Silvercore Podcast 114 Ian McIntosh

Silvercore Podcast 114 Pushing Boundaries and Surviving the Unthinkable with Ian McIntosh

[00:00:00] Travis Bader: I'm Travis Bader, and this is the Silvercore podcast. Silvercore has been providing its members with the skills and knowledge necessary to be confident and proficient in the outdoors for over 20 years. And we make it easier for people to deepen their connection to the natural world. If you enjoy the positive and educational content.

[00:00:30] Travis Bader: We provide, please let others know by sharing, commenting, and following so that you can join in on everything that Silvercore stands for. If you'd like to learn more about becoming a member of the Silvercore club and community, visit our website at silvercore. ca.

[00:00:51] Travis Bader: He's a professional skier who's captivated audiences worldwide. He's a stuntman in the movie Inception and others. Survivor of a 1, 600 foot fall off a mountain in Alaska and pushes the boundaries of what is considered traversable. He's someone who's been changing the concept of what it means to be a professional outdoorsman in a healthy and positive way.

[00:01:11] Travis Bader: Welcome to the Silvercore 

[00:01:13] Ian McIntosh: podcast, Ian McIntosh. Thank you. Pleasure to be  here.

[00:01:15] Travis Bader: You know, when Emily said, you got to check this guy out, he is a cool dude. I got on the internet. I started looking at some of the stuff you do. And I would agree with Emily, you are a cool dude. You're doing some pretty amazing things in the world of skiing and just, you know, life in general, some of the stuff that you get into.

[00:01:35] Travis Bader: I'm, I'm curious because, you know, we're an outdoors podcast and talk with the people and businesses that comprise the community. How did you first get started into this?

[00:01:49] Ian McIntosh: Well, I mean, that's just through my family and where I grew up, I guess, or, you know, I'm very obviously privileged and blessed in that sense. I grew up in Invermere, BC, um, interior BC and my, both my parents were avid skiers, backcountry skiers. You know, I had the Purcell mountains at my fingertips. I grew up ski racing and, uh, my mom was a level three ski instructor.

[00:02:14] Ian McIntosh: My dad, uh, dabbled in the guide world. And, And was president of the back country, a HUD association when I grew up. So it was just, I was just constantly in the mountains when I was, I remember when I was really little, I don't even, I didn't even think there was anywhere in the world that didn't have mountains.

[00:02:30] Ian McIntosh: Really? I remember figuring that out as a kid, like, whoa, there's places that don't have mountains. I thought everywhere did. And so, you know, very privileged in that sense and blessed in that sense that I grew up in that environment and, uh, Yeah, my parents were always just pushing me outside and, and, you know, I, I developed a passion for it pretty early.

[00:02:47] Travis Bader: read that you learned to ski before you 

[00:02:49] Ian McIntosh: learned to walk. Right around the same time. Yeah, it was basically the same, same time. Um, now obviously having kids now, I realize that the notion of like taking a two year old skiing is, is novel. Novelty, um, or a less than two year old skiing. So it's very novelty skiing at that point, but, but nonetheless, you know, got the skis on, got the feel for it at a super young age.

[00:03:10] Ian McIntosh: I, I learned how to ski before I remember for sure. So, uh, for me, it's, it's the same as walking. 

[00:03:18] Travis Bader: So, you know, I I've read through, you've got a number of quotes. I'm going to get into them in a little bit, but. There was a couple of, there's one viral fall that really captivated my attention. Cause it was whole thing was caught on video.

[00:03:30] Travis Bader: That was 1600 feet in Alaska. And you were what, heli dropped in on a mountain and decided to just run this line and everything went sideways. 

[00:03:40] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. I mean, basically, um, you know, I've, Doing what I do for a living, there's a certain amount of steps that you take, um, when you're approaching these kinds of mountains that, that you do to ensure that you're doing it safely and that you're going to, you know, uh, ski out the bottom and, uh, that particular face, we really wanted it on that trip.

[00:04:01] Ian McIntosh: And it was this, this type of face that was so North facing, it only got light and the Ridge that went off of it, it only got. Sunlight on it for like 15 minutes at like 7 AM. And so we had to get the heli off the ground before, you know, it was even technically supposed to be legally allowed to, and we had to, you know, we, and then we skipped all these, like, you know, the amount of time that we spend scoping lines.

[00:04:25] Ian McIntosh: And I honestly looked at the mountain is not that tough of a ski. Like it's for the mountains that I ski, that was pretty easy line for me, I thought. And so I didn't really give the mountain. The respect it deserved. And I paid the price for all that. I, I, you know, I skipped a lot of steps. I rushed it. I didn't pay homage or respect to the mountain and then yeah, dropped in.

[00:04:46] Ian McIntosh: And the, and the light was really playing tricks with my eyes and the shadows. And, uh, we call these like kind of fluted features in Alaska. We call them spines. And I was on the sunny side of the spine and I thought I could do a turn on the shady side, but the shady side was just like this vertical wall that dropped into a.

[00:05:03] Ian McIntosh: Ditch into a trough. And once I fell into that trough, I knew it was either, okay, I could straight line this whole mountain, which I'm going to explode at the bottom and probably break myself into pieces, or I can try and get back onto the spine. And when I tried to get back on the spine, because it was such a steep little vertical wall, it basically just high sided me, spun me around backwards and I lost both my skis and I was tumbling.

[00:05:26] Ian McIntosh: Um, yeah. And then next thing I know, uh, that video goes out. And it's viral and I'm on good morning, America and CNN and all this stuff. Um, yeah, it was a bit of a whirlwind for a few days there. What 

[00:05:39] Travis Bader: was going through your mind right as you're dropping in? 

[00:05:42] Ian McIntosh: Right as I was dropping in, um, not much, like just like, you know, typically that's what I love about what I do is when you drop in, there's, you're just reacting, your, your brain shuts off and it's like, it's kind of almost this meditative state where, where you stop thinking about everything.

[00:05:59] Ian McIntosh: And you're just now doing. It's a forced presence. It's very, yeah, very forced presentness. And so I, uh, yeah, not much. I was just thinking about, you know, linking turns and, and, um, not until did I drop off the wrong side of the spine, did anything occur to me that it was going to be challenging or difficult or, or weird or anything like that.

[00:06:20] Ian McIntosh: So before I knew it, I was tomahawking down that mountain. So the second 

[00:06:24] Travis Bader: you start tomahawking. In your head, what's going on 

[00:06:28] Ian McIntosh: in my head? I'm like, I'm going to the bottom of this mountain and, uh, this sucks and I'm inhaling tons of snow. And basically those troughs were all that they're formed from this because the mountain's so steep, it's constantly shedding snow and it sheds in those troughs.

