Delivering Adventure

How can we help people to succeed when they are faced with the challenges that come with adventure? In this episode, Sylvia Forest draws upon her experience to share some of the key strategies that have allowed her to help others to succeed.Sylvia has worked as a national park warden, mountain guide, guide trainer and examiner and is the current President of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides.Key TakeawaysSafe environment: Anyone in a leadership position can work to create an environment that is as physically safe as possible, free of judgment and harassment, and full of support.Involve people where you can:  Involving people in the decision making process can help to give them ownership over the experience.Create a team atmosphere: People want to feel like they belong. Involving people in the decision-making process, in leadership positions, and in tasks helps to create this.Accept that people won’t always like what you are doing: Despite your best actions and intentions, you can’t be all things to all people. Knowing when to listen, when to push back and when to tune it out, is a hallmark of a great leader.Guest Links & ResourcesAssociation of Canadian Mountain Guides: WebsiteGuardians of the Peaks by Kathy Calvert and Dave Portman: Available HereUnderstanding Group Formation: More Info HereFollow or SubscribeDon’t forget to follow the show!Share & Social Linkshttps://linktr.ee/deliveringadventure

Sylvia Forest joins us to explore her path into the adventure delivery industry from being a park warden to becoming an ACMG / IFMGA Mountain Guide. Sylvia shares some of her challenges, successes, and a few key pieces of wisdom that we can all learn from.In addition to guiding, Sylvia is a guide trainer and examiner and is also the current President of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides.Key TakeawaysHow to help yourself and others on the path to adventure includes:Knowing yourself: Figuring out what you want to do in life starts with knowing yourself and what you are capable of.Knowing your audience: it is hard to get the best out of people if you don’t know what they can do, their expectations, how they react under duress, and who they are as people.The first one is to learn to embrace failure: Failures help to make us more resilient. Avoid punishing people for mistakes: While some people thrive on constant critiquing, most people don’t perform at their best when they are forced to dwell on their missteps. Help others to find value in failure: Some strategies that we can use include: highlighting lessons learned, successful strategies that were used, processes and what could be done to get a better result in the future, are all ways of turning a negative experience into a valuable one. Another important component is to draw attention to what went right.Guest Links & ResourcesAssociation of Canadian Mountain Guides: WebsiteGuardians of the Peaks by Kathy Calvert and Dave Portman: Available HereFollow or SubscribeDon’t forget to follow the show!Share & Social Linkshttps://linktr.ee/deliveringadventure

What does it take to deliver adventure to ourselves? What are some of the key skills that great adventures possess? Angela Hawse joins Jordy and Chris to explore these questions and much more. Angela is an AMGA / IFMGA Mountain Guide who has travelled and guided extensively. Some of her many accomplishments include guiding trips in the Himalaya, Karakoram, the Caucasus, Andes, Alaska, Norway, and Antarctica. In this episode, Angela talks about her recent adventures and what it took to achieve them.Key TakeawaysNavigation: To experience adventure, we have to be able to find our way both literally and figuratively. Prepare: Being prepared can mean spending more time practicing, developing skills, planning, and researching.Adaptable: To become adaptable we need to be flexible, we need to be open to changing our expectations, we have to be creative and solution oriented. Adventure is for everyone: Adventure is something that anyone can experience. We can tell you that with the right instruction, coaching, encouragement, and mindset, anyone can push their limits and achieve adventure that they believe are beyond their abilities.Guest Links & ResourcesAngela’s Instagram @alpinist007IRIS: https://irisalpine.com/about/guides/Partner PodcastThe Avalanche Hour: https://www.theavalanchehour.comFollow or SubscribeDon’t forget to follow the show!Share & Social Linkshttps://linktr.ee/deliveringadventure

