving and others; ability to think straight in the face of danger; a willingness to try almost anything. Should enjoy seeing the world, interacting with wild beasts, diving through underwater grottos, flying through the air, spending quiet moments under sun tents in the African desert and on the coasts of tropical islands. SALARY: Yes .. believe it or not. But for Hulot, UshuaTa is more than just a fun job. Playing in nature and pitting his body against its ele­ ments is no hobby; it is Hulot's medium of expression and a trigger for emotion. In States of Soul, one of six books he has written, Hulot writes: "It is from difficulty and from a rare place that emotion is born. And it is emotion that we want to share, which justifies the deli­ cate movement. That which is easy has no flavor." As adamant in his principles as he is driven in his exploits, Hulot doesn't think twice about much, as if second-guessing could cost you your life. He talks about truth, beauty and the �ature of an individual as if all of this is clear and accessible and even makes sense. "You must test yourself, " Hulot states. "We are blind at the beginning ... we believe that we are seeing, but in fact we are not. There are so many things before our eyes which hinder us from seeing the truth. We must collide with life, and little by little, we must break through all of these things which had troubled our vision unti l one day we will see the truth-our truth and the truth of others." For Hulot, truth is: avert this hang glider imme­ diately, or crush your body on that nearby mountainside. Now forty-two years old, Hulot has spent a lifetime collecting these healthy "col lisions" and self-imposed impacts. He fi rst saw the world through the lens of a Ci/mera while working for five years for a French photo agency. Photography appealed to Hulot as a "tota l engagement" craft, and he found himself natura lly drawn to nations at war: South Africa, Mozambique ("never in Latin America, though I did cover some natural disas­ ters there"). These years and the eleven that followed produced pay­ checks which became a means to Hulofs greater end of adventure. He windsurfed across the English Channel and even attempted to cross the Atlantic in a human-powered dirigible. While Hulot's adventures may be a severe version of the pursuit of the extreme, he stares down the very same dilemmas that tweak the minds of all adventurers. How far is too far? Am I up to the challenge? "The common denominator in Ushuai'a," he explains, "is the notio� of risk. " For Hulot, though, the notion of risk is distinct from risk .itse lf. "Exploit for the sake of exploit, to want to make ten more kilometers, doesn't interest me at all. Risk is only interesting when you eliminate it through kriowledge, through experi­ ence, and through humility. [With the program], we wanted to show that in all sorts of domains of activity, there are people who show that risk is a sub­ jective notion." Before he had the luxury of a "I HAVE ALWAYS TRIED TO CREATE A BRIDGE TO MY DREAMS" -' NICOLAS HULOT full-time team of aids and instructors and an arsenal of equipment courtesy of Ushuai'a, Hulot was less adamant about the mastery of risk. In 1987, he embarked on a journey across one of the Earth's most remote locales-the geographic North Pole-via ultralight, a small one or two-seated flying machine made of fiberglass and nylon.

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