BLISTER Podcast

We’re on location in Shoreham, Vermont, talking to ski-industry veteran, Jason Newell, about his transition from ski racing, to working with the Rossignol Group for 25 years, to his latest adventure in a whole new category: premium whiskey. (And there might be a story or two involving duct tape, Candide Thovex, and burning couches.) TOPICS & TIMES Jason’s background & racing days (2:49) 25...

In some circles, Dierdre Wolownick is best known as Alex Honnold’s mom. But she is also the oldest woman to climb El Cap, an author, teacher, linguist, musician, marathon runner, and someone who continues to push her comfort zone. We talk to Dierdre about her new book The Sharp End of Life: A Mother’s Story ; what shaped her philosophy of parenting; how she’s become more courageous with age; and t...

Ashley Korenblat went from Arkansas to Dartmouth to Wall Street to being the president of Merlin Metalworks bikes, to the chair of IMBA (the International Mountain Bicycling Association). She currently owns Western Spirit Cycling and Outerbike , she is the founder and managing director of Public Land Solutions , she is on the recreation advisory board for the Outdoor Industry Association , and she...

Angela Hawse is the president of the American Mountain Guides Association ( AMGA ), and is certified to the highest international mountain guide standards. We talk to her about how she got into guiding; the various roles she has taken on; the experiences that drove Angela’s career; what advice she would offer to aspiring guides; how guiding culture is changing, and more. TOPICS & TIMES: How Jo...

Our 3rd Blister Speaker Series at Western Colorado University was with Dan Abrams, president and co-founder of Flylow . Dan gets into the details of running an outerwear company, and in doing so, offers insight into maintaining perspective while under pressure, how he approaches risky decisions, making the most of bad situations, and more. TOPICS & TIMES: Flylow’s origin story (1:55) Advice to...

It probably goes without saying that a guy named Bird will see the world a bit differently. So we talked to Bird about growing up on a commune in Washington; falling in love with skiing; finding a home away from home in Chamonix; his passion for speed riding, better (and worse) ways of experiencing the mountains, and more. TOPICS & TIMES: Bird’s life, work, and passions (3:00) The story behind...

Trash is a growing global crisis, and currently, the majority of “recycled” products are still ending up in landfills or being burned. So we discuss the crisis, the myths, and the solutions to these problems with Karen Hoskin and Elizabeth Smith, the founders of Zoetica , who are working to help us rethink these issues and take concrete actions to address them. TOPICS & TIMES: The global crisi...

Last week we held our 2nd Blister Speaker Series event at Western Colorado University with Eric Larsen , a North and South Pole adventurer, expedition guide, author of On Thin Ice , and climate educator. Here is that conversation, where we talk to Eric about the importance of doing difficult things, perseverance, leadership, and more. TOPICS & TIMES: Eric’s satellite phone update during his 20...

For more than a decade, Kristen Ulmer was the best female big mountain extreme skier in the world (which is why she was recently inducted into the Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame, along with Bode Miller), and many regarded her as fearless. But she wasn’t fearless, and her ways of coping with fear back then took a heavy toll on her. Kristen has since become a thought leader and specialist of this...

The winningest snowboarder in history, Kelly Clark , recently retired after an astonishing 20-year career of competition. So we talked to Kelly about that career; the new limited-edition “RISE” snowboard she designed with Burton ; how snowboarding has evolved; her relationship with Chloe Kim; the mission of the Kelly Clark Foundation ; her extremely important thoughts on “achievement” and “success...

We talk to Cody Townsend about his massive new undertaking to ski 50 classic North American lines. We discuss his approach to The FIFTY Project ; how it’s going so far; dealing with its incredibly tricky logistics; which lines are the most daunting; what gear he is using; and more. TOPICS & TIMES: What is The Fifty Project, and how did it come to be? (3:00) Which of the 50 lines are the most d...

We just held the inaugural Blister Speaker Series event at Western Colorado University with Brendan Leonard — author, filmmaker, and creator of Semi-Rad.com . So here is that live conversation where we talk with Brendan about work, work ethic, creativity, and how to keep from compromising your vision in whatever field you are passionate about pursuing. TOPICS & TIMES: Background of the Blister...