[00:06:43] Ian McIntosh: So the bottom of the trough is like rock hard as hard as this table. And so I'm just like bouncing off of what feels like ice and, and getting pushed by all the moving snow. And I knew I was going to the bottom. So I was just like, I gotta just. Like try and grit and bear it. And, you know, um, I think I was on like the Jason Ellis show and he was like, it sounded like Homer Simpson falling into the Springfield Gorge, like, oh, yeah, that was me like the whole way down.

[00:07:08] Ian McIntosh: But, uh, you know, I pulled my airbag to think like, maybe that'll provide me some sort of protection. Um, it was just kind of biding my time until I got to the bottom. Really. Did it 

[00:07:18] Travis Bader: cross your mind? You might not make it through that fall. 

[00:07:21] Ian McIntosh: Um. My biggest concern was at the bottom of these mountains, there's the thing, a big crack usually where the glaciers pulling away from the base of the mountain.

[00:07:29] Ian McIntosh: That's called the Berks run. And my concern was going in that, but then I felt myself go over that. I felt myself do a double flip where all my other Tomahawks were single flips. And so I felt myself do a double flip. And I was like, that was the Berks run. I'm almost at the bottom. And I knew like, once I, once I was past that, I felt like I was going to be all good.

[00:07:49] Ian McIntosh: So that was my big concern. Did you ever get your skis back? Uh, yeah, actually, um, my good friend, Angel Collinson, she was still up top cause she was going to ski a line and we kind of aborted all everyone else skiing lines on the face and she just kind of picked her way down slowly and gathered my gear for me.

[00:08:06] Travis Bader: That wasn't the first kind of big spill that you took, was it? 

[00:08:09] Ian McIntosh: No, uh, I'd say that one. And then in 2011, uh, which was many years earlier was probably my biggest crash. And that was again in Alaska. 

[00:08:20] Travis Bader: And so yours, you said something I thought was kind of cool. You said you didn't pay homage to the mountain.

[00:08:26] Travis Bader: What do you mean by that? 

[00:08:27] Ian McIntosh: Uh, I mean, mother nature deserves respect is what I mean by that. And it doesn't matter if you're going hunting or fishing or, um, mountain biking or skiing or whatever it is. If you're playing in mother nature and you're out in the wilderness, it deserves respect in the mountains, especially the snow covered mountains deserve an extra level of, of respect, I feel.

[00:08:49] Ian McIntosh: And, uh, by not. You know, doing my due diligence, uh, beforehand, before I ski it, I feel like I'm disrespecting the mountain in a way. And, and ultimately when you do that, you, you can pay the price. We had 

[00:09:03] Travis Bader: a guest on here before she was on the TV show alone, where they drop you off and you've got to survive all on your own.

[00:09:09] Travis Bader: And Nikki Van Schendel and she, um, she was an ace in the hole for, uh, for that show. They ended up giving her a medical RTU, just. Because the doctor said she'd lost too much weight. She said she felt she was on top of the world. Right. But there's something that she said that always stuck with me. Um, she says, you know, when you come from the city and you go into the woods, all the little brown birds are chirping.

[00:09:34] Travis Bader: Yeah. All the squirrels are chirping at you. You're not in sync with what's going on. And she says, every time that she leaves one environment to go into the next one, when she leaves the city or wherever she was a little higher, faster pace to go into the forest. She'll say, hello, forest. It's me, Nikki. And she'll introduce herself and she'll go through this process.

[00:09:54] Travis Bader: And it sounds. I like that. It sounds airy fairy, but you know what? I do it as well. And she says, the forest will accept you. The, the birds will stop chirping. The squirrels will stop. So you start, cause about day three, if you're. If you're just doing, going into the forest without going through a process, usually by about day three, things start ignoring you and you start finding your flow.

[00:10:19] Travis Bader: And you, you, you work with. 

[00:10:20] Ian McIntosh: Your energy starts to align with your environment. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, everything's energy, right? Where we're all, everything in this world is 99. 99 to the 12th decibel point of nines of energy, more than it is mass or anything. Right. And the forest is all energy. All those creatures are energy.

[00:10:37] Ian McIntosh: We're energy. We're all admitting energy. And so if you walk into the forest and your energy's not in line with, or into the wilderness and your energy's not in line with that space, like, i. e., you were just at camp and you'd hopped in a helicopter and heli'd to the top of a mountain and then dropped in before you even said, Hey, mountain!

[00:10:56] Ian McIntosh: I'm here to ski you. 

[00:10:58] Travis Bader: That's right. It sounds cheesy, but there's 

[00:11:01] Ian McIntosh: something to it. There is something to it. And whether it's just, you know, internal or, or it is definitely something linked to that energy that connects everything. Um, yeah, it, there's, there's a bit of that going on and you got to pay homage for 

[00:11:15] Travis Bader: sure.

[00:11:16] Travis Bader: Well, it sounds like there's a bit of an energy shift. For you after the 2011 injury, do you want to talk about this? What, what was going on in your life at the time? What was the 

[00:11:24] Ian McIntosh: injury? Yeah. So, I mean, I've told this story a few times obviously, but, uh, at that time, you know, I was pretty on top of the world with my ski career.

[00:11:34] Ian McIntosh: Uh, things were feeling pretty good, but my personal life was pretty rocky. I was married to a woman that I'm not, no longer married to. Uh, and. Uh, it was not going well. There was a lot of drama and anxiety in my life, uh, things were not lining up in that respect, and, uh, it was the same week I threw my wedding ring in the garbage, told her I was done, and then, uh, the next day, we'd been waiting three weeks for good weather, and the next day it popped blue, and it was blue for five days, and I wasn't sleeping, and Cause I was thinking about my failed marriage and all the, everything else that was going on my life.

[00:12:11] Ian McIntosh: And then I, if, if I wasn't thinking about that, I was thinking about like all the gnarly lines I wanted to ski the next day that I have photos of, you know, and that just kept me up for night after night after night. And then by day five, you know, I was actually having one of the best sessions of my life and I was kind of skiing angry, but like it was working out, you know, I was like skiing, um, at a very high level for me.

[00:12:32] Ian McIntosh: And, and that morning we went out and skied. Pretty amazing line for me. Uh, and then, you know, I started the whole area where I was like, I'm not going to ski there. Like, that's like a no go zone. All of a sudden I'm like, I'm going there. And again, it's like this disrespect for the place. Like my initial gut instinct was don't go there.

[00:12:51] Ian McIntosh: And then, you know. My first run went really well. My ego gets inflated even more. I'm kind of pissed off about everything else that's going on in my life. And I'm like, I'm going to go ski that and show everyone how rad I am. And it's going to be the most next level thing that anyone's ever seen. And everyone will love me for it, you know?

