Longevity Delivering Adventure with Nadio Hachey

What does it take to enjoy a long career as an adventure guide, instructor or manager?

The reality is that there is quite a high rate of attrition in the adventure industry when it comes to guides and instructors. It can be costly to get certifications and experience in both time and money. It can be physically demanding. It can also be far from financially lucrative. For all of these reasons many people drop out early in their career.

That said, there are many people who have enjoyed long careers. One of these people is Nadio Hachey. Nadio has enjoyed a career in the ski and bike instruction and guiding industry that spans over forty years. Nadio supervises and trains ski and bike instructors at a high level and teaches at that level himself.

Nadio joins Jordy and Chris to discuss what it takes to make delivering adventure into a sustainable career. He shares his insights on everything from decision making on the mountain to making smart choices with your finances.

Nadio Hachey is a longtime manager in the Whistler Blackcomb Snow and Bike School. He is a PSIC level 4 certified ski instructor and a Level 4 PSIC LPT Trainer. He is also a certified level 2 PMBIA mountain bike instructor.

This is an engaging and candid discussion about some topics that often go unspoken about.

Key Takeaways

Master Your Trade: If you want to have a long career on a professional, or even amateur level, you need to master the necessary hard skills. This includes things like navigation, skiing, snowboarding, biking or whatever it is - you have to be good at what you are actually doing. This keeps you safer and quite frankly, the people you may want to lead, expect you to be good at what you are leading.

Decision making: It doesn’t matter how good you are at the hard skills of your activity. If you can’t make good decisions leading yourself and others, you won’t enjoy a long career. It’s that simple. People expect adventure guides, instructors and coaches to be able to make good decisions.

Motivated to Help People: It doesn’t matter if you are in Search and Rescue, heli-skiing, surfing, biking, hiking, ski and snowboard instructing or a guide trainer. If you want to have a long career, you have to want to help people. Just wanting to do your sport or activity is not going to be enough for you. The people you are going to be dealing with are also going to figure out very quickly if you are there for them or yourself.

Financial Needs: To sustain a long career in the adventure industry you need to be able to make enough and save enough to survive over the long term. This may mean picking up extra jobs, learning to cook so you can spend less going out, and being smarter with your money.

Guest Bio

Nadio Hachey has enjoyed a career in the ski and bike instruction and guiding industry that spans over forty years. Nadio supervises and trains ski and bike instructors at a high level and teaches at that level himself. This makes him a great person to share with us the secrets of what it takes to have a long career in the adventure industry.

Nadio Hachey is a longtime manager in the Whistler Blackcomb Snow and Bike School. He is a PSIC level 4 certified ski instructor and a Level 4 PSIC LPT Trainer. He is also a certified level 2 PMBIA mountain bike instructor.

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Smart Risk Taking with Barry Blanchard

How can you know when to actually take a risk on a personal or professional level? What would a good risk, or a smart risk look like before and after?

In this episode Chris and Jordy are joined by world renowned Alpinist, ACMG / IFMGA Mountain Guide, speaker, author and friend of the show, Barry Blanchard to discuss what a Smart Risk looks like.

Barry Blanchard taps into his long career of risk taking and guiding to share the essential elements of what good risks look like, and what we should be wary of.

Barry is a recent recipient of the Order of Canada and is an honoured member of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides. He is respected for his ability to complete technical, high-risk ascents on a personal level and leading others as professional guide.

Barry has worked on numerous movie projects as a stuntman including Cliffhanger and Vertical Limit. He is the star of his own documentary called Spindrift: The Barry Blanchard Story.

He is also the author of The Calling: A Life Rocked by Mountains. Barry has another book coming out in 2026 called The Echo.

Always engaging, thoughtful and honest, Barry shares some dark moments he has had in his career and many of the highlights. Along the way we define what makes a Smart Risk to take.

Key Takeaways:

Smart Risks: Are calculated, acceptable, necessary and prepared for. They are risks we can justify in the moment and after the fact because they are carefully considered, acceptable, needed to be taken and we were ready for the choice that we made.

