Ray Zahab Beyond Limits: Conquering The Arctic, Deserts & Disease With A Smile

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Ray Zahab was a pack-a-day smoker with no direction. Then his younger brother handed him a reason to go outside — and inside a decade he had run 7,500 kilometres across the Sahara Desert, broken the world record for the fastest unsupported trek to the South Pole, and launched a charity that takes teenagers on expeditions in some of the world's most remote corners, free of charge.

In this episode, Ray takes us from that first unlikely race — the Yukon Arctic Ultra, 100 miles in the frozen Canadian north, the first foot race he had ever entered, which he won — through to the philosophy he has built across 40 expeditions in places including the Gobi, Atacama, Death Valley and Baffin Island. He also speaks, with quiet defiance, about the incurable illness he was diagnosed with while in the middle of planning his next expedition — and why that only made him push harder.

Chapters

00:00 From pack-a-day smoker to ultra runner
01:21 Growing up on a horse farm — and how adventure found Ray
03:25 Winning the Yukon Arctic Ultra at his very first race
05:57 Running the Sahara — 7,500 km across Africa in 111 days
07:02 Expeditions over racing — why Ray stopped competing
08:27 Water crisis awareness and the Ryan's Well Foundation
09:12 Founding Impossible to Possible — free expeditions for young people
11:38 Youth expeditions: dinosaur digs in Utah and footprints in the Atacama
13:59 How young people join i2P — and Ray's role on every expedition
16:15 Gobi Desert solo — beauty, nomads and a random Korean explorer
17:33 Ranking his hardest expeditions: Atacama vs Gobi vs Death Valley
19:18 Planning an expedition — water, resupply and a year of preparation
20:56 Daily life on the Sahara — sleep, food and surviving the elements
22:38 South Pole 2009 — breaking the world record almost by accident
25:40 Team dynamics in the Arctic — and how to survive disagreements
26:54 Breaking through Arctic ice: two minutes in a subzero river
29:43 Mongolia: meeting a Korean explorer in the middle of nowhere
34:00 Baffin Island through chemotherapy — turning the throttle up
36:17 Living with an incurable diagnosis — maximum performance right now
37:52 You have one life: talk yourself into it, not out of it
38:44 Call to Adventure — Baffin Island, the Atacama, and your own backyard
41:08 Pay It Forward — getting young people into the outdoors
42:30 Where to find Ray Zahab

This is a conversation about what happens when you stop talking yourself out of things and start talking yourself into them.

What You'll Learn:
• How Ray went from a horse farm in Canada to winning the Yukon Arctic Ultra — a 100-mile race in the frozen Canadian wilderness — as his very first foot race
• Why running across the Sahara with Matt Damon's documentary crew led him to create Impossible to Possible, a charity giving teenagers free expeditions around the world
• The moment he broke through Arctic ice and was swept into a subzero river current — and the piece of gear that saved his life
• How to navigate Antarctica without GPS: using the sun's angle, shadow direction and prevailing wind to stay on course for 700 miles
• What it is actually like to cross the Gobi Desert solo — and why Ray considers it one of the most culturally beautiful places he has ever been, not one of the hardest
• How Ray continued leading expeditions through six months of chemotherapy, and why an incurable diagnosis made him raise the bar, not lower it

RAY ZAHAB | Explorer, Ultra Runner & Founder of Impossible to Possible
Website: rayzahab.com
Instagram: @rayzahab
Charity: impossible2possible.com
Guiding company: CAPEC1 [CHECK: verify CAPEC1 website/link]
Royal Canadian Geographical Society: Explorer in Residence

ABOUT RAY ZAHAB
Ray Zahab is a Canadian explorer and ultra-distance runner who transformed himself from a pack-a-day smoker into one of the world's leading expedition athletes. He is best known for co-running 7,500 kilometres across the Sahara Desert — documented in the Matt Damon-narrated film Running the Sahara — and for setting a Guinness World Record for the fastest unsupported trek to the South Pole. He has now completed 40 expeditions across the world's most extreme environments, from Death Valley to Baffin Island. In 2008 he founded Impossible to Possible (i2P), a non-profit that sends young people aged 16–21 on fully funded expeditions and links them live to 70,000 students in 14 countries.


