When it comes to delivering adventure, you will only go as far as your body allows. The challenge for many of us is that in our quest for adventure we can neglect our own self care.

When this happens our performance can decline, our decision-making abilities can be compromised, and we are more prone to making mistakes that can lead to misadventure. This makes the ability to effectively manage self care an essential adventure skill.

One person that knows this all too well is Sarah Janin. Sarah is a type 1 insulin dependent diabetic who guides split boarding, skiing, rock and alpine climbing. Sarah is on the final leg of working towards becoming the first IFMGA certified Mountain Guide who has type 1 diabetes. Based in Boulder Colorado, Sarah currently works as a full-time guide and one of the head guides at the Colorado Mountain School.

As someone who didn’t start rock climbing until she was in her mid-thirties, Sarah is well aware of the importance of self-care. Her dedication to self-care allowed her to pursue a guiding designation in her forties when most people start down this path in their twenties. Being diabetic, failing to practice effective self-care while leading such an active life can literally lead to fatal consequences.

In this discussion, we discuss what it takes to manage our self care and why it’s so hard to do it well. Sarah gives us an extremely candid account of what it takes to manage our self-care as leaders and how to manage it for others. She also gives us a unique insight into the life of someone who delivers adventure as an insulin dependent diabetic.

Key Takeaways

It takes discipline: This includes being diligent about preparing ourselves beforehand and following up with recovery such as stretching, strengthening and rehabilitative care such as physiotherapy afterwards.

The importance of pacing: Sarah touched on the value of taking breaks to recharge, taking rest days, and varying activity. Taking rest days and doing different activity can keep us fresh and give different muscles a break while others get a workout.

Being vigilante: This includes staying situationally aware of ourselves and the people we might be leading. This may require us to check in with people and ourselves regularly.

Educating ourselves and others: On what to look for to keep everyone operating at their peak. This can add value to the overall experience. Who doesn’t like to learn how to perform better?

Scaling back to pace energy is not a loss, it’s a win: It can allow us to perform better, enjoy what we are doing and ultimately to go farther. As the saying goes, Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

Guest Bio

Sarah Janin is a full-time mountain guide at Colorado Mountain School located in Boulder Colorado. She is the only full-time female guide at this time and one of their head guides. Sarah became one of the first certified female splitboard guides in America this March of 2024 making history.

Sarah is on the AMGA track with one more exam to complete this summer. Her goal is to become the 19th certified female American Mountain Guide. Sarah will then have to pass a ski movement test in order to become IFMGA certified which will be her focus this winter.

Sarah has worked as a guide for a decade after getting to experience a few different careers before settling on her true passion. Sarah is also a type 1 insulin dependent diabetic and has been for over 43 years. She will potentially become the first diabetic certified guide this year.

Guest Links

Colorado Mountain School: https://coloradomountainschool.com/guide/sarah-janin/

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One of the essential elements to managing risk when we are delivering adventure to others, is understanding and managing people’s risk tolerance. Our risk tolerance is the level of comfort that we have with loss or injury. Being able to determine a person’s risk tolerance in a given moment is a key component to building trust, improving their performance, coaching them through danger and helping them to control their fear.

One person who has made a successful career of managing her own risk tolerance, and the risk tolerance of others is Robin Barnes. Robin is the Director of Skier Services at Heavenly Mountain Resort. Her current role is to oversee the operations of the Heavenly Snow School. In addition to working at Heavenly, Robin has previously spent 31 seasons working at Portillo Chile as an instructor and the ski and snowboard school director. She has also been a four-time Alpine Team Member with the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA).

In this episode of Delivering Adventure, we discuss what goes into evaluating and managing the risk tolerance of ourselves and the people we may be leading.

Key Takeaways

Risk Tolerance: What you are comfortable losing or giving up. Essentially, it is out appetite for taking risk.

Subjective and Perception Based: Each of us views risk differently and this perception can change throughout an activity or during the day. For this reason, it’s important to be able to identify what a person’s risk tolerance is up front and to keep evaluating it as we go along.

Determining Risk Tolerance: We can use a number scale to gauge people’s level of tolerance. For example, 10 could mean a person is terrified while 1 means they are bored. Part of doing this successfully is to learn what a person’s rating means to them.