Calculated Risk: Calculated risks are ones that are well analyzed weighing the potential consequences against the potential for both positive and negative outcomes. The hazards are known and if you decide to take it, the benefits outweigh the potential costs.

A calculated risk is a risk worth doing based on careful analysis.

Acceptable Risk: Acceptable risks are the ones we can justify to ourselves and others. They should fall within everyone’s risk tolerance. They should also prioritize your safety ahead of safety or providing service someone else. Acceptable risks for professionals fall within industry best practices.

Acceptable risks fall within personal, professional and legal responsibilities and limits.

Necessary Risks: Necessary risks are the ones that need to be taken. They add value to the experience and contribute to towards achieving the objective. They are also the best option for what needs to get done.

A risk might be acceptable to take, but also unnecessary.

Prepared for: These are the risks we are ready for because we have prepared and built in an adequate margin of error. Worst case scenarios have been considered and planned for.

Not Taking the Risk: This is also a risk. Smart Risks are the ones we did take for the right reasons.

Guest Bio

Barry Blanchard is an ACMG / IFMGA Mountain Guide, author, speaker, and sometimes movie stunt man. Barry has recently been the recipient of the Order of Canada and has just been recognized as an honoured member of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides.

Both of these awards have been given in recognition of his numerous complex and demanding ascents in the Rockies, the Alps and the Himalayas, some of which have not been repeated. For more than 40 years, Barry has been a guide, resource and mentor to countless mountain enthusiasts.

Barry is one of North America’s top alpine climbers. He has spent his life pushing the standards of highly technical, high risk alpine climbing and ice climbing from the Himalayas to the Canadian Rockies. Barry is also renowned for his ability to guide complex, high risk alpine ascents.

Some of the movies that Barry has been in or has worked on include...

When it comes to delivering adventure, the difference between control and chaos can be as little as one small mistake. A situation can seem to be under complete control one moment and the next it can be spiralling away.

The worst-case scenario for leaders often starts with something small. It can be a trip, a fall, a moment of butter fingers, or some other unforeseeable fumble or mistake.

In this episode, Madeleine Martin-Penney shares a situation where a small misstep from one of her guests put her and her group in a potentially tough bind. Madeleine walks us through what happened and how she reacted to keep control.

Madeleine Martin‑Preney is a certified ACMG Ski Guide, Hiking Guide, and Apprentice Rock Guide based in Revelstoke, BC. Born and raised in Nelson, BC, she earned her full ski guide certification in 2018. An avid backcountry adventurer, she completed the first full ski traverse of the Selkirk Mountains (520 km, 43 000 m elevation) and participated in the Bugaboos‑to‑Rogers Pass expedition featured in the film Mind Over Mountain.

Guest Bio

Madeleine Martin‑Preney is a certified ACMG Ski Guide, Hiking Guide, and Apprentice Rock Guide based in Revelstoke, BC. Born and raised in Nelson, BC, she earned her full ski guide certification in 2018. An avid backcountry adventurer, she completed the first full ski traverse of the Selkirk Mountains (520 km, 43 000 m elevation) and participated in the Bugaboos‑to‑Rogers Pass expedition featured in the film Mind Over Mountain.

Madeleine has served on the ACMG Board of Directors with Chris and I for the past nine years. She is also involved with Mountain Muscox. Mountain Muskox is a community-based organization that provides peer support circles for individuals who have experienced loss or trauma in the mountains.

Guest Links

Madeleine’s Instagram: @madoalpine

Geary’s Guiding: https://gearysguiding.com

Mountain Muscox: https://www.mountainmuskox.com

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How can we improve the decision making in others? When we are delivering adventure to others, it isn’t just the leader that needs to have good judgment. In every activity, there is a degree of decision-making skills that participants are going to need to be able to have, and if they don’t, the odds of achieving a good outcome start to go down.

There is of course another dimension to this in that many guides and instructors aren’t just leading guests, friends or family. They may also be supervising or working with other guides or instructors.