For full show notes and links, visit: adventurediaries.com/go

Transcript

[CHAPTER: From Pack-a-Day Smoker to Ultra Runner — 00:00]

[00:01] CHRIS: Ray Zahab, welcome to the Adventure Diaries. How are you?

[00:02] RAY: Okay, perfect. Yeah, that's about how much time I have — so that's perfect.

[00:15] RAY: It's great to be here. Thank you so much for having me. I'm stoked.

[00:19] CHRIS: Yeah, likewise — I really appreciate the time. I've been very excited about this one. I've followed your journey over the years intermittently, picked it up again recently, and I'm really glad you've spent some time today, Ray. As a short introduction for those who may not know you and your work: you are an extreme adventurer and ultra runner who has undertaken some remarkable ultra-distance expeditions in some of the most inhospitable places on the planet. In particular, crossing the Sahara Desert — one of your earlier, landmark efforts — 7,500 kilometres in 111 days. Phenomenal. But before we get into that, there's an interesting backstory: you were a two-pack-a-day smoker before you found running?

[CHAPTER: Horse Farms, Hockey Nights and How It All Started — 01:21]

[01:21] RAY: Well, yeah — I was an unhealthy guy before all this. A pack a day, and if I was drinking, maybe two. But I grew up on a horse farm, so my brother and I were outdoors all the time as kids. Then you get older, it slips away. By the time I was close to 30, I was no longer satisfied or fulfilled. I decided I needed to make a change — I just didn't know what it would be.

My younger brother had been through his own transformation. He was a passionate ice climber, mountain biker, trekker, runner — he drew me in and inspired me to try something different. I went from zero passion, treating my body as badly as possible, to a complete 180-degree shift. By the early 2000s I was racing mountain bikes all over the world and adventure racing. Then in 2004 I picked up ultra running, and I won my first ultra marathon. I thought: maybe this is what I should be doing for the rest of my life.

[CHAPTER: Winning the Yukon Arctic Ultra at His First Attempt — 03:25]

[03:25] CHRIS: When you picked up the ultra marathon — how does that compare in distance to the Sahara?

[03:37] RAY: Between 2000 and 2003, I'd probably run a half-dozen significant runs — mostly training for adventure races. I was primarily a mountain biker and ice climber. Then I read an article about the Yukon Arctic Ultra, a multi-distance race held every February in the Canadian Arctic. The distance I fixated on was 100 miles — 160 kilometres — and that was the very first foot race I'd ever done. I trained as best I could over a matter of months. Running is something completely different from mountain biking, and there were so many moments in that race where I almost dropped out. But lo and behold, I finished — and I won. That was what set everything else in motion.

For the first 30 years of my life I had talked myself out of doing things through fear of failure. Yet there I was at the finish line, thinking: there's no way I've won this. It empowered me physically, mentally, emotionally. It changed how I thought about myself. Through doing more ultra marathons over the following years, I met the two men I would eventually run across the Sahara with — and we came up with the crazy idea of running coast to coast across Africa: six countries, through the Sahara, 7,500 kilometres. We finished in February 2007. Since then I have not raced — only done expeditions and adventures. I've now completed 40 expeditions in total.

[05:57] RAY: It empowered me physically, mentally, emotionally. It changed the way I thought about myself. I wanted to learn how I had done that — through doing more ultra marathons. How could I feel so invincible at the finish yet be in such pain at the start? Through that journey of learning, I met the guys I'd run the Sahara with.

[CHAPTER: Running the Sahara — Water, Matt Damon and What Came Next — 07:02]

[07:02] CHRIS: Do you miss the competitive side of it, Ray, or do you prefer expeditions?

[07:15] RAY: I love expeditions. I love the challenge of going somewhere new, learning about the people, culture and geography. I go to both ends of the thermometer — I'm in the Arctic in winter at minus 50, minus 60, where the sun is just cracking the horizon. And I'm crossing deserts in summer. I've now crossed most of the large deserts on the planet, and I prefer to do it in the hottest conditions.

Furthermore, I take those expeditions and share them with classrooms all over the world. Students follow along on live websites, tracking pretty much every step I take, watching videos and photos I post via satellite — fully immersed in the places I'm in.