How do you create adventure? We continue to explore this question with snowmobile guide, avalanche educator, entrepreneur, and adventure innovator Curtis Pawliuk. In part 2, Curtis talks about creating North America’s first snowmobile assisted ski area, Crystal Ridge. He also touches on how he started his snowmobile instructional services company Frozen Pirate as well as his involvement in creating a snowmobile guide association. Curtis is based in Valemount, British Columbia.Key TakeawaysBe Collaborative: Being willing to work with all groups and being respectful of all stakeholders is a far more sustainable approach than going it alone.Be Creative: Every adventure experience has evolved into what it is now, over time. Creating adventure can require us to think outside the box and to try new things and ways of doing them.Be Structured: This involves creating a plan, and therefore you will need a process to develop that plan. Using the snowmobile guiding association as an example they have a plan, and are enacting that plan in an organized wayPresentation Skills: Creating anything requires that you be good at influencing people in a positive way. Guest Links & ResourcesValemount Mountain Biking: https://ridevalemount.com/mountain-biking/VARDA: https://ridevalemount.com/Frozen Pirate: https://linktr.ee/frozenpirateInstagram: @frozenpirateChris’s Book: Power to Influence: how to get the best out of yourself and others – available at Amazon HereFollow or SubscribeDon’t forget to follow and share the show!Share & Social Linkshttps://linktr.ee/deliveringadventure

In this episode, Curtis Pawliuk joins Chris and Jordy to talk about how he has helped to create adventure through the development of a mountain bike park in Valemount, BC. Curtis Pawliuk is the Executive Director of the Valemount and Area Recreation Development Association (VARDA). Curtis shares some of the challenges and successes that VARDA has had developing the Valemount trail system. He also touches on its impacts on the local economy and what other communities could learn.Key TakeawaysThink big: It’s okay to dream, in fact we need to. This helps us to keep ourselves and others motivated to keep going.Creating adventure facilities takes resources: It takes time, money, support, and energy. Curtis mentioned the STP Committees– the same ten people that are always working on driving an organization forward. You need to find the people who can spend time to build whatever you are creating.Build what people want: If you want to be successful at creating adventure, you have to build experiences that people want. This can be different than the experiences that you might want to deliver.Guest Links & ResourcesValemount Mountain Biking: https://ridevalemount.com/mountain-biking/VARDA: https://ridevalemount.com/Frozen Pirate: https://linktr.ee/frozenpirateInstagram: @frozenpirateFollow or SubscribeDon’t forget to follow and share the show!Share & Social Linkshttps://linktr.ee/deliveringadventure

What are some of the key strategies to managing risk while we are leading adventure and delivering it to ourselves? Grant Statham is back to continue this discussion with Jordy and Chris. Grant taps into his experience as a well respected thought leader on mountain risk and understanding. Grant is an ACMG / IFMGA mountain Guide, Parks Canada Visitor Safety Specialist, avalanche forecaster and a risk consultant.Key TakeawaysList of options: A good decision is one where we pick the best option. Identifying all of the options beforehand, is a crucial step to making good decisions.Understanding intuition: If you get a feeling that you should increase the risk, you need to be able to justify your decision to do so, with hard facts.Avoiding overconfidence: Beware the expert opinion; often wrong, but rarely in doubt. We often think that we know more than we do, but we rarely want to admit this.We can reduce our risk with knowledge: The more information we have, the easier it is to pick the best option.Build yourself a buffer: Building in a bigger margin of error can protect us from mistakes, or simply misjudging a situation.Slow down: Slowing down gives us more time to process the information coming at us.Guest Links & ResourcesInstagram: @stathamgrantTed talk on Risk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGZu5Lzgv1AThinking in Risk: https://thepowdercloud.com/learn/avalanche-education/thinking-in-risk/Avalanche Canada Ice Climbing Avalanche Atlas: https://www.avalanche.ca/resources/ice-climbing/atlasFollow or SubscribeDon’t forget to follow or share the show!Share & Social Linkshttps://linktr.ee/deliveringadventure