[00:13:08] Ian McIntosh: And, and so I run, I go up there, heli up there and drop in. And anyway, it took a huge fall, broke my femur, had to get extracted off the mountain, uh, flown back to. Uh, Vancouver from, from Alaska and a Medijet had, you know, a rod put in my leg and returned home a few days later, you know, I'd lost a couple of liters of blood, but I turned, came home a few days later to my home in Pemberton, B.

[00:13:33] Ian McIntosh: C. and, and empty house, wife was gone, uh, broken leg, career might be. Hanging in the balance. And, uh, it was a huge time of self reflection and growth for me. And I'm a completely different person than I was before that. What process did you go through? Oh, well, there's the first, the process of like, woes me feeling, feeling sorry for yourself.

[00:13:58] Ian McIntosh: But then there's like, wait a second. I'm, I'm responsible for everything in my life. So take the responsibility, own it. Why are you here? And it's like, Oh, well, it turns out you're an egomaniac and everything you're doing is to inflate your ego, including your hot wife. That wasn't a proper match for you, but was, you know, looked a certain way.

[00:14:23] Ian McIntosh: So it inflated your ego even more, you know? Um, and so being able to kind of reflect on. Where I was and like, okay, how do I move forward in this career? And in my life with we all have ego, like I'm not sitting here, I'm not sitting here today claiming I don't have an ego anymore, but putting all that in check and figuring out, um, what's really important and how do I move forward in what I do in career and in life so that I'm staying true to myself and not doing things so that other people will approve of me.

[00:14:57] Ian McIntosh: Or like me or whatever it may be and turns out I was, I was skiing a lot of stuff back in those days to impress. Sure. Um, and ego is a powerful thing and I think as a young man, it can get us a lot of places, you know, but, uh. You know, as someone who is trying to figure out where I got to and how I got there, I, I came to that conclusion that I needed to put my ego in check and start and start approaching life from a different way.

[00:15:24] Travis Bader: So, I mean, we can look at somebody like Eckhart Tolle, who had the, uh, four agreement. 

[00:15:30] Ian McIntosh: Right. Or no, sorry. That's no, that's Don Miguel Ruiz. Uh, Eckhart Tolle. Is that the power of now? That's him. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

[00:15:42] Travis Bader: And I love listening to his stuff, but I can only listen to it for so long before I start falling asleep, but, but maybe that's part of the process. 

[00:15:49] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. Um, yeah, but yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, uh, great wisdom in those books and it was a, definitely a period for me where I was reaching to those and I still do those self growth books.

[00:16:00] Ian McIntosh: Um, you know, kind of trying to become a better version of myself. Uh, and that was, I think, the time in my life where I stopped thinking that I knew it all and I stopped thinking that I was the man and I was the best and I started going, you know nothing, you're not the man, and started being more grateful for everything I had and started, you know, just I Putting everything in check.

[00:16:24] Ian McIntosh: And since then, everything is kind of been working out way better for me. Um, since I, since I realigned myself, if you will. 

[00:16:32] Travis Bader: I find that to be a commonality between successful people that I've met or have been on the podcast. And that's the common theme is that one of gratitude, uh, oftentimes talking about energy and an energy, two things, whatever the, whether you can quantify it, put your finger on it, or just call it that.

[00:16:52] Travis Bader: And, um. Being responsible, knowing that. Everything that happens to you, whether it's good or it's bad is based on, on you and you have a level of control over it. And you know, Eckhart Tolle's got no ego. So he says, right. Or from what I've heard of, there's a death of the ego and it sounds really neat. I, I think a certain level of legal is important if it's managed properly, if people know how to manage it.

[00:17:20] Travis Bader: I think Eckhart 

[00:17:20] Ian McIntosh: Tolle's book sales, uh, fuel his ego. We all have one. I think he's got his very well in check. You know, and he's, he, he understands it and he has a great relationship with it, but to say that you have no ego is, is very, I think, very, uh, uncommon or rare, or I don't, I don't know if I think even Buddha had an ego.

[00:17:45] Ian McIntosh: I'd say so. You know, like the most, I think everyone does. It's, it's just a matter of like what your relationship with your ego is like. Yeah. 

[00:17:55] Travis Bader: So what's your relationship 

[00:17:56] Ian McIntosh: with your ego like? Well, these days I've liked to feel that, um, I'm constantly checking in with that. How? You know, in just making sure that I'm a, I'm approaching life, uh, for the reasons that I want to approach life, you know, and, and when I go into the mountains, I'm approaching the mountains because I want to be, do that.

[00:18:16] Ian McIntosh: I'm, I'm skiing a line because I want to have that adventure because I want to prove to myself that I can do that. And rather than trying to prove to everyone else, I've got nothing else to prove. I don't need to prove to anyone else and I don't need anyone else's approval anymore. And it's funny, the more you do that, the more approval you get.

[00:18:40] Ian McIntosh: And so it's, it's the whole notion of like, you know, to, to have abundance, you need to first feel abundant. Uh, you know, people who feel like they lack and have lack will create more lack for themself. People who feel abundant and grateful and full of gratitude will continue to attract more of what they are grateful for and makes them feel abundant in the first place.

[00:19:04] Ian McIntosh: And so that's why I think everyone always comes back to that gratitude thing and it really helps you put your ego in check because then if you can just keep coming back to, well, what am I grateful right now? What do I need? Well, I don't need anything. You really don't need much, do you? No. I mean, especially at this point in my life, I've got everything as a young man who is sleeping in a closet and Whistler paying 200 bucks a month rent.

[00:19:27] Ian McIntosh: So I could ski every day. Everything I have right now is what I dreamt of having in those days. And I look back to those days as some of the funnest times in my life, because there was just not a care in the world, but everything I have, I already have. And so how could I not feel. Like I am abundant and grateful and all this sorts of stuff because yeah, I mean as we grow we always want more You know, yes, that's the nature of the beast.

[00:19:55] Ian McIntosh: That's called being a human being but But realizing and constantly putting that in check with like hey the younger version of you looking at you now 

[00:20:08] Travis Bader: I just came back from a hunting trip with a guy. He said, you know, some of the happiest times in my life were when I had nothing. Yeah. And I was trying to, I was working towards something I was trying to make it.

[00:20:19] Travis Bader: And you look at me now, it feels like I got everything and, and, uh, but I've got all these stresses and problems and headaches that go with it. 

[00:20:26] Ian McIntosh: More money, more problems, you know, money, more problems. It's, it's, it's the nature of the beast, but you know, at the same time, um, it's, it's, You got to also realize that like, Hey, all those things that you have, you know, you've worked your butt off for, and yes, now it's, it's, I think in, in our society, it's, it's crucial to not fall into the trap of trying to keep up with the Joneses to just have stuff because everyone else has stuff and you need to have, you need to present this version of yourself.