[08:27] CHRIS: The Sahara expedition — you raised awareness of the clean water crisis. Reflecting on it, what kind of impact did that journey have?

[09:12] RAY: The film Running the Sahara was made to raise awareness and funding for water projects in North Africa. It had a huge impact at the time. Matt Damon and the charitable initiative he created through the film raised millions for water projects in North Africa. My wife and I then joined the board of the Ryan's Well Foundation, a Canadian water charity, and volunteered for several years fundraising and creating initiatives.

But that was just the beginning. When we reached the edge of the Red Sea after 111 days, it was not lost on me that everything had begun seven years before that day — the day I quit smoking. Seven years between quitting and reaching the Red Sea. I thought: how incredible would it be to recreate an expedition as something learning-based? So I decided to start my own charity with my wife and my best friend Bob. We called it Impossible to Possible — i2P — with the goal of taking young people between the ages of 16 and 21 on their own expeditions around the world, 100% free of charge.

[CHAPTER: Impossible to Possible — Taking Young People on Expeditions for Free — 11:38]

[11:38] CHRIS: Can you tell us about some of the expeditions you've run through Impossible to Possible?

[11:47] RAY: We've done 15 so far, in super remote places around the world, all learning-based, all tied to a relevant subject. One example: we crossed the desert in Utah studying the rise of the dinosaurs, working with the University of Utah. Our youth ambassadors ran 20 to 30 kilometres a day between dinosaur dig sites, learning about the history of dinosaurs in that region — all broadcast via a live website so students in classrooms around the world could follow a peer running through the desert to a dig site and then digging for fossils. It made the subject of dinosaurs that much more exciting.

[13:09] CHRIS: Do the expeditions also address good causes such as the water crisis?

[13:23] RAY: For us, it's first and foremost education — a free, learning-based programme giving young people an amazing place and experience, then sharing that free programming with schools. Many of our youth ambassadors have gone on to do remarkable things.

[13:59] CHRIS: What's the criteria for joining?

[14:03] RAY: There's really no set criteria. We put out a call to action months ahead of each youth expedition. Our next one is coming up this autumn — those youth ambassadors were selected last year, have been training, and will be going out soon.

[14:27] CHRIS: Do you join them, Ray?

[14:29] RAY: Oh, yes — every step of the way. It's my purpose. Most of my expeditions and any fundraising I do goes back to supporting these youth expeditions.

[14:48] CHRIS: Are you revisiting some of your own expedition territories?

[14:56] RAY: Many times, yes. We did one in the Atacama Desert studying astronomy — I'd run the length of the Atacama in summer 2011, about 1,200 kilometres. The youth expedition covered about 150 kilometres over a week in the same region. And because it's one of the driest places on Earth, when we were out there, we found my base camp — and my footprints from four years earlier. It's crazy. We've also been to places I hadn't visited before, like Rajasthan.

[CHAPTER: Deserts vs Arctic — Gobi, Death Valley and the Question of Heat — 16:15]

[16:15] CHRIS: Looking at your history — Sahara, Gobi, Namib, Atacama, Arctic expeditions — do you have a preference?

[16:36] RAY: I prefer the heat to the cold any day, but the most beautiful place I've ever been is Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, and I've crossed it 11 times. So I have mixed feelings. I love the Arctic, I have close friends who live there. But I also love the emptiness of the desert.

[17:12] CHRIS: Let's talk about the Gobi and Mongolia. How does that compare to the Sahara?

[17:33] RAY: I was in chemotherapy for six months last year [CHECK: verify year of Ray's chemo — episode context suggests ~2022–23], and during recovery I did a series of posts ranking my most difficult expeditions. The Gobi was not the hardest — I solo-ran more than 2,000 kilometres clear across it in the middle of summer — but it was more beautiful than difficult. The offset was huge: every time you came around a bend, you had no idea what you'd see. And it wasn't arid — it rained almost every day. The Mongolian people were extraordinary. Sparse population, but I'd run into nomads and visit with them. A real contrast to the Atacama, which was arguably one of the most difficult things I've ever done — oppressively hot, hard work every single day alone. And I've crossed Death Valley north to south and west to east in July and August, which is just heat on a whole new level.

[19:18] CHRIS: How do you prepare for Death Valley — water, provisions, the distances?

