The Stokecast

How do you get to the point in your life where you even consider climbing up and then standing on skis looking down a 7,000-foot 50-degree couloir that drops off the 27,940-foot summit of the fourth highest mountain in the world, Lhoste?

We chat about that first descent, the lifelong pursuit of passion and both physical and mental persistence that it took to get there, and much more including balancing motherhood and family life with high-risk outdoor pursuits, and designing a career as an adventure athlete, with The North Face athlete team captain, Hilaree Nelson.

She is the first woman to climb two 8,000m peaks in 24 hours (Everest and Lhotse). She's also the first person to ski off the summit of Lhotse. Additionally, she’s skied from the Himalayan summit of Cho Oyu climbed and skied several high peaks in Bolivia and Argentina.

Elsewhere, Hilaree has cut turns on remote volcanoes in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Lebanon, as well as many first descents in the tight couloirs of Baffin Island.

Enjoy this incredible interview with adventurer, big mountain skier, speaker, and mother, Hilaree Nelson.

For the show notes, visit: https://exploreinspired.com/hilaree-nelson

On episode 27 of The Stokecast, founder of Flash Foxy and the Women's Climbing Festival, co-founder of the Never Not Collective production company, climber and Access Fund board member, Shelma Jun.

In our conversation with Shelma, we dig into the contrasting balance of a life in pursuit of wild adventures with a home base in the big city, how an urban planner became an outdoor community builder, and how to recognize when your unique snowball of opportunity and experience has grown big enough to build a dream on.

Plus, the difference between being physically present and mentally present, and Shelma's thoughts around gender equity in the outdoor industry, its current trend and its future.

For more from this episode, visit: https://exploreinspired.com/shelma-jun

Vuori Clothing founder, Joe Kudla, shines light on the personal story behind the epic rise of one of today's fastest growing athleisure apparel brands.

For the show notes from this episode and your Vuori Stokecast coupon, visit: https://exploreinspired.com/joe-kudla

On episode 24 of The Stokecast, Ladies AllRide Founder and Survivor survivor, Lindsey Richter, joins us to chat about how to overcome your fear-based mindset and learning to change the thoughts that just don't serve you.

On this episode:

- "No bad weather, just bad gear"

- Why where Lindsey grew up helped nurture her tolerance for suffering (6:30)

- Learning how to choose your attitude and create your own sunshine (11:00)

- Why Lindsey took to mountain biking as a way to get her fitness back (14:00)

- Surviving "Survivor" and the reality TV fallout (15:30)

- Coping with all the faces of fame (27:00)

- The difference between physical and emotional pain and how to deal with both (32:00)

- How sport helps humans change thoughts that don't serve them (38:00)

- Why Emily is afraid of mountain biking (41:00)

- Lindsey's inspirations for founding Ladies All Ride camps (42:00)

- What STOKE means to Lindsey (56:00)

For the show notes from this episode, visit: https://exploreinspired.com/lindsey-richter

Professional climber, skier, reader and tale-teller, "human being in process," Sam Elias takes to The Stokecast to chat with Emily and Jonathan about soulful pursuits of mind and body, nurturing your life's narrative, finding family, and trusting how you feel inside.

On this episode:

- Life as an athlete and body breakdowns (6:30)

- Selfishness vs Selflessness (8:20)

- When to put in the work and when to let it ride (11:15)

- What can happen once you develop a wisdom about yourself (17:00)

- Float spas, sensory deprivation, and Get Out (21:45)

- How climbing transformed Sam's life (24:00)

- Sam's relationship with his real family, his climbing family, and the gap between (25:40)

- The path to becoming a professional climber, via collecting outdoor industry work experience while building skillsets and a network (28:30)

- Advertising and selling yourself

- the behind the scenes work of an athlete (38:45)

- Rooted: Climbing Lebanon

- Sam's exploratory documentary connecting family, the middle east, and climbing (44:00)

- Sam's top book recommendation (54:00)

For the links mentioned in this episode, visit the show notes page at https://exploreinspired.com/sam-elias

What is a food forest? You'll have to listen to find out!

On this episode of The Stokecast, Emily and Jonathan chat with adventure photographer, writer, farmer, conservationist, and National Geographic Explorer, Becca Skinner.

For Becca's take on permaculture and sustainable ranching, her experience of building a career as photographer and storyteller, her top tips for car camping/living (learned from 32,000 miles on the road with her pup and a camera!), and her feelings about business, busyness, and balance, dive in!

For the show notes from this episode, visit: https://exploreinspired.com/becca-skinner

Kit Deslauriers is a Jackson-hole based ski mountaineer, the first person in the world to ski off the top of the highest mountain on each of the seven continents (famed Seven Summits), an author, speaker, activist, and mother. That's quite the impressive resumé and we were honored to chat with Kit for episode 21 of The Stokecast!

For the show notes: https://exploreinspired.com/kit-deslauriers

In episode 20 of The Stokecast, Emily and Jonathan recap the joys and pains of their recent experience running the Trapp Lodge Mountain Marathon in Stowe, Vermont. After, they have a deep conversation about building businesses with social impact with Cotopaxi Founder and CEO, Davis Smith.

Also on the show, learn:

14:32 - How Davis runs his business AND his family by defining values and building an organizational culture

16:00 - When and why Davis learned to embrace his entrepreneurial spirit

18:45 - How Davis started and scaled his first business, going digitally native and selling pool tables online

24:20 - Why you shouldn't hire your closest friends first or at all

29:35 - How to identify ideas that are going to work and stick with it

34:38 - How to compete in a crowded market

41:14 - Why he started an adventure race series called Questival and hired two llamas off Craigslist to launch Cotopaxi

49:31 - How Cotopaxi is empowering creativity within their manufacturing facility in the Philippines

53:55 - What is a Benefit Corporation and how does it work?

56:33 - The benefits of bootstrapping vs. raising capital

58:29 - Davis' work to promote gender equality with GirlUp and Women's Leadership Institute

1:05:00 - How he balances professional and personal life by managing both like a business

1:11:06 - What Cotopaxi is doing to aid the refugee crisis and one incredible story of the impact made

For the show notes from this episode, visit: https://exploreinspired.com/davis-smith

Tim Burke was an airport operations manager at Boeing Field in Washington, overseeing the safety of everything happening on the airfield. He loved his job and he had worked so hard to get there.

So why then did he walk away from everything stable and certain to pursue the roads of the world with his camera and a motorcycle?

In episode 19 of The Stokecast, we chat with Tim Burke about:

- His decision to leave his job and start living on the road

- What place, after nearly 2 years of travel, has left the biggest mark on his soul

- The realities of life and travel without deadlines or destinations

- How he makes money on the road and is building his business as a photographer and journalist

- Brand relationships and competing on social media

- Why you don't need the best gear to take the best photos (and Tim shares his sketchy shooting setup)

- The struggle to return home after long-term travel and connect or find common ground with anybody at home who can't relate to your experiences

- Why you just need to send it and figure it out!

For more on this episode and ways to connect with Tim, visit: https://exploreinspired.com/tim-burke