In this episode, we are joined by master guide, instructor, outdoor educator and friend of the show Bruce Wilson. Bruce returns to Delivering Adventure to explore how we can help others to improve their decision-making skills.

When it comes to outdoor education and leadership training, Bruce is literally a Jack of all trades. Bruce is an ACMG Hiking Guide. He is a sea kayak guide and guide trainer for the Association of Sea Kayak Guides. He is an avalanche educator for Avalanche Canada.

Bruce is a certified instructor in the Wim Hof Method, he has a master’s degree in leadership, and is a Vision Quest instructor, just to name a few of his many qualifications and certifications.

He currently instructs the Outdoor Recreation Management Program at Capilano University in North Vancouver. He also provides coaching and guiding through his company Warrior Wolf Guide Services and Coaching.

In this episode of Delivering Adventure, Bruce shares key strategies that leaders can use to help others to improves their decision making.

Key takeaways

How can we help others to make better decisions?

Trust Them: Whether we like it or not, we have to trust the decision making and judgement of others. Micromanaging everything is not a sustainable option for anyone in a leadership position, and it can be argued that that isn’t even leadership!

Create Opportunities: We need to give people the opportunity to make decisions. Decision-making is a skill. To develop skills, people need time on task to practice.

Right Process: Teaching them the right process can help to set them up for success. Part of this requires us to model and then explain what a good decision-making process is.

Go to Completion: It is important to let people bring their decisions to completion: this allows them to see and experience the consequences firsthand. This increases learning.

Take it Seriously: Treat every moment as if it is real. This can eliminate the risk of developing bad habits. It also maximizes the learning.

Guest Bio

When it comes to outdoor education and leadership training, Bruce is literally a Jack of all trades. Bruce is an ACMG Hiking Guide. He is a sea kayak guide and guide trainer for the Association of Sea Kayak Guides. He is an avalanche educator for Avalanche Canada.

Bruce is a certified instructor in the Wim Hof Method, he has a master’s degree in leadership, and is a Vision Quest instructor, just to name a few of his many qualifications and certifications.

He currently instructs the Outdoor Recreation Management Program at Capilano University in North Vancouver. He also provides coaching and guiding through his company Warrior Wolf Guide Services and Coaching.

Guest Links

https://www.snowolf.ca

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How can leaders use self-reflection as a development tool with others? Self-reflection is one of the most effective learning and development tools that a leader can use with themselves and their team members.

Self-reflection can help everyone to learn from any mistakes that were made, flaws in systems that were uses, and to analyze actions that were taken.

When guides and instructors use reflection with their guests, they create an opportunity to become aware of and to address problems. It also creates an opportunity to highlight learning opportunities and to ensure that everyone leaves with an accurate memory of events.

In this episode of Delivering Adventure, Bill Mark joins Jordy and Chris to explore how leaders can use self-reflection with others.

Bill Mark is a CSGA Certified Ski Guide and Guide Trainer. He has spent over Forty years in the ski industry working in ski patrol and as a guide. Bill’s current role is the Assistant Director of Ski Operations and Senior Lead Heli-Ski Guide for Mike Wiegle’s Heli-Skiing.

Bill has extensive experience working with large teams of guides in high-risk environments where self-reflection is an essential tool for learning and development.

Bill shares how leaders can use self-reflection with themselves and others effectively to improve sharing and leverage learning.

Key Takeaways

Using self-reflection as a leader effectively requires:

Developing a Culture of Self-Reflection: Self-reflection is an essential component of developing a responsible risk-taking culture within teams. It is also one trait that can separate amateurs from true professionals. To leverage self-reflection, teams need to create a culture where self-reflection is encouraged and the time for it is set aside. This means scheduling it into the day and finding ways to make it a sustainable habit.

Create Phycological Safety: Self-reflection only works if people are forthcoming and truthful with events, actions and thinking. To create an environment of open and honest communication, team members need to feel safe. To accomplish this, people should be rewarded for sharing mistakes instead of being punished or shamed. This is an essential component of creating psychological safety within the group.

