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 Takeaways

You 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.

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After a lifetime of working extensively in different parts of the adventure guiding industry, Chris and I have teamed up to launch this podcast. In each episode, you'll hear top adventure guides, managers, marketers, and athletes share their best stories, advice, and trade secrets. The goal of this podcast is to share how you can take yourself and others farther from the mountains to the office and.

In this episode, Peter Weiland joins us to talk about how we can help ourselves and others to embrace adversity. Peter is an X semi pro adventure racer and the former owner of Rocky Mountain Cycle Tours. Peter currently serves as a technical director for the youth soccer program in Squamish, BC where he lives with his family.

In recent years, Peter has helped to grow that program to over 700 kids, which is an amazing achievement. Chris, I think you know Peter pretty. That's right

I can tell you that Peter was one of the best people that I've ever worked for, and he is amazing at seeking out and powering through adversity. This is why I think he is the perfect person to speak on this subject.

So yeah, I've done a little bit of interaction with Peter professionally as well. So, let's bring Peter into the DA Studio. And just as an aside, this is the first part of a two-part series as Peter had quite a bit to share on this topic.

Welcome to the show, Peter. Great to have you on here. Peter thanks for joining us today. Are you in Whistler, Squamish?

Um, lived for a few years in Vancouver, then moved up to Squamish. I've, uh, I've been married to my wife, uh, since the mid nineties, 26 years going strong. We have three kids, uh, two of my boys. They're adults now, 21 and 18, and our daughter. 14 years old, still lives with us at home. Actually, she's 14 now.

She'll give me a hard time for not knowing this. So maybe we should redo this right away. Um, but um, yeah, for 20 years we, uh, my wife and I, we ran and operated Rocky Mountain Cycle tours and, um, In Squamish now I'm, uh, looking after our soccer club as the technical director, and in the winter I still ski, instruct, um, private lessons in Whistler.

That's how I come to know Chris quite well.

Yeah.

So, we'll start off with asking you, uh, what does adventure mean to you?

And I come from that endurance, uh, outdoor athlete background. And, uh, so most of my adventures have a little bit that component in it as well.

I think when you look at places like Baron Lakes or West Coast Trail, um, it's mostly Germans, west tourists that you meet there. Um, and so. Yeah, it was, uh, initially an adventure trip to Canada, a 4,000-kilometer bike rides starting in Calgary through the Rockies to Vancouver, mixed in with a lot of hiking in the Rockies and the West Coast Trail.

What does delivering adventure mean to you?

And, um, so I, I felt like it should be, I should help others to, to have similar experiences and make them possible for them.

And then you feel you've accomplished that. You've, um, led them into places they. Go otherwise themselves or, and you made it feel safe enough that, uh, that they can experience something amazing. Yeah.

And maybe to us it's been an average day or maybe not even anywhere. Best day ever. And, but, uh, yeah, it's all, it's all, uh, their perspective, right? And, and, uh, delivering the.

But as guides and operators, we want to eliminate it as much as possible as well. Right? Or have planned ABC in place for, uh, for what happens when, right.

And so oftentimes they don't even know that we're doing that.

And you have to deal with that and, and so, um, yeah, definitely having those backup plans and quickly changing plans in mind and options to deal with it. Yeah.

Yeah.

And so, um, that was a really great second leg to stand on for us. Fairly, um, continuous stream of revenue at lower margins than our own tours. But, um, just a large operator that has access to a very large market helping, uh, to fill trips. So that was, um, A really good way to branch out for us and minimize risks financially a little bit.

But, uh, it, it ran for 20 years and it started out as a really rugged. A vehicle-based adventure event, um, where teams would cross the jungles of Borneo or the steps of Mongolia, and it was very much, um, Vehicle based, like how could you get across that river and all 20 teams work together and build a wooden bridge in the jungles of bonne or a raft to get all their vehicles across.

Um, you could plan your own route depending on the strength in your team and strength of outdoor skills that you. and, um, the idea was to drive to a location and then put on your skis or hop on the mountain bike and find that, um, marker that would give you, um, a proof that you made it to that location.

And depending on how, how difficult or how long it took, there were points awarded for that. So, the, the format of the race was that from sunrise to sunset, you were allowed to collect points. You couldn't collect points at night, but you were allowed to drive at night. So, the strategy that evolved was to.

To collect and get to as many of these, um, places during the day and then, uh, take turns driving through the night while sleeping, while the partner was sleeping. Um, so you would be next morning in the next location. And so, after four days, and obviously everyone was exhausted, so he had a 24-hour rest day and that would repeat, uh, there were four segments or four days with rest days in between, and we made our way from.