[00:20:55] Ian McIntosh: That's your ego that wants, wants all these materialistic things. And then those materialistic things inevitably end up trapping you into this. You know, feedback loop where you're constantly trying to work to pay for all your things instead of just being grateful and not needing anything. And then everything, and then more of everything will just flow to you.

[00:21:17] Ian McIntosh: It's kind of like a interesting way of looking at it, but the more I embody that, the more that is the case. I, I 

[00:21:25] Travis Bader: agree with you. I've said on the podcast in the past, you know, like money is not a motivator for me. No. Yeah. Like when I was younger and I had nothing and you think, well, man, if only I could have X amount, or if only I could have this item or that item, and you reach those stages and you get them and you realize that's not where happiness is found.

[00:21:44] Travis Bader: No. And. I had to release self reflect and say, what is it that I like to do? I like to create, I like to meet new people. I like to, uh, be positive, share positivity and try and create an environment around myself. That's going to influence the world in a more positive way. Right. And if I can keep building towards that, The interesting thing is that money will be a natural by product of the hard work and effort that you put in.

[00:22:08] Travis Bader: But if you chase that money, you're always going to be behind it. Exactly, 

[00:22:11] Ian McIntosh: exactly. Let go of the need for it and then it'll flow to you. It's the, it's the need of, or the feeling of lack versus the feeling of abundance. You know, it's like if you're completely content and you say, I don't need money, then all of a sudden money will be like, here I am.

[00:22:27] Ian McIntosh: It's like 

[00:22:29] Travis Bader: being a teenager, man, it'd be great to have a girlfriend. Well, when you have a girlfriend, all the other girls are interested in you. Right. It's. Yeah. 

[00:22:35] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. Or like, but I think back to being a single man, uh, even in between my marriages and it was like. This need of, of, of wanting a partner or needing a feeling like you need a partner, you'll never find that your partner, it's when you let go of that desire and that need, and you fall in love with yourself and you become content with who you are and where you are, your partner flows to you and it's the partner of your dreams.

[00:23:00] Ian McIntosh: And that's exactly what I'm living proof of that. It's exactly what 

[00:23:04] Travis Bader: happened to me. Fall in love with yourself. I think that's one of those things that a lot of people listening. We'll have a very difficult time with, I 

[00:23:13] Ian McIntosh: mean, I think in the era of things like social media and constant connectivity and all this sort of stuff, uh, mental health is, uh, at its worst and, and yeah, I'll agree with you.

[00:23:26] Ian McIntosh: It's, it's hard to wrap your head around. It's hard to get yourself to that place. And, and, uh, you know, I wasn't always where I am mentally, you know, but ultimately it's, it's, it's realizing. That, um, letting go of all that is, is the true key. 

[00:23:44] Travis Bader: So there's a common thread I've also seen, and that's people who say, look at, make your bed, right?

[00:23:51] Travis Bader: Tighten up your belt. Yeah. Straighten up, fly right. You're fully responsible for everything in your life and everything that happens to you, which I a hundred percent believe in. Yeah. And live by, but there's a dichotomy there as well. There's a level of control that an individual will try and feel over every aspect of their life in order to make sure that things are going in the right path.

[00:24:11] Travis Bader: And there's, there's a point where they have to let go and just understand what's going to be, is going to be, or essentially accept. Things for, as they are, I 

[00:24:20] Ian McIntosh: think. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, it's, it's like a funny analogy, but I don't know why it came to my head, but, uh, it's like the stock market, for instance, if you like do your homework and invest in some good stuff, but then you're trying to constantly play the game of trading and buying and selling sell, you know, sell high, buy low, all you're going to end up losing money or make very little.

[00:24:44] Ian McIntosh: Whereas if you just like let go, you're like, okay, I've put that there. And don't look at it for 20 years, you're going to come back and realize that your money's growing at least 10%, if not like way, way more, you know? And so, um, yeah, it's, it's that letting go of, of, of control over it all. And I think that's a lot of, a lot of people make that mistake.

[00:25:04] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. 

[00:25:04] Travis Bader: You also highlight a really important point that it's a long game. It's not a short game. And so many people look, I'm on top of the world. Oh, I'm the bottom. I'm on top. I'm on bottom. What's your long 

[00:25:13] Ian McIntosh: game look like? Well, the long game is, is, is making sure that you. That you continue to, uh, create a life that you want to be grateful for, you know, um, gratitude breeds more things to be grateful for.

[00:25:26] Ian McIntosh: Um, and so, yeah, my long game personally, like what are my current dreams? Yeah. Oh shit, man. So much like that's, I think, I think having dreams is a huge part of feeling alive and being human, but not just having dreams and, and being too scared to pursue them, like actually going and getting them, you know, and for me right now, um, you know, I've got a multitude of things that I could list right now.

[00:25:54] Ian McIntosh: But I'll, I'll take the one off the top of top of my head that sticks out the most is I want to get a big old 50 foot catamaran, sail catamaran. And I want to take my family around the world. Sail around the world. Do I currently know how to sail? Very little. Oh, I love it. But I am going to achieve that and I'm going to achieve it.

[00:26:13] Ian McIntosh: And there's no timeframe. But I will. And, uh, that's one of my goals and it has nothing to do with what I currently do in my life. But that's what I love about it. That's maybe why I'm so drawn to it. I've spent my life in the mountains and there's this whole ocean out there. Yeah. Like world of ocean, like so much ocean.

[00:26:31] Ian McIntosh: And, and, you know, I mean, there's a bit of sailing background in my family. Like my grandfather built a boat and my uncle sails and so on and so forth. But for me more, it's just that like, it's this whole new frontier of adventure and, and, um, Takes this whole new skill set that I don't currently have. And, and, you know, is going to challenge me and push me in so many different ways that I haven't done before.

[00:26:53] Ian McIntosh: That's what I love 

[00:26:54] Travis Bader: about it. Well, good friend of mine, Jason, he's, uh, said something to me one time, which has kind of become a, uh, a motto in our house. He says. He went, he bought himself a sailboat. Yeah. I'm like, I didn't know you could sail. He said, what do you, what do you mean? Anyone can sail a boat. You just, it's a boat and it's got a sail and you point the wind into it and you can sail a boat.

[00:27:13] Travis Bader: Am I going to be great at it? No, but I'll figure it out. Right. 

[00:27:17] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. I mean, the sailboats were built by humans for humans to operate. Right. So if you're a human being. You should be able to figure out how to 

[00:27:24] Travis Bader: operate. So whenever there's something challenging or something coming up, talk with the kids.

[00:27:29] Travis Bader: Anyone can sail a boat. This has become a little catechism that we just 

[00:27:33] Ian McIntosh: keep throwing in. That's awesome. I love it. 