[19:30] RAY: I take a year to plan every expedition, and every one is completely different. Arctic expeditions I'm generally unsupported. In deserts I don't want to pull a cart — it can be damaging to the environment. So I move swiftly and lightly with resupplies. When I crossed the Atacama, resupply points were every 20 to 60 kilometres apart. When I crossed Death Valley west to east in 2019 with my buddy Will Laughlin, we were able to find and filter water over the Panamint range. Every expedition is completely different in its planning, but the one constant is: I plan for a year.

[CHAPTER: Daily Life on Expedition — Arctic vs Desert — 20:56]

[20:56] CHRIS: What was a typical 24 hours like during the 111-day Sahara crossing?

[21:18] RAY: Up early, breakfast, pack up, tear down camp, go all day. Take a break for lunch — except on Arctic expeditions, where I don't stop because it's too cold. At night in the Arctic, setting camp quickly is critical — literally life or death. Then eat and sleep four to six hours, and do it again. In the desert you want to get in before sundown, though I travel through the night in some deserts. It depends on whether I'm moving non-stop or stopping day to day.

[22:30] CHRIS: You've done both poles, haven't you?

[22:38] RAY: Yes — Siberia, Kamchatka, Antarctica to the South Pole, and numerous expeditions in the Canadian Arctic.

[23:07] CHRIS: How does your equipment differ between the north and south?

[23:07] RAY: Completely different. When we went to the South Pole in 2009 — me and my two buddies Richard and Kevin — we brought satellite equipment, cameras and sat phones to create curriculum for schools. We broke the world record for reaching the South Pole unsupported. Antarctica is drier, there are no polar bears, and you're on a landmass. The Canadian Arctic is more humid, you're often on frozen ocean, and polar bears are a constant risk. In Antarctica you go during Antarctic summer — the sun swirls around the sky and never sets. In the Arctic in winter the sun barely crests the horizon. And contrast both with desert: the gear is 100% different. Extreme cold — you layer up. Extreme heat — how many clothes can you take off? There's nothing more to do. I love that challenge.

[CHAPTER: Breaking Through Arctic Ice — A Near-Fatal Moment — 25:19]

[25:19] CHRIS: Your Arctic expeditions are largely unsupported, aren't they?

[25:26] RAY: Yes, mostly.

[25:40] CHRIS: What are team dynamics like on an Arctic expedition — the mental side, teamwork?

[26:00] RAY: Team dynamics have to be fantastic — they have to be. You've got to be with people you can argue with and disagree with, but not care. My teammate Kevin Valloli and I have been to the South Pole together, across Siberia in 2010, and on other projects — we can totally disagree about something and five minutes later be laughing about something stupid. You have to work well together. It's critical.

[26:44] CHRIS: Any incidents that stand out across your polar expeditions?

[26:54] RAY: I broke through ice and almost died in the Arctic once. We'd been dropped by helicopter into a remote part of the Arctic. I went through a river — I was in heavy current for almost two minutes. When I'm travelling on frozen water I normally keep boot laces loose and snowshoe bindings loose so I can shed them quickly. This time I couldn't get them off. I was willing to sacrifice my feet to get out of that water and see my family again. That was the first thing I thought: I'm never going to see my family again.

I pulled against the current with my leg, hyperextended my right leg, and my right crampon hooked the far edge of the hole. I pushed against it and hauled myself up and out. I rolled to a safe area. My teammate and I were not roped together — thankfully, because if we had been on that unstable ice in a slot canyon with no riverbank, we'd both have gone under. I had an emergency down suit and dry clothing in my kit, which saved my life. But you know what — bad things are maybe one in ten on an expedition. What I focus on is the extraordinary privilege of being in these places.

[CHAPTER: Mongolia, Nomads and a Korean Explorer in the Desert — 29:43]

[29:43] CHRIS: You bumped into a Korean explorer randomly in the Gobi — can you tell that story?

[30:17] RAY: Completely randomly — there was no one out there. My film crew was with me in 4x4s creating educational content. One day my photographer John drives up and says: "You're not going to believe this. There's a guy walking ahead of you — pulling a cart, been out there for ever, Korean guy." Sure enough, I ran right into him. The randomness of it. I've had other wild occurrences too — incredible petroglyphs in the Atacama, and in the Namib crossing Fish River Canyon with Stefano, we were followed by a troop of baboons for kilometres. Lots of crazy things.