Risk is an essential part of any adventure experience, but what is risk and what does it mean to manage it? In this episode, ACMG / IFMGA Mountain guide Grant Statham joins Chris and Jordy to explore the topic of managing risk. Grant currently works for Parks Canada as a visitor safety specialist doing mountain. Rescue and avalanche forecasting. He also works as a risk consultant, and as a mountain guide.Key TakeawaysA risk is a chance: When we take risks, we have a chance of losing something, but we also have a chance of gaining something. The uncertainty of not knowing which will happen is the risk.Not taking a risk, comes with risk: It is impossible to live a life without risk. Not taking risks comes with a danger of missing out.You can’t have adventure without taking risks: Challenge, adversity and risk taking are essential components of any adventure experience.Have a process that helps guide you in your risk taking: This can be a decision-making tool, framework, philosophy or a list. The process that we use to make decisions will increase your chances of having a positive outcome.Reserve your decision until you have as much information as possible: Waiting until you have to make a decision keeps your options open. This means that if new information becomes available, you haven’t committed yourself to a course of action that may be hard to reverse.Guest Links & ResourcesInstagram: @stathamgrantTed talk on Risk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGZu5Lzgv1AThinking in Risk: https://thepowdercloud.com/learn/avalanche-education/thinking-in-risk/Avalanche Canada Ice Climbing Avalanche Atlas: https://www.avalanche.ca/resources/ice-climbing/atlasGordon Graham: VideoFollow or SubscribeDon’t forget to follow and share the show!Share & Social Linkshttps://linktr.ee/deliveringadventure

In this episode, we continue speaking with Peter Weiland on how we can help people to embrace adversity. Peter reveals some of his biggest challenges owning a bike tour company, some of the pressures of raising kids in a mountain resort town, his philosophy to coaching kids to play soccer, and the secrets to how to help people to push their limits.Peter is a former semi-pro adventure racer, former owner of Rocky Mountain Cycle Tours and currently manages a youth soccer program. Peter is also a ski instructor at Whistler Blackcomb.Key TakeawaysThe value of having a sense of humor: Having a sense of humor can really help us to power through difficult moments.Getting people through adversity can involve setting small milestones: Nothing builds confidence like success and sometimes people need small successes. This applies to finishing long journeys and learning new skills.Kids and not pushing them:. Everyone has a limit, for kids that limit is lower. Just because someone can do something doesn’t mean they will enjoy it. Just because they can finish something doesn’t mean they will want to do it againJust Recognizing the value of adversity and communicating it: Sometimes, just letting people know that what they are doing is hard - while reminding them that it will be worth it - can be enough to help them to keep going.Guest LinkYou can find Rocky Mountain Cycle Tours here: https://rockymountaincycle.com/Follow or SubscribeLiked the show? Remember to follow or subscribe!Share & Social Linkshttps://linktr.ee/deliveringadventure

Peter Weiland shares his perspective on why we need adversity and what takes to overcome it. Peter is a former semi-pro adventure racer, former owner of Rocky Mountain Cycle Tours and currently manages a youth soccer program. Using stories from some of his most epic moments, Peter reveals what it takes to power through adversity both for ourselves and how to help others.Key TakeawaysYou don’t have to go far to test yourself: Adventure can be close to home.Starting people off with a little bit of adversity is better than too much: When exposing people to challenge, danger, and discomfort, start slowly and build up, instead of diving straight into the deep end. This is especially important when people have lower risk tolerance and resiliency.It is often easier to increase adversity than it is to dial it down: It is easier to go faster, harder, farther, and to increase the complexity than it is slow things down.Follow or SubscribeLiked the show? Remember to follow or subscribe!Share & Social Linkshttps://linktr.ee/deliveringadventure

Bruce Wilson, a master guide and educator, shares his expertise in creating impactful outdoor experiences. He defines what it means to be a guide, stressing the importance of mindset and empathy. Bruce emphasizes that confidence, coupled with humility, is crucial for guiding effectively. He also discusses the evolution of guiding as a personal journey, highlighting the balance between leadership and allowing autonomy in others. Plus, he reveals how inner wilderness adventures can spark personal growth and resilience in daily life.