My wife was still finishing her, uh, university diploma in Germany. And so, I decided to go back for a year to Germany and, um, started with a friend of mine, a little, uh, event. Organizing company or, and we, we put on a few local adventure races and then I saw this, um, um, this ad and, uh, I think it was a TV ad, um, to apply to be on the German team for the Camel Trophy.

And so, because I had a bit of time on my hands, I applied, um, they liked my resume and so they invited about 150 of us. Um, to an old Army training camp in East Berlin and, uh, had all of us, um, do Orienteering races and, uh, fitness tests and drive some vehicles and see if we could drive a vehicle and not fall off the trail.

So, and then they narrowed it down to, after this weekend, I narrowed it down to a group of. I think 16 of us who were invited to the Car Mountains in Georgia and we did another selection week there. Um, again, driving Land Rovers, uh, skinning up to peaks. Um, a lot of volunteering, GPS and Compass based. Um, and out of those 16, there were four of us selected to go for a week to Sweden, uh, near the ski area of a and, uh, we did another selection week there, um, this time already with all the European nations there competing.

And then in the end, two of us were asked to compete for Germany in, in, uh, Patagonia. Yeah. Wow. Quite the process. It was, yes. Yeah, there were 15,000 applicants actually, so, and I was, uh, lucky to be on the end of it.

What advice would you give to others who might find themselves operating as part of a team in, uh, a really physically and mentally demanding situation, like an adventure? Any advice?

But when that person was drained and couldn't focus anymore, there was no one else to, to take over that role, for example. Right. And. Yeah, so it's just, um, knowing your roles, knowing your strengths and weaknesses, um, trying to figure out how, when to step back and let others take a lead. So, um, I guess those are the most important, uh, lessons to take away from that.

And uh, just realizing, going up Assiniboine that this is not going to happen, not going to go well, and that I have to turn around and go back. So. Um, but it was crazy as I just. Made it back to Sobey's in Canmore just before they closed to get all the, the food and, and so I could feed the guests then during the week

Yeah.

Um, in hindsight, looking back, um, I should have probably prepared differently before that trip. Yeah.

And it never materialized weather wise. And, um, so on this one day, it, uh, it didn't seem to cooperate. Again, it was sleeting when we took guests across to the Athabasca Glacier and it was still, uh, sleeting when we sat down to dinner at six. But then as, um, as we finished dinner, we saw that it cleared up all sudden.

And so, um, Paul and I decided to go for it that night then. And so, we left, uh, after dinner. Um, The, the, one of the problems was, uh, there were lots of footsteps up the mountain and we thought we would just follow those because it's, it's climbed every day, right? Um, during the summer and, um, but the sleet and the snow had covered all of that, so.

Root finding was a little more involved and difficult. Took us a little bit longer, um, in the dark until the moon came up behind the mountain. Then, then it was all good. But, uh, as soon as we stepped off the glacier, um, we also had, uh, pour falls through a little snow bridge and it disappeared in a Kiva.

And, uh, so, but we were roped up, right? So we were, we had all the gear, we were roped up, we were well prepared. And so, it was. Um, that moment that made you think, okay, we, we are in a serious environment. You going to be really alert. But, uh, it was good, good preparation and nothing happened.

Um, our team was quite well prepared because I had windsurfed in the Canary Islands and in the north of Morocco, and I knew about the Tradewinds at that time. We also knew that it's a fairly cold ocean current there that is not warm. And so, um, gear wise and everything, we were well prepared. We, um, we had trained in an environment where it was very windy, but, um, the swells were immense.

And, uh, so we were, we were having kites up. Um, instead of paddling, we were having the wind pull us. But uh, these double t kayaks, as they came down the swell, the nose would dive in. And then the push of the wave was trying to push the kayak sideways. Basically, every wave we came down for this 80-kilometer trip.

And so, it took immense focus and, um, Mental energy and huge cause corrections, not only with the foot rudder, but with the paddles as well to keep the boat straight. And so, I remember that as a harrowing trip down the coast. Um, and then, um, the waves and the surf was so big that you couldn't. Just paddle into the, there were three or four checkpoints on the beach where you had to paddle in and get your passport stamped to prove you were there.

Um, so you couldn't paddle in and out anymore. So, they came up with the idea that you would, uh, have your kayak crew just wait outside the surf zone and one of you would have to swim in. And, and get your marker there and, and then swim out again. The problem with that was that when your little head is bobbing in the waves and there's 50 yellow boats out there in, in quite a bay and they're all spread out.

But we didn't account for was how do you find your boat again? Right. And so, um, yeah, after we've experienced that the first time and it took a while to find our own boat and we had a paddle with some, um, with some things wrapped up. And, uh, so, so we could signal which, which boat to go to, right? The boats all look the same.

Um, and then the second moment was, um, when we got to the horseback riding section. In the previous two eco challenges that there was also horseback riding involved, but in Australia and Canada it was fairly tame quarter horses, um, who were used to carrying tourists around and, and, um, they were easy to guide.

