Penning your own bio is not an easy task. You come across either as self-obsessed or a manic list-writer. Rather than tackling the job myself, I asked my friends at Gesso Communications to take a stab at it. This is what they came up with:

About Bruce

In 1991, after graduating university and spending only six months in a boring engineering job, Bruce ditched the nine-to-five life, packed his rusty pickup, and headed west in search of adventure.

He has been going full tilt ever since.

The journeys that followed have taken him to every corner of the planet, from Everest to Arabia, Ethiopia’s Blue Nile Gorge to the rivers of the Arctic. Bruce has ridden horses across Mongolia and camels across Arabia’s legendary Empty Quarter, the world’s largest sand desert. He has crossed Iceland by foot, explored the remote eastern coast of Greenland by sea kayak, been taken hostage by bandits, attacked by crocodiles, and chased through the remote Mergui Archipelago by Myanmar’s army.

What sets Bruce apart is his ability to share these journeys with others as a professional photographer, writer and speaker. Bruce’s takes his audience places they normally would never go, sharing his interest in landscape and cultures, revealing the challenges and joys of life on the road.

Enthusiasm and excitement are Bruce’s trademarks, and they come across in everything he does. Just ask anyone who has met him.  His optimistic, down-to-earth approach is what allows him to embrace the road less traveled, with all its ups-and-downs.

After leaving his office job in 1991, Bruce began his adventure career as a raft and wilderness guide. This was followed quickly by sea kayaking expeditions on British Columbia’s west coast, exploratory descents of Guatemalan rivers, and kayaking/snorkeling trips through the cayes of Belize’s Great Barrier Reef.

Next came mountaineering, climbing throughout Canada and around the world, twice reaching the summit of Mt. McKinley (North America's highest summit), and joining a 1997 Canadian expedition to Mt. Everest.

Along the way, Bruce discovered his knack for photography. In 1997, MacLean’s printed several of his Mt. Everest photographs as part of a cover story. Since then, his shots have appeared in American Photo Magazine, Men’s Fitness, Outside and Explore. National Geographic selected one of his images as a “Top Adventure Photograph of the Decade."

And then there was the desert. In 1998, Bruce and two partners, Jamie and Leigh Clarke, began planning to cross Arabia’s Empty Quarter, a journey that had only been done once before, 50 years earlier. A year later, on March 12, 1999, the tired and dusty team of three Canadians, three Bedouin, and 12 camels completed a traverse of the Arabian Peninsula.

Upon returning home from Arabia, Bruce decided to try his hand at writing. His account of the journey, “Sand Dance, By Camel Across Arabia’s Great Southern Desert" (McClelland and Stewart, 2000) spent 14 weeks on the national bestseller list. In the years that followed Bruce acted as Editor-at-Large for Outpost Magazine and monthly columnist for Up! (West Jet’s Inflight magazine). Currently he is a Contributing Editor with Explore. His second book, “The Dolphin’s Tooth; A Decade in Search of Adventure" was also a bestseller. Bruce has also received four National Magazine Writing Nominations for his work.

Today, Bruce remains in the field, with journeys to Tibet, Bhutan, Iceland, the Galapagos Islands, Greenland, Borneo, Myanmar, Bali, Sikkim, China, Hong Kong, Ecuador, and Mongolia. He is now taking his adventurous spirit and fun loving ways to television as the Canadian guide on CBC’s “No Opportunity Wasted."

While not in the field, Bruce lives in Kimberley, British Columbia, where he manages to spend at least half his day outdoors.