Live It Up with Mountain Life

For much of his life, Michael Janyk was a professional alpine skier—a technical master banging gates on slalom and giant slalom courses around the world over a 14-year professional career that included three Olympic Games, one of them on his home turf in Whistler BC. And while saw some success (and knows what it’s like to stand on a world championship podium) Mike didn’t hit that childhood dream benchmark of Olympic gold, or "Best in the World." And while that is a common experience for nearly all athletes in every sport, not many share what that feels like from an athlete's perspective, and what keeps them going as they continue to grind it out and chase their passions. Mike shares his experiences in his first book Go to the Start: Life as a World Cup Ski Racer. Mountain Life editor Feet Banks sat down with him to learn more.

(Note: this episode contains occasional profanity and at one point discusses sexual abuse.)  

Professional adventurer, explorer and national best-selling author Adam Shoalts is an absolute beast of outdoor adventure. Making first descents down untamed rivers in the western Hudson Bay lowlands, crossing the Arctic by canoe or traveling by human power from southern Ontario to the Arctic, he’s done it all. Beginning as a newspaper columnist, he’s mapped rivers, led expeditions for the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, tracked endangered species, worked on archeological digs and so much more. With a Master's and a PhD his research combines an interest in nature, history, archaeology and geography. Adam sits down with Colin Field and explains why paddling upstream is a good idea.

Feet Banks hosts a little bit of inside baseball on the show today because our guest is moto-adventurer, stand-up paddleboarder, author and inventor Todd Lawson, who also happens to be one of the co-publishers of Mountain Life. Todd has visited over 80 countries, and most of the time he arrives by moto, usually with his partner Christina and, more recently, their daughter.  He's just released his first book, Inside the Belly of an Elephant: A motorcycle journey of loss, legacy, and ultimate freedom.

For today’s guest we have a guy who's spent a lifetime advocating for the environment. A legend in Canada’s paddling circles, Hap Wilson has created a life many of us would envy. 

Hap has been paddling Canadian rivers for decades. He stopped counting mileage at 60,000 kilometres when he realized the numbers were pointless. He’s mapped numerous rivers and wrote the essential guide to the Missinaibi and the rivers of the Ottawa Valley; these guidebooks are meticulous in their detail: hand-drawn maps of every set of rapids, indigenous history and shuttle scenarios complete the publications. They’re incredible books and if you’re paddling any of the rivers he has a guidebook for, do yourself a favour and buy his book. The internet has nothing on Hap Wilson.

He’s a writer, an artist, a trail builder and an owner of an eco-lodge. He’s a conservationist and explorer. But to me, he’s an inspiring guy who has questioned authority for decades and created a life of his own design. 

Host: Colin Field

Beat Steiner is a ski mountaineer pioneer with first descents on some of the South Coast Mountains' most iconic peaks (Tśzil & Nch'kay among them), but he's also a pioneer of early Canadian ski and snowboard filmmaking. He's the co-owner and CEO of Bella Coola Helisports, and even with all that pow to play with, Beat still happily gets 20+ days a year of early morning groomer speed laps. A skier's skier through and through, Beat sits down with Feet Banks to shoot the shit.

The two-year anniversary episode of Live it Up features Derek Bird, the founding editor of Fly Fusion (Canada’s dopest fly fishing magazine). Derek is also a TV personality, producer and the mastermind behind the International Fly Fishing Film Festival. He joins host Feet Banks to talk fish, media, publishing, hot influencers, Artificial Intelligence, journalistic method and more. Our longest episode ever!

As far as Canadian whitewater kayakers go, Benny Marr is one of its stars. According to Wikipedia, he received the National Geographic Adventurer of the year in 2013. Although as you’ll hear in our chat, he’s not really aware of that. He’s completed a one-day descent of the Stikine River in BC and has mounted expeditions to Papua New Guinea, the Congo, Chile, Zimbabwe and more. Films like Quality of Imagination, Locked In and the Grand Inga Project reveal some of the seriously incredible adventures he’s been a part of.

If you’re like me, whenever I watch whitewater kayakers one question always comes to mind: Is it actually any fun to drop off a 110-foot waterfall? Benny has the answer.

Host: Colin Field

Snowboarder Bryce Barnes joins Feet Banks to talk about the value of Sour Patch Kids on any mountain mission, growing up shredding in Maine, snowboarding in Morocco and what it’s like to be on the path to become the first ever Black person to get certified with the American Mountain Guides Association. Check Bryce's Instagram at @backcountrybryce

If you’ve seen mountain bike shots from Italy, ski shots from Switzerland or vice versa, you’ve probably seen Mattias’ work. In fact, if you’re listening to this podcast, it’s guaranteed you’ve seen some of his photos. He's probably got more cover shots than just about anyone on the planet. The guy lives, breathes and eats skiing, biking and simply getting outdoors. He regularly works with some of the top athletes and brands in the world and travels to some of the best locations to bike, ski, hike and generally take beautiful photos. Colin Field sits down with him to find out the secrets of his success. 

Whitewater guide, adventurer and author Tamar Glouberman writes with a bravery you don’t see enough of in a genre about people doing risky and brave things. Her latest book, Chasing Rivers: A Whitewater Life, is a vagabond adventure story that sees Tamar following her passion into most of North America's epic waterways, but the book is also about the places we travel inside ourselves—grief, loss, anxiety... as well as the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll side of mountain culture that so many other writers often glibly skip past.  Basically, she rules and she's badass and Feet Banks sits down with Tamar to find out why.