Completely problem free. Right? But in Morocco, the horses were supplied by the American Army, so they were all Arabs deeds, and, um, really fiery horses and I figured out that you needed to be a rider to, to really do well on those, which I wasn't. Uh, for most of the sections we were just allowed to walk the horses on mountain trails.

But then we got to this dried up Salt Lake and, um, Here. This was the only section in the race where we were allowed to counter a gallop, uh, on the horses. And so, we let loose and those horses just took off like a Ferrari, right? Those are the Ferrari among horses. And so, when we got to near the end of the lake, I figured you going to pull with all your might on those rains here to, to make that beat stop again, right?

And so, I did and it stopped on the dime, and of course, momentum carried me. Uh, it kept me going, right? So, I went straight over the front end of the horse, dusted myself off and saw my stead galloping off in the distance. Luckily, we were traveling with some members of a British team. Um, With, uh, uh, sir Ranulph Fiennes on the team who's, uh, a friend of now King Charles.

Um, and King Charles described him at the time as the greatest living adventure on earth. Um, and so he was an excellent horseback rider, and so he. He galled off and got me my horse back. Um, at that time, I have to add, we, uh, our team already had fallen apart due to injuries and so had the British team and so had another team.

So, there were six of us together and we continued unranked, uh, as team United Nations basically. And, uh, Yeah, so I, Ranulph shared a lot about his other adventures and the book he wrote Living Dangerously and how he blew up things and undercover missions in Arabia and so on. So, it was a very entertaining into the race Yeah.

Going with him. But the, um, the final moment I think you're waiting for Chris, right, is uh, when we got to near the end of the race, oh, actually there was still, the hiking and mountain biking section was still to come. Um, one of the local villages put on a little party for us in a transition zone. Um, and uh, this was the only place where, um, villages were kind of supplying the food in the transition zone everywhere else.

We had to have our own food with us and, um, I guess we were a little too, um, Hungry or not mindful anymore of all the precautions you want to take in Morocco with, um, with getting food poisoning. Um, which we had done pre raised very diligently, and we had all managed to stay healthy, but, uh, being hungry and tired.

And, uh, as you know, in the desert and in the mountains, it gets freezing cold. Um, even though Morocco is Africa, uh, yeah, you, you experience very cold nights. Um, in an adventure race you only carried like minimum gears or mandatory sleeping bag was of the thinnest kind. Um, and so we're all really cold as we, um, huddled up there and I put.

Every piece of clothes that I had on went in my sleeping bag because it was still so cold. I drew the draw cord on my sleeping bag tight over my head. And then, uh, when I woke up, um, a couple hours later, I was so sick and I felt, um, fluids ready to come out of both openings on my body, and I couldn't find the draw cord above my head before I.

And draw it and get out that I had emptied, um, on both ends into my sleeping bag. Obviously soiling all the clothes and gear that I had with me, so I was not a pleasant, um, teammate to be near for the next days. And safe to say, I burned that stuff. made a sacrificial offering to the adventure racing guards,

Without sleeping back.

Peter Weiland: Yes. I, because I couldn't find the drug word and I was in a mess inside. Right. So yes, I had to open it from, from the outside

One more thing. I would like to, um, tell people that adventure can be found close to home. And, um, I was actually challenged, um, I told you initially I grew up kind of in the industrial, um, heartland of Germany, more or less. Where, where you think there isn't, um, really those great, adventurous places around.

But when, um, when I was doing the adventure racing stuff and I was back there with the camera trophy, um, a magazine challenged us to. Do something amazing in Germany, like an adventurous health supporter. And so, we came up with the idea to paddle a sea kayak from the ski town of Obor and the Alps, uh, into the Baltic Sea, one of the northern most German islands, uh, stretch of a thousand kilometers.

And, um, The experiences along the way. In some places it looked like you were in the middle of Canada, wilderness, beaver dams and so on in other places we didn't see humans for, um, a whole day. Um, when we paddled the Albert River, which used to be the border between east and West Germany is very unpopulated area, right.

We, we saw amazing sunsets. We saw wild. Masses of wild birds. And, uh, so it, it just shows me you don't have to go to the arctic or to, to climb, um, uh, in unexplored places. Um, you can find great adventures. Um, near where you live and we, we just set out some parameters to make it a little more challenging that it's self supporters.

Right? And we don't go to every, uh, coffee shop that you could find along the way. And, uh, that we would portage our kayak where rivers were too. Um, shallow to Palo, but, uh, yeah, we connected a thousand kilometers through, um, and saw some amazing wild places of this country that I had really only experienced as mass populated.

