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Legendary Canadian alpinist Barry Blanchard just dropped his second book of climbing tales: The Echo – Stories From The Edge Of Survival. Recounting the second half of a lifetime of adventures, big expeditions, gnarly solo missions, and that time he had to rig a safety line to Sylvester Stallone's ankle (and messed it up the first time!). Host Feet Banks connects with a true legend of the mountains and our first "Order of Canada" award-winning guest. Get more info on the book and tour here, and be warned: Feet and Barry drop a couple F-bombs in this episode (Feet also mispronounces the world "palpable" in the intro!!) Parental discretion is advised.

Ray Zahab does the kinds of adventures few other people would ever want to do: A 7500 km traverse of the Sahara Desert, a -40 degree winter stroll across Ellesmere Island, Death Valley, the Gobi Desert, the South Pole, Patagonia, Kamchatka, etc. etc. But Ray’s real passion is connecting youth to the sorts of amazing places and people he has met throughout these adventures though his charity impossible2Possible. Host Feet Banks catches Ray during some downtime at his home in Quebec to dig into what drives over three decades of huge, ultra adventure. rayzahab.com

2025 Canadian Geographic Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Maxime Légaré-Vézina is based out of Quebec city and has been shooting photos of wildlife since about 2014, and full time since 2022. Sometimes he sits in the weather all day and waits for the perfect shot, sometimes a grizzly bear charges him. We dig into  all the Max's favourite animals, and what kind of mindframe and work it takes to capture them in their natural elements. Check his website to see his beautiful work!

Host Feet Banks kicks off season six of Live it Up with Mountain Life by speaking to his favourite snowboarder and medieval sword enthusiast, Jess Kimura. A celebrated badass street rider, Jess is a fearless force of positive change for her sport, founding both The Uninvited video series and The Uninvited Invitational all-women's shred comp. She stops by in person to talk about that, firewood BTUs and, of course, animal memes. (Warning: a few profane words in this episode. It's chill though)

Nicholas Thompson is an author and a journalist, a musician, and one of the smartest people we know. But before and beyond that, Nick is a runner.  Marathons, ultramarathons, cross country, ripping around a park with a kid, running to work, rain, fog, sleet, hail. Nick is ready to hit the trail. And he has new book out called The Running Ground: A Father, A Son, and the Simplest of Sports. Host Feet Banks digs into that, writing, Nick's secret to productivity and more! nickthompson.com

Veronica Woodruff is an outdoor recreationalist and an environmental scientist. She's spend more than half her life living in the mountains of BC, and her latest book, Blind Drunk: A Sober Look at Our Boozy Culture examines the unique role alcohol plays, not only in mountain culture and ski town, but in western society at large. A mix of pertinent personal anecdotes and memoir with well-researched studies and history, Blind Drunk walks the fine line of introspection and engagement without stumbling into judgment or shame. blinddrunk.ca

Taylor Godber is a professional big mountain snowboarder on the North Face team. She’s also a chef, an artist, a writer, a lover of dogs, surfer, adventurer, picnic-er, and a very kind soul.  Taye was the founding editor of Mountain Life: Below Zero our annual winter publication that Covid shut down. Nowadays we see her in the pages of Mountain Life shredding steep, exposed lines on dream trips into crazy zones throughout the Coast Mountains. Feet Banks catches up with day just as winter is (finally) starting to arrive in Whistler. Check out Taye's Instagram.

A true adventurer, Matt is a climber, surfer, paddler, and mad-genius tinkerer/inventor/self-taught engineer who's company Sea to Sky Cable Cam has helped him travel the world to help capture top adventure and nature stories. To mix it up, this month we also have climber/Mountain Lifer Trevor McDonald in the studio joining the conversation to chime in with his own insights and questions. This is our longest pod yet, let's go! Check out Matt's website to dig deeper. .

Ben Poechman is a snowboarder and an artist and a true-grit farm kid who finds a way to make things happen with the resources he's got. As summer winds down and we start looking at the pow days to come, Ben chimes in with his story, his ideas, and some good advice on what to do when all you have to ride is a crappy ditch in the middle of the country. Watch Ben in the North Face flick Halation if you wanna see him shred before listening to this pod, or look at his artwork on Soulboarder.ca Warning: This pod has a few instances of profanity.

Spencer Seabrooke is an airtime master, a highliner, base jumper, a snowboarder, climber, mountaineer, jindle boarder and all-around adventure seeking kinda dude. And he knows a lot about airtime. In 2016 he was featured in the highlining documentary "Untethered" walking a then-world record highline in Squamish BC with no safety tether. He's also known as a co-founder of SlacklifeBC, Canada's best slack line community/shop, and has a bonkers-awesome instagram feed you definitely want to check out. Host: Feet Banks

Sonnie Trotter is a climber and an author. Raised in Ontario, he started climbing as a teenager and never looked back. Over the past 25+ years Sonnie has pioneered some of the hardest routes in Canada and been on big walls all over the world with other icons of the sport. He's climbed competitively, professionally, and has also spent months on the road travelling and climbing with his wife and kids. And throughout it all, he never lost that love and that drive that fueled him as a teenager. HIs new memoir is called Uplifted: Evolution of a Climbing Life, and it is on shelves now.

Stephan Kesting is on the show today. He’s an adventurer and an author (and a jui jitsu master and a firefighter) who recently paddled a canoe over 1600 km through some of the most bug infested terrain in Northern Canada...alone, on a single, transplanted kidney. And it took him 41 days, which is pretty wild considering a whole lot of the journey was paddling upstream. Stephan talks about the risks of complacency, the will to carry on, and what it's like to really stare down your own mortality. His new book about the journey (and more) is called Perseverance: Life and Death in the Subarctic and it's a doozy!! Learn more about Stephan on his martial arts website too. (Warning: this episode contains a few cuss words.)

Jody MacDonald has sailed around the world twice but says she got seasick almost every day for ten years. She’s also visited over 100 countries and creates incredible, award winning photographs everywhere she goes. To celebrate International Women's Day, host Feet Banks gets the honour of connecting with Jody as she motorcycles through the Himalaya to discuss ditching the office job, leaning into your passion, and the value of insignificance in the face of nature's most vast spaces. Find Jody's work on her Instagram @jodymacdonaldphoto and hit up her website for stunning prints of her work.

Darren Rayner grew up making fun little movies and shred edits with his buddies and, when he was still in college, co-founded Voleurz, a badass, grassroots Canadian clothing company that also made films and generally helped push mountain culture down a more creative path. As time went by, Darren pivoted a bit and founded Magnafire Media, a Vancouver-based creative studio and production facility that creates videos for brands that want to stand out and get noticed. NOTE: there are a couple of cuss words in this Pod, be warned. As well, a video of the conversation is available on the Mountain Life YouTube.

Happy Holidays! We’re re-gifting this episode. Well, not really. It’s a brand new episode but, for the first time ever, we are having a guest back on the pod for round two.  Frank Wolf is on the show today. It’s the Re-Wolf. Writing his own epitaph on a freezing trip in the Arctic, Frank says, “Frank was a somewhat notable person who wrote some things and made a few strange and mediocre films about esoteric outdoor subjects.”  Which is not wrong, but there's more to this adventurer than that. Host Feet Banks digs in to talk about the new book, not needing toilet paper, canoe-trip tricks, and more. www.fwolf.ca