Darcy Gaechter: Overcoming Obstacles to "Do the Undoable"

In this video, Darcy Gaechter, the first woman to kayak the Amazon River from source to sea, shares how she overcame obstacles to "do the undoable." We all face challenges that we think are insurmountable. According to Darcy, we must start with an unwavering belief that we can do it, no matter what anyone else says. Throughout Darcy's entire life, people have told her she can't do the things she likes to because she's too little, too short, or a woman. But she never let this commentary stop her.

An adventurer, record-setter, and boundary-breaker, Darcy Gaechter is best known as the first woman to kayak the Amazon River from source to sea. Her three-person team also became the first team to kayak the entire river, where all previous expeditions had either hiked around or rafted portions of the whitewater in the Amazon River’s headwaters. The journey required her crew to paddle over 4,000 miles across the widest part of South America, a voyage that took 148 days to complete. The successful traverse of the entire Amazonian watershed relied on Gaechter’s team’s ability to balance many factors: physical endurance, an ability to work with the locals to assuage their fears of outsiders, patience for interpersonal conflicts arising from three people spending every waking moment together for five months, and a mental toughness that allowed no room for quitting to be an option. Without a doubt, the Amazon was as much an intellectual and emotional undertaking as it was a physical challenge.