[00:27:35] Travis Bader: Um, yeah, I remember about 20 years ago, I was teaching a course out at, I think it was a Renfrew park community center, maybe it was a Croatian cultural center. A guy came in, he'd written a book about sailing around the world and, uh, interesting fellow, adventurous spirit.

[00:27:52] Travis Bader: And he went out with his wife and he says, well, we made it to Australia. And then we realized that, uh, we weren't meant to be in such tight, confined quarters for such a long period of time. I give it to her, she stuck with me for that long, but, uh, we're no longer married. So yeah, 

[00:28:07] Ian McIntosh: there's, uh, there's probably two things that'll test a marriage more than anything else.

[00:28:11] Ian McIntosh: And that's having kids and then putting yourself on a sailboat. Yeah, that'll test your marriage for sure. I mean, my, my uncle and my aunt, uh, sailed halfway around the world on a boat that my grandfather built. Uh, and then when they were in Australia, they were. Yeah. My aunt was like, I'm going back. They live in Fernie, BC.

[00:28:29] Ian McIntosh: And she's like, I'm going back because I miss my grandchildren or I have grandchildren now, I want to see them. I miss my kids. Like I, I want to be connected with family. And so my uncle sailed solo from Australia back to Vancouver. 

[00:28:43] Travis Bader: That'd be an adventure. Like you need an autopilot on that thing, eh? Oh yeah.

[00:28:47] Travis Bader: Yeah. Yeah. I remember reading about Bear Grylls. He took a rigid inflatable from, uh, Nova Scotia over to Ireland and, uh, him and I think a couple of other people getting this book of records, doing this thing. And I'm like. Just trying to wrap my head around what that looks like. And like, how do you pre plan for these weather conditions that could, may or may not be happening.

[00:29:07] Ian McIntosh: It's. It's, it's a wild adventure and you're really throwing yourself out there, especially doing it in like dinghy, like they did, you know, I mean, yeah, it's one thing to do it in a big ocean going vessel. It's another thing to do it in a, in a small little boat. So yeah, they, they threw themselves out there, but they also probably knew what they were doing.

[00:29:25] Ian McIntosh: So, 

[00:29:26] Travis Bader: so would you say that you're an adrenaline junkie? 

[00:29:30] Ian McIntosh: I mean, I don't know. Sure, I guess. I mean, I used, you know, I used to think so definitely. And then, you know, I bass jumped for a number of years. And I remember being in Switzerland on this three week base jumping trip. And I'm like on vacation. And when we did like 49 base jumps in 19 days, me and my buddy, and I remember at one point, like near the end of the trip, I'm like, man, I just want to stop being scared for a couple of days.

[00:30:02] Ian McIntosh: It was like, almost like. I was getting tapped out on adrenaline and I started to realize that like, there is more to life than just being full of adrenaline all the time. Not to say that I don't love it. Not to say that, like when I ski a really nice line and I get to the bottom, I don't feel like so fricking alive, you know, but, um, but yeah, a junkie, maybe a connoisseur.

[00:30:28] Travis Bader: I won't like that or something. Adrenaline caught a sewer. 

[00:30:33] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. I only like the sweetest, most fresh adrenaline that there is, the purest adrenaline now, um, not just like all the time, whatever adrenaline I can find, you know, the, the real special moments. 

[00:30:46] Travis Bader: So what is it that makes you feel alive in those moments?

[00:30:49] Travis Bader: Because from a personal perspective, I know in times when I've done something well outside of my comfort zone and the odds of survival or not survival are kind of in the balance there, I know you never. Truly feel as alive as when you've almost died. It's true. Would that be, what's the sort of driving 

[00:31:09] Ian McIntosh: factor there?

[00:31:10] Ian McIntosh: I think so. Yeah. And I think it's, you know, a, you've been launched like, like a monk who's been practicing for 50 years to get into this like state of pure. Oneness and consciousness you've been thrust into that world of like, I'm not thinking about anything. I'm just reacting. So it's like this meditative, very active meditative 

[00:31:34] Travis Bader: state.

[00:31:35] Travis Bader: It's a forced meditation. It's a forced 

[00:31:37] Ian McIntosh: meditation like we were talking about and then and then you pop out of it and you've put yourself right at the edge and pulled it off. Just like you knew you could, knew you would, and there's nothing that feels so good because you're like, it's, it's all those, it's all those emotions rushing in, but it's also the, like, I knew I could do it.

[00:31:56] Ian McIntosh: And you like put yourself out there because you wanted to see what you're capable of. And you pulled it off and it was right on the edge, you know, there's something about that, that, yeah, it makes you feel super alive. And that's where I think a lot of people get trapped into it and they become more of the junkie variety.

[00:32:15] Ian McIntosh: And then maybe they start to make, you know, I've been lucky, uh, my, my couple big, bad decisions. Uh, in the big mountains I walked or not walked away from, but I lived through and, uh, not everyone gets that opportunity, you know, so it, there is a bit of luck there and so on and so forth, but yeah, it's, it's really about that like feeling of, I've just put myself to the very edge and I pulled it off just like I knew I could, you know.

[00:32:45] Travis Bader: You know, like you say, Oh, I would say to my wife, it always works out. And she says, well, that's because you're still alive. When, when you're playing that game, the workout is, you don't get to say that anymore, right? Yeah, exactly. 

[00:32:58] Ian McIntosh: And you won't even realize. Yeah. 

[00:33:01] Travis Bader: So a couple of kids now. Yeah. Uh, two and four.

[00:33:05] Travis Bader: Yeah. Nothing I found, nothing makes you recognize your own mortality like that of having children yourself. 100%. Uh, it's 

[00:33:16] Ian McIntosh: changed my game in the sense that like, you know, I've had kids and I'm a bit older now, same with my wife. We're both in our early forties. Um, and so it's in the sense that like, man, I better like be the healthiest version of myself so that I can be around for as long as possible.

[00:33:37] Ian McIntosh: Cause I want to see these two little girls grow into women and have families of their own or whatever they decide to do with their lives. Um, so there's a bit of that and yeah, it checks your mortality in the sense that like, wow, you know, I've, I'm now at this stage of my life. When I was a kid, I looked at my parents like they're so old.

[00:33:58] Ian McIntosh: And, you know, and now my dad's gone. I still have my mom's still around and, and, but it's like, okay, you know, like when these little girls are my age, I'm going to be on my way out if not already, you know? And so, yeah, it does in that sense, but it also, um, It also forces me to make sure that I'm really making those good decisions with everything I'm doing.

