MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Fall Winter 2019

24 “ I also like the idea of humans living in space, being able to extract resources from asteroids or space and sending those resources back to Earth.” –Dave Hodge For this expedition, Hodge, a photographer and musician with a history of oceanic adventure (sailing and diving), carrying the Explorers Club flag was an incredible honour. “I had flag number 60, which has been all over the world since 1935. There are 222 flags in service; some of them get retired because they get tattered over the years. On the wall at the Explorers Club there is a flag that’s been to the top of Everest twice (elevation 8,848m/2,009ft), as well as to the bottom of the Mariana Trench (10,994m/36,070ft below sea level). There’s another flag from the Apollo 13 mission to the moon. It’s displayed still in its packaging along with a letter from James Lowell apologizing that they didn’t get a chance to unpack that flag because they were too busy trying to stay alive.” Hodge spent a lot of time in Whistler in the early 1990s touring with the band One . In 1993, he spent a year there biking and snowboarding. “With One , we’d come to town and do shows for a week,” he recalls. “Those were wild times. I remember the last party ever at the Buffalo Bill’s band house, a true house-wrecker and the manager of Bills’s was right there with us. Someone stuck the coffee table through the drywall, people were throwing dressers through the windows, it was chaos. 6810 Beaver Lane—I still remember the address.” These days, Hodge is still making music and scoring and narrating films, but he’s also rediscovered his passion for photography, conservation and exploration. He’s been involved in noteworthy shark research expeditions and has experience in theArctic, both above and below the ice. Space, he thinks, has more potential than people think. “As I learn more about it, space exploration can help conservation here on Earth,” he says. “People think it’s all about trying to get somewhere out in space, but all the satellites up there are helping conservation and science, from tracking weather patterns to helping predict environmental sensitivities to allowing people to communicate from the middle of nowhere.” Even after the success of the MS1 mission, Hodge believes space exploration is about more than trying to get to Mars. “All the tech and gear and vessels being developed for space can also help move things forward here on Earth. For sure, I think some of those billions being spent could be diverted to coming up with solutions to our problems right here and now, but I also like the idea of humans living in space, being able to extract resources from asteroids or space and sending those resources back to Earth. Instead of continuing to take from this planet, we could give, and take some of the pressure off the earth. It’s a deep argument and a long way off, but there’s some validity there.” To see more photos from the Mars Suit 1 mission check ou t unexploredmedia.com and Dave’s Instagram @davehodgephoto Geologist Helga Kristín displays Explorers Club Flag #60, which has been accompanying expeditions since 1935. Developed in 1979 by Inmarsat for communication while at sea, the satellite phone uses a series of satellites in geostationary orbits to cover most of the globe.