[CHAPTER: Chemotherapy, Baffin Island and Turning the Throttle Up — 34:00]

[34:00] CHRIS: You undertook an expedition to the Palik Valley on Baffin Island earlier this year — tell us about that.

[34:17] RAY: The original plan was a 25-day expedition from the island of Qikiqtarjuaq across a frozen section of the Davis Strait, then across Baffin Island through the Palik Valley, up a fjord, and over a mountain into the community of Pangnirtung. But I was in chemotherapy and had only ten days. So I abbreviated the expedition, still skiing unsupported through a section of the Palik Valley. The other portions were done by snowmobile — extreme snowmobiling, lots of dry rock, very sketchy.

[35:15] CHRIS: Considering your health situation, it's phenomenal that you undertook it at all.

[35:22] RAY: I certainly felt rough. But I committed when I started chemo that I wasn't going to stop. I had every right to sit on the couch. But for me, I decided I was going to continue living my life — and turn the throttle up a little. Once a month, when I felt relatively decent between treatments, I'd go do something epic.

[35:59] CHRIS: That's very inspirational. It's part of what this show is about.

[36:17] RAY: I appreciate that. The funny thing is — it was never meant to happen. It just became part of my life. There is no cure for what I have. But I'm in better shape now than I've been in three years. I was getting sicker and sicker without even knowing it, and I was still doing expeditions and performing at a high level. I appreciate my health even more now. Am I worried about when this comes back? It's not a question of if — it's when. And no, I'm not worried. What I focus on is maximum performance right now, and doing as many things as possible in the years ahead.

[CHAPTER: Life Philosophy — You Have One Shot — 37:34]

[37:34] RAY: Epic expeditions, epic projects that I couldn't have done before. Now that I have great health and I'm fit, I'm able to train hard and go do things better than I did before.

[37:52] RAY: People have it in them to do amazing things. Everybody has their own extraordinary in their lives. You don't have to go to the North Pole or cross the Sahara. It can be whatever your goal is. Instead of talking yourself out of it, talk yourself into it.

[CHAPTER: Call to Adventure and Where to Find Ray — 38:27]

[38:27] CHRIS: Is there any one place or expedition you'd love to do that you haven't planned for yet?

[38:44] RAY: I've got some things up my sleeve. I don't like to announce until I know it's happening — so stay tuned.

[39:14] CHRIS: So we're nearly up on time. I have two closing traditions on the show. First: a call to adventure. A suggestion to get listeners inspired — somewhere to visit, something to do.

[39:49] RAY: I run a guiding company called CAPEC1 and I've taken clients all over the world. The two places that fascinate them most are Baffin Island and the Atacama Desert. But equally — go into your own backyard. This past summer I crossed the national park where I live in Quebec with two friends, north to south, just for the fun of it. And it was epic. Your own backyard can be as incredible as anywhere on the planet.

[40:42] CHRIS: Fantastic. And the second tradition — Pay It Forward: a worthy cause or project you'd like to raise awareness of.

[41:08] RAY: I think giving young people the opportunity to have experiences and learn outdoors is critically important. In your own community there are outdoor advocacy groups and youth outdoor programmes. Find those groups and contribute — volunteer hours, cash, whatever you can — to get more young people into the outdoors.

[41:49] CHRIS: Excellent. And of course, Impossible to Possible will be listed in the show notes — a very worthy not-for-profit organisation you co-founded with your wife and Bob Cox.

[42:04] RAY: Yes — co-founder. We don't go by titles, but yes.

[42:16] CHRIS: Where can people go to find out more about you and your adventures?

[42:30] RAY: Instagram is probably easiest these days — @rayzahab, R-A-Y-Z-A-H-A-B. From there you'll find a Linktree with links to all the other websites and projects.

[42:48] CHRIS: Brilliant — we'll get that in the show notes. Ray, it's been phenomenal. I really appreciate your time, and I look forward to seeing more of your expeditions. Thank you for joining us today.

[43:04] RAY: Thank you so much for having me. It's an honour.