[00:34:20] Ian McIntosh: And, you know, I don't want to be the, the person that like the second I had kids, I'm like, okay, I'm done taking risk. And then, and then show that to my kids, like, well, the second I had you, I stopped taking risks because I love you so much, but then I'm not showing you how to live your life properly in my mind, my opinion.

[00:34:40] Ian McIntosh: But you know, Some, some risks are more tolerable than others. I felt before I even had kids, I felt that base jumping was more risk than I was willing to take on. Um, and there's a multitude of reasons for that, but like I wasn't even about to have kids yet, but I just, I just knew that I was probably going to kill myself in that sport.

[00:35:01] Ian McIntosh: I wasn't afraid enough. And, uh, of, of the risks that I was taking. And so I needed to take a step back. And so, yeah, it's finding that, like, it's different for everybody, finding that healthy balance of, of still being able to put yourself out there and take risk because ultimately that's. You know, a life well lived and you'll be happier and so on and so forth, but also ensuring now as a parent that I'm making good decisions and, and that, um, you know, I'm going to set myself up hopefully to live the longest life I can too, because life's too good to just end it short.

[00:35:37] Travis Bader: So when you first started down this process, we're doing pretty damn early age. When, when did you first started getting sponsored? 

[00:35:44] Ian McIntosh: Uh, my first like gear sponsors, I was in my early twenties. Okay. Um, and then my first contract was 2006. 

[00:35:56] Travis Bader: So you were getting up in your game, getting higher and higher. Yeah.

[00:36:00] Ian McIntosh: And now I think I was like 24. So yeah. Um, yeah, you know, it was, it. You know, I moved out to the Whistler area, um, from the interior with the idea, you know, I thought I was going to be a guide, which I've now got my guide ticket in just the last couple of years, but I thought I was going to be a guide as a young man.

[00:36:16] Ian McIntosh: And, um, I, you know, I kind of got like these like hunches that I could pursue this pro skiing career. And I met some guys from Whistler and they've. We're like, dude, you got what it takes. Like you should move out to Whistler. And, and then I started doing the contest scene and all that sort of stuff and filming and, and everything.

[00:36:34] Ian McIntosh: And yeah, you know, things just kind of, you know, slowly, you know, for an inpatient person, especially a young twenties, it was taking forever looking back at it at all, just kind of like happened, you know, in the right order, how it should happen. And I slowly, slowly started to build my way up and. Build my credentials and eventually got the opportunities I needed to start making a living doing it.

[00:36:56] Travis Bader: Were you taking some silly risks to kind of stand out from the crowd? 

[00:36:59] Ian McIntosh: Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was, yeah, constantly anyone who wanted to watch me do anything, I was throwing myself three sheets to the wind, you know, like, uh, no, no fear. And just going for it. And it didn't matter if it was just someone on the ski resort, like watching, or, you know, there was a camera on me or whatever it was, or is this is a contest.

[00:37:21] Ian McIntosh: I was like out there to prove to everyone what I could do, or what I thought I could do. 

[00:37:26] Travis Bader: You see, that was a necessary part of the process, or would you say that now in 

[00:37:29] Ian McIntosh: hindsight? I would say yes. And that's why I said, like, you know, going back to the ego thing is like, as a young boy, I think that that's when our egos are strongest or a young man, I should say, and that's not necessarily a bad thing because it's going to cause you to pursue your dreams.

[00:37:49] Ian McIntosh: Um, now there is points where you could maybe go to an unhealthy side of that. Um, I started to get to that unhealthy place. And had a huge reality check as we talked about. And that's how I've kind of like found myself where I am now. But I don't think without being so, uh, egocentric as a young man, I would have got where I am today.

[00:38:12] Travis Bader: If your daughter started going down this route, what would you have to say to them? 

[00:38:17] Ian McIntosh: I would say, uh, if, if that's, what's going to make you happy, 100%, I support it full heartedly, but know that you're going to beat your body up. And then as a middle aged person need to find a new career and you're going to have a beat up body and need to find a new career because As a professional skier, I'm not an NFL football player.

[00:38:37] Ian McIntosh: I'm not making the kind of money where I can just retire when I'm done my sport. I need to find, need to reinvent myself. And so as, as long as they're aware of that and, you know, for me, if I could do it all over again, I would probably try and go down a path where I, you know, change the world in, in some way.

[00:38:55] Ian McIntosh: And whatever that looks like, I don't know, but like. I guess, you know, I, it's funny because on a recent trip in Chile, um, a guy, a guy kind of presented this back to me cause we were having a similar, similar conversation. He's like, well, you're only 41. Why don't you, you still can go do that? It's what I just wrote down.

[00:39:15] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. And I was like, huh, you're right. And so, yeah, there's like some things in the works that I'm like, Huh, okay. There is like some ideas being sparked of like, how could I, how could I do something that would have a positive impact beyond just inspiring people to get outside and inspiring people to push themselves and, you know, whatever I do as a pro skier.

[00:39:36] Ian McIntosh: Um, but yeah, something a little bit more profound that I can look back at my daughters and be like, daddy tried, daddy, daddy did his best to, to kind of set you girls up for, for a future. 

[00:39:48] Travis Bader: Well, I think those two right there are going to be the easiest vehicle towards changing the future and changing, having an impact on the world.

[00:39:56] Ian McIntosh: 100%. Yeah. Yeah. I look at, I look at the next generation, you know, um, my kids, other people's kids. I hope people are raising their kids to, to have those kinds of morals and to love nature and to love, um, the natural world and to want to protect it and want to preserve it. Um, you know, I think the, you know, I don't eat meat anymore, but I think the hunting community does a great job of this in a lot of ways.

[00:40:21] Ian McIntosh: There, there are some ways that maybe could have been. Could be done better, but you know, there's still that passion for nature and preserving it and, and wanting it to be there for future generations so that they can go out and experience the same things and get their own wild meat and so on and so forth.

[00:40:36] Ian McIntosh: So, you know, there's a lot of polarities there and, and, uh, and that's, that's all you can hope for is, is that your kids grow up and, and are the voice and, and go out there and do something to actually make 

[00:40:49] Travis Bader: a difference. That was one of the things that gave me a chuckle when Tiffany was talking with you.

[00:40:53] Travis Bader: And yeah, do you think I'll be a good fit for this podcast? Because like, I don't eat meat. Yeah. That's good. From my perspective, that's, that's neither here nor there. 

[00:41:04] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. And that was just kind of my uneducated, uh, response to like, okay, it seems like you guys are very like, want to interview people that are into hunting and fishing and so on.

[00:41:13] Ian McIntosh: And like, I used to be a meatitarian. And they're, if I go live on a sailboat, I'm going to probably eat fish again. Sure. You know, um. 

[00:41:21] Travis Bader: Oh, you cut fish 

[00:41:22] Ian McIntosh: out as well. Like everything. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, I went full vegan for three years and then. Talk me through this 

[00:41:28] Travis Bader: process because it's foreign to me, but I'd like to understand.