Look for Trends and Patterns: Humans are creatures of habit. When using self-reflection with others, leaders should be actively looking for unhealthy patterns or weakness in systems regardless of the outcomes. Correcting negative patterns, biases in decision making or poorly constructed or executed processes early, is an essential part of preventing future mishaps.

Mentorship and Training (up for success): Leaders may need to train mentors and trainers how to use self-reflection effectively. It is a mistake to think that people in leader positions know how to use self-reflection effectively. Leaders may also have to train team members on how they can be mentored more effectively. This includes coaching them how to ask the right questions, how to learn from feedback and where to access mentorship.

Guet Bio

Bill started his career in the adventure industry working as a ski patroller in New Zealand before moving to Whistler for what was meant to be a season. Bill joined the Blackcomb Ski Patrol in 1987. He liked it so much he started doing back-to-back winters shuttling between the Whistler and working ski patrol in Cardrona in New Zealand, where he went on to become the ski patrol director.

In 1991 he joined Mike Weigle’s Heli Skiing as a ski guide. Bill is now the Assistant Director of Ski Operations and Senior Lead Heli-Ski Guide for Mike Wiegle’s Heli-Skiing.

Bill is CSGA L3 certified and has ISIA full certification (from NZ). He also instructs on CSGA courses and on CAA Industry Training Programs.

When it comes to using self-reflection as a skill development

How can we use self-reflection to improve our decision making, performance and experience delivery?

One of the best ways to undertake personal growth as an individual, a risk-taker and leader is to build self-reflection into our day.

Self-reflection can help us to improve our performance, decision making, our delivery of information, and our relationships. While experience can be an essential tool for a guide, instructor and coach to have, experience itself is only good if we learn from it.

In this episode, Jordy and Chris are joined by Tracey Fraser to discuss how we can harness the power of self-reflection more effectively.

Tracey Fraser is the training manager at the Whistler Blackcomb Snow School. She is a certified CSIA Level 4 and PSIC Level 4 ski instructor. She is also a PSIC Level 4 LPT trainer which means that Tracey is certified to train ski instructors at the very highest level.

Tracey shares how we can build self-reflection seamlessly into our day, how we can use it and what it can teach us.

Key Takeaways

How can we use self-reflection on a personal level effectively

Adopt a Growth Mindset: This means approaching situations from the perspective that you want to know how to make them even better in the future, regardless of how well it did or did not go.

Make Time to Reflect: This can include stepping away from others to think about what just happened, making time to ask other people for feedback or taking time at the end of the day to analyze high and low points.

Be Curious with Yourself: This can include asking yourself if there is anything you would want to do differently, asking what went well, what were the challenge points, and what did not go well.

Look for Patterns or Tendencies: We all have ways of doing things that could be problematic and may not be effective. These can include cognitive biases that can compromise our decision making. It can also include flaws in our systems and ways of doing things. Addressing negative patterns is an essential step to improvement.

Embrace Being Vulnerable: It is okay to admit that there is room for you to do things better or to improve. Being vulnerable is not a weakness, it is a strength that you hear in most of our guests.

Be Objective: To do this we have to focus on the facts by being non-judgemental. This includes avoiding the trap of rationalizing our actions to the point that we miss the opportunity to spot weaknesses in what we did.

Guest Bio

Tracey Fraser is the training manager at the Whistler Blackcomb Snow School which is one of the largest Snow Schools in the world with close to fifteen hundred staff. She is also involved with the Professional Ski Instructors of Canada and has worked with the Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance where she Chaired the CSIA Women in Skiing Committee.

Tracey has represented Canada at Interski twice. She is a certified CSIA Level 4 and PSIC Level 4 ski instructor. She is also a PSIC Level 4 LPT trainer which means that Tracey is certified to train ski instructors at the very highest level.

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How can you keep control over a group without creating conflict? This is something that even the most experienced leader can find challenging.

