Ray Zahab

In the early 2000’s, Ray was an average guy : he worked, lived a sedentary life, and smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. He took actions in his hands and decided to change his lifestyle. On November 1st, 2006, Ray went on the biggest adventure of his life : run across the Sahara desert. After 111 days and 7,500 kilometers of hard work, he ends his trip with his two friends, Charlie Engle and Kevin Lin. He ran an average of 70 kilometres a day with no day to rest. Matt Damon directed a movie on his incredible accomplishment was called « Running The Sahara », with Ray as the principal actor. The goal of the movie was to raise money to help get drinkable water in North Africa.

In 2008, Ray created a foundation called Impossible2Possible, where he hopes to inspire and educate young people throughout their adventures and expeditions. During the following year, Ray Zahab, Kevin Valley, and Richard Weber shattered the world record for crossing the South Pole. In this trek, Ray and his team traveled for 1,100 kilometers by snow rackets between the Hercules Inlet route and the South Pole.

Recently, Ray made an expedition of 1,200 kilometers by fat bike to cross the Terre de Baffin with temperatures as low as -50 degrees Celsius. As soon as he got back from that trip, Ray and is team went on another expedition to Chili to mountain bike across de Atacama desert with temperatures reaching the 50 degrees Celsius. In addition to his adventurer life and his foundation, Ray is an amabassador for the youth. He is a real source of inspiration. He speaks to a lot of conferences all across the world to share his sotry. He even got invited to tell his story to TED conferences.

TED: My Trek to the South Pole
TEDx : Education, Inspiration, Empowerment : Ray Zahab