[00:41:32] Travis Bader: Yeah. 

[00:41:32] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. Um, well, so a good friend of mine, Julia Murray, uh, Dave Murray, downhiller has. It's got a run on Whistler mountain called Dave Murray downhill, his daughter, uh, good friend of mine and amazing human being. She is, you know, your quintessential high energy vegan chick that, um, she'd, she's, you know, works for blogs and she works, you know, on social media and like, that's her job or has been her job.

[00:42:02] Ian McIntosh: She just got a real estate license, but it has been her job for years, um, to. To promote veganism. And, you know, I was interested. I was like, you know what? You're bouncing off the walls with energy. You're kicking all the boys butts on the hill climbs on the bikes. And, you know, I'm into whatever you got going on, let me give it a go.

[00:42:22] Ian McIntosh: And so I, you know, I'm open minded to anything and I'll try anything for at least a while. And, um. Yeah. Veganism was great. Like, you know, it takes some time to adjust to and figure out how to get your proper nutrition. Is that hard? At first. Yeah. Cause you're just like, what do I eat? I don't know what to eat.

[00:42:45] Ian McIntosh: And like, you, you know, you're constantly missing things in your diet. And then as time goes on, it's less difficult. Now. You know, last year I went to Italy with my family for three weeks and we got back into the cheese pretty hard and I came back and I'm like, okay, you know what? Like vegetarian actually for now is where I want to be.

[00:43:06] Ian McIntosh: And I don't know if a year from now I'm going to go back to being vegan or go back to eating meat or pescetarian, whatever. I'm open to anything. I'm not closed minded about anything. I'm just, this is what feels right for me right now. You know, I've got this really sick. Gosney pizza oven sent to me and, and I saw that.

[00:43:24] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. And so I'm like, I did not 

[00:43:25] Travis Bader: put pepperoni on that 

[00:43:26] Ian McIntosh: pizza. Well, I mean, I, yeah, I don't put pepperoni on it, but a lot of my friends put there, you know, I cook a lot of pepperoni pizzas at my house for my friends, you know, football Sundays and stuff, but, um, For me, it was like, I, this fake cheese, this like cashew cheese is great.

[00:43:43] Ian McIntosh: Like, I don't, it's just a dip. I don't call it cheese. You know, it's like all these other vegan cheeses that are like made from nuts. They're, they're delicious and good for you. Yes. But like the type of fake cheese that melts on a pizza doesn't work. It's made of coconut oil and a million other ingredients you can't pronounce.

[00:44:01] Ian McIntosh: So that's in my mind, not better for you. Um, and so that's where I kind of started drawing the line. I'm like, I like pizza and I'm going to have real cheese on my pizza. 

[00:44:12] Travis Bader: Damn it. I'm not going to have a bacon. If 

[00:44:15] Ian McIntosh: I'm not having all this other amazing like meat product, I'm going to at least have some good cheese on it.

[00:44:20] Ian McIntosh: I'm with you on that one. Yeah. Yeah. So that's. Yeah, that's where I'm at right now. But like I say, um, you know, I've, I've, I've had every diet and there is in the world. And, um, this is the one I'm on now. 

[00:44:33] Travis Bader: Got a couple of quotes that, uh, you have here. I thought they were interesting. 

[00:44:37] Ian McIntosh: Sure. 

[00:44:39] Travis Bader: It says to succeed as a pro skier, you can't be self motivated.

[00:44:43] Travis Bader: You have to let go of the ego in this industry. There's only group success. And if you're focused on the individual, you'll be 

[00:44:49] Ian McIntosh: alienated. Yeah. I've, I've seen a lot of athletes in our sport that people don't want to work with. Um, some of them have continued to find success cause they're so, they're so freaking talented, but they just make their own movies, you know?

[00:45:07] Ian McIntosh: Um, but. If you're not one of those people, when you go on to film a ski movie, a, you're part of a ski movie that has 20, 30 athletes in it. You want the whole film to be good. You're going on trips that have cinematographers, safety personnel, you know, maybe chefs, maybe, you know. The laundry list of photographers, the laundry list, heli pilots, all these other people that you're working with, all the other athletes that are on the trip, you're also working with collectively, you want to make a good product.

[00:45:42] Ian McIntosh: And so to go out every day and you yourself only gets good shots and gets good lines and everyone else crashes. Do you want to know what the vibe is like at the end of the day? Oh, it's gotta be terrible. You're like inside. You're like, that was sick day. But like everyone else is just like. So down in the dumps, it's no fun.

[00:46:01] Ian McIntosh: And then also now the portion of the film that you're trying to make isn't as good because all the only person that's doing anything good is maybe yourself at that point in time, much better is when everyone crushes it at their job. Cinematographers nailed the shot. Every skier nails their line. The photographer nails their shot.

[00:46:20] Ian McIntosh: The guides did a great job. The pilot flew the heli so well. Everyone crushed the chef makes a great dinner that night. Everyone crushed it at their job. And the vibe is through the roof, the energy is through the roof. And then that energy carries through the whole trip and the film as a whole. And so now you're part of something greater than yourself and your part and you.

[00:46:44] Ian McIntosh: Your active player in making the collective whole succeed. And if the collective whole succeeds, you succeed more. That's awesome. Then by 

[00:46:52] Travis Bader: yourself. Actually part of a group called the collective is some special forces folk and military folk. Have you heard of them? The collective? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, um, Every single day, at least for a year, putting out new podcasts and stuff.

[00:47:07] Travis Bader: And it's the same mentality. How do we make the collective better? How do we work together? Right. And in the hunting world, it was an interesting one because, uh, like you look at social media and you see the, uh, The Instagram famous and the famous social media, people who are out there hunting and all the hero shots, and they're going back home with game over their shoulder.

[00:47:25] Travis Bader: And it's all about them. Yeah. I was over in Nuremberg a few months ago and I was talking to the head of the, um, hunter education and firearms training for the Bavarian region. He was saying, it's completely different over here. Like we've got a process. If you go out, especially for your first hunt, your first stag that you're getting, when you're successful on that, you're You don't come back and you're not celebrated by everybody.

[00:47:49] Travis Bader: It's your job now to celebrate the person in camp who's cooking, the person who helped set up, the people who are out. Yeah. Everybody else who made this possible. Totally. And I really like that mentality. And it sounds like you've taken a very similar mentality to that German hunting protocol to your, to your 

[00:48:05] Ian McIntosh: work.