When people trust their leader’s decision making and are content to follow the leader’s directions, being the leader of the group can be easy.

However, most people are not willing to blindly follow their leader’s direction. An important human need is to retain a sense of control. This need for control can often be driven by our ego. It can also manifest itself as an anti-authority mindset where we can want to do things our own way.

Joining us to explore key strategies that leaders can use to keep the right amount of control over their group is Madeleine Martin-Preney.

Madeleine Martin‑Preney is a certified ACMG Ski Guide, Hiking Guide, and Apprentice Rock Guide based in Revelstoke, BC.

Madeleine shares important insights from her guiding career on how she manages to both give and keep control when she is leading. Knowing how to give and take control is an essential skill for every adventure guide, instructor and team leader to master. In this episode, we discuss how you can do it more effectively.

Key Takeaways

How can a leader maintain the right amount of control over a group?

Having too little control: Can lead to people making decisions for themselves. This can cause people to go in different directions. When the leader does not have control, it can also erode trust in the leader.

Having too much control: Can cause people to push back. Having a measure of control is an important need and when we do not give people some sense of control for themselves, they can rebel. People want to feel that they are part of the experience instead of just feeling like they are being led or managed.

Right Balance: Give people control where you can so that you can take it back when you need to.

Building trust early: Can help the leader to avoid having people challenge their control.

Creating systems: Having everyone understand how systems work and how they can contribute to the system or work within it can be a really powerful tool.

Guest Bio

Madeleine Martin‑Preney is a certified ACMG Ski Guide, Hiking Guide, and Apprentice Rock Guide based in Revelstoke, BC. Born and raised in Nelson, BC, she earned her full ski guide certification in 2018. An avid backcountry adventurer, she completed the first full ski traverse of the Selkirk Mountains (520 km, 43 000 m elevation) and participated in the Bugaboos‑to‑Rogers Pass expedition featured in the film Mind Over Mountain.

Madeleine has served on the ACMG Board of Directors with Chris and I for the past nine years. She is also involved with Mountain Muscox. Mountain Muskox is a community-based organization that provides peer support circles for individuals who have experienced loss or trauma in the mountains.

Guest Links

Madeleine’s Instagram: @madoalpine

Geary’s Guiding: https://gearysguiding.com

Mountain Muscox: https://www.mountainmuskox.com

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What stops us from practising good self-care even when we know we should? What can we do about it? We all know that practicing good self-care is important. Unfortunately, it isn’t always easy.

In this episode of Delivering Adventure, Sarah Janin returns to share a story of a time where she inadvertently neglected her self-care which led to some fairly serious consequences. This leads into a great discussion around some of the obstacles around practicing good self-care for us and the people that we may be leading.

Sarah is a certified American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) Rock and Split Board Guide and an assistant AMGA Alpine Guide. 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.

Sarah joined Delivering Adventure in Season 2 to share her perspective on the importance of self-care. As a type 1 diabetic who leads an extremely athletic lifestyle, Sarah has a unique perspective on the importance and challenges of self-care.

Always candid, Sarah shares her real-life challenges and learnings. This is a fantastic conversation.

Key Insights

What are some of the obstacles to practicing good self-care and how can we avoid them:

Common Self-Care Obstacles: Cost, pressure to prioritize service to others ahead of safety to us, and embarrassment as we may be holding others up.

Macho Attitude: This is where we or the people we are leading may believe we can handle the consequences of not looking after ourselves

Recognizing Experience as an Obstacle: If we are inexperienced or younger, we may may not appreciate the long-term effects of not practicing good self-care.

Projection Bias: This is where it becomes difficult to predict how we might feel based on how we are feeling in the moment. This can also be a reason why we do not prioritize self-care.

Prioritizing Self-Care: Recognizing that self-care needs to be a necessary part of our day that needs to be prioritized. This is really step one. Being disciplined and holding ourselves accountable can help with this.

Importance of Routine: Following a routine can be extremely beneficial – of note is that one danger sign of neglecting our self-care is when we break from our routine.

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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