More confidence than knowledge: When this happens, people may only see the win, not the chance of loss. One situation where this can occur is with kids who may not have the ability to judge the consequences of following a specific path or the ability to calculate the potential for suffering those consequences. This is the classic example where the people we may be leading don’t know what they don’t know.

Spotting People When They are Outside Their Risk Tolerance: We can see this when performance deteriorates, body position becomes defensive, and people may become quieter or more talkative than normal. We have to keep checking in with people, asking him how they are doing, communicating the risks, giving people options and watching their reactions carefully.

Importance: Exposing people to too much risk can overwhelm them by causing stress and anxiety. What is worse is that it can lead to injury. On the other hand, exposing people to too little risk or challenge can leave them bored. Both of these things can damage relationships and ruin the experience.

Guest Bio

Robin Barnes is the Director of Skier Services at Heavenly Mountain Resort. Her current role is to oversee the operations of the Heavenly Snow School. In addition to working at Heavenly, Robin has previously spent 31 seasons working at Portillo Chile as an instructor and the ski and snowboard school director. She has also been a four-time Alpine Team Member with the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA).

In addition to skiing, she is a fitness trainer, mountain biker, has worked as a Ski tester for a ski Magazine and is fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Robin basically does it all!

People aren’t always truthful or forthcoming: People may misrepresent their goals and expectations, they may not know what they want, they may also be too embarrassed to tell you what they really want.

Guest Links

Heavenly Ski Resort: https://www.skiheavenly.com/

Article about Robin:...

What does it take to coach someone through danger? When it comes to taking risks, danger can come in the form of real and perceived threats to our safety and well being. Regardless of whether the danger is real or imagined, when people feel threatened, even on a sub conscious level, they can inadvertently move into their survival zone. When this happens, performance can suffer, and people can find themselves increasing the probability of experiencing the very consequences they are hoping to avoid.

Helping us to explore what it takes to coach people through danger effectively is Derek Foose. Derek is the founder and head coach of the Whistler Free Ride Club. He guides and works as a staff trainer for Extremely Canadian. Derek is also a Course Conductor and Course Developer for the Professional Ski Instructors of Canada’s Big Mountain Pathway.

In addition to coaching and guiding, Derek has tapped into his extensive experience as a broadcast host for the Freeride World tour. He is on the Board of Directors Coaches Chair for International Freeskiers and Snowboarders Association.

In this engaging episode, we discuss the key strategies that adventure coaches, instructors and guides can employ to help the people they are coaching succeed in the face of danger.

Key Takeaways

Preparation: Preparing people before they are put in a high-risk situation – regardless of whether it is perceived or real – is key. It is very difficult to teach someone how to handle high risk situations, in high-risk situations. The skills needed to perform in the face of danger have to learned and practiced where people can make mistakes with low consequences.

Build trust: Letting people talk, showing people that you care and helping people to succeed are key components of building trust. When people trust their coach, they are more likely to believe in themselves. Conversely, when their coach believes in them, they are more likely to stay with their coach.

Give people control, where you can: A coach can do this by letting people talk themselves into or out of situations as much as possible. It is almost always better to let people come to the right conclusion on their own. What a coach wants to avoid is talking someone into doing something when they don’t feel ready, and then having that person fail. When this happens, the failure is going to be on the coach. This will erode trust and damage relationships.

Stay Calm: Calmness creates calmness. But no one has ever calmed down by being told to calm down! If a coach shows signs of stress or a lack of confidence, the people they are coaching are likely to follow suit. Using a reassuring tone, positive language and keeping people focused on believing success is possible, are key elements of creating s calm atmosphere.

Keeping people close: When danger and stress levels increase, bringing people closer to the coach – when it’s safe – can help to reassure people. It can also help to show people what they need to do to succeed.

Keep feedback simple: The more complex the situation, the simpler the instructions need to be. When people are faced with high-risk situations, feedback needs to be simple, relatable and familiar. Now is not the time for complex explanations or new skills.

Beware of Emotion: When people are stressed, it is common for them to lash out. This is especially true when you know each other well. As much as possible, try to stay focused on what needs to happen and avoid taking things personally should things get heated.

Guest Bio

Derek Foose is the founder and head coach of the Whistler Free Ride Club. He guides and works as a staff trainer for Extremely Canadian. Derek is also a Course Conductor and Course Developer for the Professional Ski Instructors of Canada’s Big Mountain Pathway.

In addition to coaching and