Live it Up with Mountain Life

They call Jazmine Lowther "the Gazelle." Not because she grazes on grasslands and can grow antlers out of her head, but because she's very fast and nimble. An all-round mountain athlete and member of the North Face team, Jazmine has recently been turning heads as an elite ultra runner, competing amongst the world's best on 50km to 100 km courses around the globe. She also writes about endurance training, nutrition, women’s health, motivation, and more. jazminelowther.comHost: Feet Banks

Feet connects with Stan Rey, a master of the goggle tan and one of the most personable professional freeskiers in the game. Always ready to joke around for videos and happy to share the stoke or his knowledge with anyone who needs it, Stan is a natural born backflipper who grew up mostly in Whistler and has raced gates, raced ski cross, and raced into the hearts of freeski fans around the world with his charm, skills, and his philosophy of putting fun first.  PARENTAL ADVISORY: 3 naught words in this one. Links discussed in this episode: WB Magnetic movie,  the Enemy Lines race, and Stan's Youtube channel. 

Today's guest is legendary skier Greg Hill. Back in 2010 he was all over ski media; he climbed and skied two million vertical feet, climbing 71 mountains in both North America and South America over 266 days of ski-touring. He was the first North American to climb and ski 40,000 vertical feet in 24 hours and he even set a world record of 50,000 in 24 hours. Simply put, the man is a machine.Since those accomplishments he's dedicated much of his effort into being a better human being from a carbon footprint perspective. His film Electric Greg followed his attempt to ski 100 peaks without burning any fossil fuels.Today Greg is mostly snowboarding (always up for new challenges) and is continuing to promote a more environmental approach in the mountains.We talk about his beginnings in the ski world and where he's going in the future. Host: Colin Field.

Mercedes Nicoll has competed in 4 winter Olympics for women’s halfpipe, and seven world championships. She’s been the Canadian National Champ five times, has 8 world cup podiums, and is a shining example of what it means to love to competition and camaraderie of sport. These days she’s a coach, a writer, a public speaker, an organizer of fun, and host of the podcast Dropping In with Mercedes Nicoll… ALSO... I once saw Shania Twain pause in between songs at stadium show in Vancouver and get the entire audience on their feet as she gave Mercedes a shout out. That kind of street cred is hard to beat.  WARNING: A couple bad words in this one. Mercedesnicoll.com

Katie Burrell is a comedian, writer, director, actress, and creator of numerous online videos and skits such as  Influencer, Dream Job, Still Solo, Toxic Mountain Bike Girlfriend, and more. She's one of the most recognizable figures in the ski community and has broken new ground with using comedy to poke fun at, and invite people into, the sports we love. Katie’s first Feature Film, Weak Layers, opens in theatres across Canada tomorrow and she’s here talking about betting on herself and her ideas to make the leap from ski scene celebrity to the hallowed grounds of Hollywood and beyond.  Host: Feet Banks(Note: This episode contains profanity.)  www.katieburrelltv.com

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 athelete's perspective, and what keeps them going as they continue to grind it out and chase their passions. Mike does though, in 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.)  

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 alongside and, more recently, with 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 that’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 guide books are meticulous in their detail; hand drawn maps of every set of rapids, indigeinous history and shuttle scenarios complete the pulbications. 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 inspring guy who has questioned authority for decades and created a life of his own design. 

Beat Steiner is a ski mountaineer pioneer with first descents on some of the South Coast Mountain's 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, 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 done 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? Ben has the answer. 

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’s 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 best 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 Globerman writes with a bravery you don’t see enough of in a literary 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 rocknroll 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.

This week, Colin talks to SUP adventurer, photographer and filmmaker Scott Parent.  Back before people were doing SUP crossings, Parent paddled across Georgian Bay; something no one had done before.  It took 18 hours from stepping off land until he stepped back on land. No one has repeated that feat. He's continued to do incredible things. From his winter crossing of Georgian Bay in 2016 to his 500 kilometre SUP trip in which his then 9-year-old daughter joined him on front of the board, the homegrown adventures continue. As a photographer and film maker, he's a passionate defender of Georgian Bay and the Great Lakes. He says he'll continue to, "show up for the Bay, to serve it and protect it, in any way that I can."

Award-winning filmmaker Lara Shea isn't afraid to tackle some of the rawest human emotions and situations imaginable in her work and shine a bit of light into the darker corners of the outdoor culture. Feet Banks catches up with Lara just days before her second short documentary "Star in the Sky" premieres in her hometown of Revelstoke, BC. larashea.com

This week, Colin talks to Mario Rigby, a self-described explorer who simply comes up with an idea and goes for it. Whether he knows how to do it or not.Mario walked the length of Africa from south to north in 2015. He kayaked the entire length of Lake Ontario in 2020. He drove an electric car across Canada in 2022.He’s not doing these things the fastest. He’s not the first to do them, nor does he pick the most difficult route, but as a Black explorer in the outdoor space, Mario’s adventures are getting attention. A member of the Explorer’s Club and afellow at the Royal Canadian Geographic Society, Mario’s passion is to have BIPOC representation in the outdoors—while also advocating for the environment. Real change is not always easy but Mario’s resilience, patience, and determination make him the perfect person for the job.  Learn more on Mario's website.

A reformed couch potato, Adam Hart is the author of a book called The Power of Food—100 Essential recipes for Abundant Health and Happiness, but these days he puts most of his focus into helping people—mostly busy parents— find the flow, break bad habits, kick unhealthy behaviours, and overcome their sandbag-y mindsets in order to enhance the quality of life for themselves and their loved ones. Check out his site clearimpact.io 

OG Mountain Lifer Colin Field hosts this episode of "Live it Up" and he connects with Kari Medig, a photographer and adventurer whose images of skiing, mountain biking and exploring have graced the pages of outdoor magazines around the globe; including Mountain Life. Known for capturing the ski culture in the least likely of places, his images of skiers in India, Israel and the UK have produced some of his most memorable work. He captures portraits of jean-clad skiers on the slopes of Africa that somehow get you more stoked to go skiing than an epic, waist-deep image from Japan. Check out some of his work at karimedigphoto.com.

Avis is an indigenous weaver, teacher, dancer, singer and a Land- Based Cultural Empowerment Facilitator who comes from a family of notable snowboarders. Her Kwakwaka'wakw name N’alaga translates to "woman of light", or "bringer of light”, and that is exactly what she does through her work, which includes introducing indigenous people to their traditional arts, land, and culture through workshops that focus on topics like suicide prevention, addiction, and helping heal some of the inter-generational trauma that comes from centuries of genocide and colonization.  Learn more about avis at her N'alaga Consulting page.