Dr. Jean-Louis Ettienne Flying Over the Arctic

A long time ago I read an interview with Dr. Etienne, in which he--seated in his spartan Paris apartment, with a board over two sawhorses for a table--indicated that he was in life going to do exactly what he felt was important, and nothing else. I read in that interview a kind of conviction that I wanted to emulate, and over the years, have, to a degree...but there is yet a large leap to make.

Below, some words from the Doctor regarding his recent attempt to fly a Roziere balloon from Scandinavia to Alaska (it hasn't worked out that way--he is about to land in Siberia!):

"... was really given a battering in the snow storm. For 14hours I sailed...at low altitude...there were upcurrents and then columns of sinking air, which meant that the balloon rose very high up and then suddenly fell just as violently...the solar panels...smashed against the gondola. It was quite spectacular and exhausting."