Earlier this year I sat down with Greg Hill and Chris Rubens to talk about their "Electric Adventures" ( episode #66 ), and we also discuss in that episode a bit about Greg’s background. And in this new conversation, our focus is on the present and the future. Greg and I discuss the new Canadian chapter of Protect Our Winters; get Greg’s advice for how to productively deal with what he calls “eco-...

Very few people are so good at what they do that they can have a film made about their life and their career while they are still in the middle of both. But Eric Hjorleifson is one of those people, and we talked to Eric about the eponymous film, Hoji , that was produced by Scott Gaffney and Matchstick Productions. Eric and I talk about the tour he’s been on for the film, how the idea for the film...

Elyse Saugstad  is one of the best big mountain skiers in the game, and we spoke with her a few days ago about the soon-to-be-released film, All In, from  Matchstick Productions — the evolution of All In, and the experience of teaming up with several other big mountain rock stars, Angel Collinson, Michelle Parker, and Tatum Monod. We then talk about growing up in Alaska, and Elyse g...

Julian Carr is a professional skier and world-record cliff jumper, the founder of Discrete Clothing , and the founder and race director of the Cirque Series , a group of six big-mountain running events held at some pretty iconic ski areas: Brighton, Alta, Alyeska, Sun Valley, Arapahoe Basin, and Snowbird. My conversation with Julian really falls into four parts: First, Julian and I talk about the...

Glen Morden has an extremely cool job — he's the head of Product Innovation at Patagonia. So we talk to Glen about his background and how he ended up in this position, then Glen pulls back the curtain on the product design process at Patagonia, what he and his colleagues are currently most concerned with, and what sorts of projects are on the horizon. So if you are interested in product design, ne...

In the past several days, there has been another reported instance of bullying going on in the outdoors sports world, and the loud, swift, and aggressive responses to this, have made clear that many of us still have a lot to think through. Last week, professional climber Sasha Digiulian announced on social media that she has been the ongoing target of tasteless jokes by fellow climber, Joe Kinder....

We’re talking with  Renan Ozturk , an expedition climber, landscape artist, filmmaker, co-founder of  Camp4 Collective , and the principal cinematographer of the very powerful film, “MOUNTAIN.” MOUNTAIN is an epic meditation on our relationship to and fascination with mountains. Directed by Jennifer Peedom and narrated by Willem Dafoe, the script is based on Robert Macfarlane 's, "Mounta...

We have been receiving more and more questions about Sego Skis and requests to review them, so today, you’re going to get the backstory. Sego was founded by two brothers, Tim and Peter Wells, and Sego is headquartered in the small mountain town of Victor, Idaho. So we talked to Tim and Peter about starting a ski company (actually, how they started  two  ski companies) and why they d...

We stopped by the headquarters of Venture Snowboards in Silverton, Colorado, to talk to Venture’s founders, Lisa and Klem Branner. As you’ll hear, Venture does a lot of things different than most snowboard companies. For example, very few companies are manufacturing snowboards here in the U.S., and even fewer of those companies are starting from scratch — literally building boards starti...

Cyrus Schenck is the founder of the company, Renoun , and a ski designer with an award-winning technology that's used by no other ski manufacturer in the world. Cyrus is thinking big. And definitely outside of the box. And definitely not just about skis. So we talk to Cyrus about building skis with non-Newtonian polymers, and everything else he's working on — both inside and outside the world of s...

This week we're talking to Greg Hill and Chris Rubens . Greg is probably best known for his feats in ski touring, including his accomplishment in 2010 of skiing 2 million vertical feet in a year. And Chris Rubens is probably best known for being dumb enough to try to keep up with Greg. We sat down with Greg and Chris in Denver to talk about how the two became the unofficial power couple of Revelst...

Today we’re talking with New York Times sportswriter, Karen Crouse,  about her new book, Norwich . Norwich is a tiny town in Vermont that has produced eleven Olympians, and Karen’s extremely well-written book looks into how it is that this little town has managed to produce so many successful athletes. But Karen is also exploring far bigger, universal questions about the relationship of athle...

Black Crows is one of the hottest brands in the entire ski world, and today we’re talking with their co-founder, Camille Jaccoux, and head ski designer, Julien Regnier, about the origins and design principles of the brand, a few of the important skis in the history of the company, and what's next. TOPICS & TIMES: When did Black Crows start, and talk a bit about what was going on at the time in...