Um, very busy looking and, and where you always think I got to go far to find amazing places. outstanding adventure so it can be found near you and you don't have to live in a ski town or, uh, uh, in a beach resort to, to find great adventures. That's my, my word to everyone who is, um, looking to get into adventure stuff.

He referenced, uh, you know, I guess one of the trips he did, you know, in the Tantalus range. And every time he drives up to Whistler and he can see the Tanus range from the highway, it reminds, reminds him of that particular trip.

So, this year I came up with the idea of doing it from the SL side and, uh, that way you can, there's several via Ferratas in there that we can easily climb up and do all three peaks and then come down the front side. dropped my bike at the bottom and connected the whole loop. So, I did a loop and saw it from a completely different side and little bit more adventurous.

So, you can tweak things, uh, that, that you've done a lot of times and, and find some new adventure new sites. Yeah.

The first one has to do with your sleeping bag, and I guess you need to make sure that, uh, you don't zip yourself fully up so that you can't escape According to Peter's story, there.

Adventure can be done close to home. This is something that Greg Hill, uh, also touched on. Um, and, you know, Peter shared the examples of, you know, the first story I think he, he shared was, um, his big adventure in, in Germany, which is. Which is pretty crazy, uh, from the viewpoint of, of most people is a thousand kilometer, uh, you know, paddling journey.

Uh, but he also just highlighted some, uh, hikes closer to home where he actually didn't go very far at all. And then just, uh, and then just varied them. And so, um, that's something that I just want to kind of reiterate. I know we've talked about this before, but it is an important part. Adventures can be close to home.

You don't need to go a long way to. Jordy, what were some of your takeaways?

We really want to. We really want to build people up. And if we start at too high a level, uh, it doesn't give us time to assess them and it doesn't give themself themselves confidence in what they're doing. So much better to, uh, start it off kind of throttled back quite a bit and then you can always turn it up.

And that's leads to the second thing that I wanted to talk about is, and that Peter talked about, is that it's easier to increase adversity than it is to dial it. So, uh, start easier and. Start to go faster, harder further, and increase, increase your complexity, uh, with whatever activity or adventure that you're doing.

Uh, but if you start off, uh, with both guns blazing and your, your, uh, you're just going really hard, it's, uh, it's really hard to dial it back and dial it down in, uh, in what we're doing for activity. So just, uh, you know, like everybody says, you're supposed to warm up before you go do an activity. Well, this is the, this is the warming up part in terms of the adventure.

And so, when we're acting as people's guides and we're leading other people, that's something that we have to remind them of as well. It's much. Easier to make things harder than it is to bring them back down again, especially once people start getting tired. Now let's turn it over to you, the listener.

What were your takeaways? What stood out to you? You can share your thoughts story, your insights with us via our social media feeds, or by emailing us. You can find all of our contact information@deliveringadventure.com. Also, before you go, we need your help to keep this podcast going. Please take a moment to share it with your social network.

Adventure is best when it is shared. To finish off this episode, we have one last funny story from Peter.

And because you have to hike up about 50 meters, um, uh, it has that almost backcountry type feel. And, um, so for, for many guests, it's on the list that they want to ski there. And, uh, so I had, uh, this gentleman who, um, who was a really good skier, but, uh, we hadn't really experienced that or he had an experience that he was afraid of heights, um, or hadn't told me.

So, as we walked, um, I guess he looked over his shoulder and it's, it's not even exposed. It's just a steep slope that your site stepping up for 50 meters with the skis on your shoulders. And, um, as he turned around and looked down, I guess he felt a bit woozy and let go of his skis. And so, his skis slid 50 meters down and then he just jumped.

Grabbed my boot. And so here I was standing on span's ladder with an adult clinging to my boot and it was a big powder day and it just opened. So, all the hardcore locals were walking by, uh, dropping a funny comment. And uh, we ended up. Slipping on our bums down to his skis to plan B. And yeah, so that was probably a more funny moment.

Yeah. The other one was, uh, when I had this guest from New York, uh, his goal was to ski every double black on whistle black home. And so, one of the last ones we did was the, uh, um, glacier UA on Whistle Mountain, which is almost in Unseeable now. Um, thanks to the glacier receding, it's now. A huge overhanging corner at the top and maybe a two-meter-wide ravine that you can still maybe make some hops down.

But, uh, back then you could ski right from the side into it. And there was enough snow to make turns, but very steep. And so that was one of the last ones we got to. And, um, he, he looked at it for a long. Was ready to do it. Went into the first turn and leaned to the mountain, lost his edge, and then just started sliding.

And as he picked up speed, he lost his skis and poles and hat. I think it was still hats at the time. And, uh, so he slid almost down to, uh, the saddle run. Good three, 400 meters. And, uh, so I, I collected all his gear, came down and he shook himself off and dusted the snow out of his jacket. And he said, well, didn't do that too badly. Missed only one turn. Hey.