[00:48:05] Ian McIntosh: For sure. And the more I've taken that mentality, To what I do, the more success I find and not just in skiing in life, everything I do with has that mentality going into it with my wife, raising our Children, you know, is if we have this collective mentality, we nothing can ever stop us. We're unstoppable and will always succeed, you know, because uh, Trying to just do it on your own, man, it's a lonely road and it's a tough one.

[00:48:37] Ian McIntosh: Um, you know. And you get 

[00:48:39] Travis Bader: there at the end. And nobody cares. That's it. Everyone knows it's not the destination. It's a journey. So if we can realize that part, that it's a journey, who are you doing the journey with? 

[00:48:49] Ian McIntosh: Exactly. Um, you know, one of the major film companies I work with is Teton Gravity Research, um, you know, they're an action sports media brand, uh, and.

[00:48:58] Ian McIntosh: We every year when we we just came back from our world film premiere of our new film in Jackson, Wyoming, and every year we go up the gondola and we have a big feast and it's called the family dinner and we do speeches and we give out awards to the like the old legacy athletes for, you know, um, And it's really this family vibe.

[00:49:17] Ian McIntosh: And that's why I think that brand is, has been so successful for so long. And it feels cool to be part of that family and to be celebrated as part of that family and not just someone that like people are a, or like maybe just putting up with because they have to, or, or be there just like, they want to, they don't really want to bring you into the family.

[00:49:37] Ian McIntosh: You know, you want to be part 

[00:49:38] Travis Bader: of that. You're not just a meal ticket. You're not just someone who's, it's not just. Business. 

[00:49:43] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. Yeah. And so it's, it's, it feels nice to be part of something like that. Um, and with that mentality, that's what creates that. You know, 

[00:49:52] Travis Bader: I've had people tell me before, it's not personal, it's just business.

[00:49:55] Travis Bader: Yeah. And I can understand the concept that in business, not everyone is going to be friends, but you've got a shared goal that you're working together. And that goal is going to take priority over the individuals. That's the collective goal is going to take priority over the individual. But I always come back to every part of business is personal because business is built on trust and relationships and that trust takes time to create.

[00:50:20] Travis Bader: I mean, your reputation is gotta be impeccable if you want to succeed and move forward. So when they say it's not personal, it's business, I'd say it's a good, healthy dose dose of both and having that 

[00:50:34] Ian McIntosh: perspective. For sure. And I think that, I think that. Sentiment just is a cop out for people that, uh, prioritize, you know, themselves over anyone else around them.

[00:50:43] Ian McIntosh: Mm. Um, and that's fine. You might get ahead for a while as that, but then you'll just end up being a wealthy, old, lonely person. Mm. You know, you, with, with nobody around you instead of the, the alternative could be being a wealthy, old, celebrated person with tons of people that love you and respect you and, and, and then, you know, that day that comes where you meet your demise.

[00:51:06] Ian McIntosh: There's a ton of people there speaking volumes and remembering you because what is our legacy, you know? Um, and ultimately, you know, if you're only in it for yourself, your legacy is going to be crap. 

[00:51:18] Travis Bader: Do you think about that a lot? What's where your legacy is 

[00:51:20] Ian McIntosh: going to be? Not really. Um, but I, you know, like a year ago, my dad died and so I guess it kind of got to front of mind.

[00:51:31] Ian McIntosh: Um, he's got an amazing legacy. He was an amazing human being and. Uh, very celebrated. Um, so... Yeah, I think that's like, ultimately we want to be that person. Don't we? If, if your motivation is to be the person that, that nobody remembers and nobody cared about, then you're dead, you're done, you're done. Or if you live forever, if you.

[00:51:55] Ian McIntosh: If you, you know, made a big enough impact on enough people, you know, or at least a lot longer. They 

[00:52:00] Travis Bader: say you died twice, once when you pass away and the second time when the last time your name was uttered. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So Teton did a, uh, phenomenal, and I shortened it cause I don't know the, uh, the whole Teton.

[00:52:14] Travis Bader: What is it? Gravity research. Gravity research. They did a phenomenal interview with you. I thought it was really good. I pulled a few of the quotes out of there. Uh, they took a different approach. And now that you're mentioning, there's sort of that family aspect to it. I can see why. Cause he, uh, that's what it felt like when you were, we were going through the interview.

[00:52:34] Ian McIntosh: That's good. I'm glad that 

[00:52:35] Travis Bader: came across. Oh, it totally did. But one of the things that, uh, came up was your, your, uh, your, uh, your, uh, your Uh, aversion at the time, anyways, to getting back in a helicopter and, uh, using that. And it said you were going up by foot and, uh, summiting your mountains doing two, three runs instead of sipping a latte, going to the top and, uh, what, talk to me 

[00:52:58] Ian McIntosh: about that.

[00:52:58] Ian McIntosh: Yeah, I mean, uh, I got to a point in my career, you know, I was, I guess a decade, over a decade as a professional skier and I just kind of felt like I was just doing the same thing every year and I wanted to switch it up, you know, I'm very pro environment. I'm very pro, uh, protecting mother nature and preserving her.

[00:53:18] Ian McIntosh: And so I was like, okay, I'm just going to like stop traveling so much. I'm going to not use helicopters anymore. I'm going to not use my snowmobile anymore. I'm I'm going to just like primarily just hike mountains. Um, and that was great for a few years, but it was funny. The first year we did it was the best year that I found.

[00:53:39] Ian McIntosh: Really? Oh yeah. We just scored conditions, terrain, everything. I was awarded line of the year. Um, which was the first time anyone had got that award off of a foot powered line, like hiking to the line and everything just kind of lined up. And then I was chasing that. For years afterwards, and it wasn't really happening.

[00:53:59] Ian McIntosh: We just kept getting rejected and I kept sitting there in my tent going, man, if I had a helicopter, I could fly like five miles that way and find good snow. And instead we're stuck here where the snow sucks, wasting our time and money, you know? And so. Uh, and then it was during the pandemic, um, that all the lodges in BC, all the heli ski lodges were empty.

[00:54:23] Ian McIntosh: And I started getting phone calls by all these lodges that I always wanted to go to, but we're always just full with clients and could care less about giving some pro skier a deal. And then all of a sudden I started getting the phone calls and I was like, you know what, these are opportunities I'm going to regret.

[00:54:37] Ian McIntosh: If I don't take, and so I got back in the heli and I started going, oh man, I remember what this is all about. And it's not about like just getting to the top easily. It's like, I can hike to the top, but it's about the repetition. It's about how your confidence grows when you're getting repetition, you know, and when you're in the mountains, you go out, out into the mountains.

[00:55:01] Ian McIntosh: Your first run is like snow check. Second run builds on that. And then it builds on that and builds on that and builds on that. And like, you know, you get 10 laps in the day or however many you get on a film day, 10 is probably way more than norm. Most film days you get like five really good film laps at the most, but like you're still getting all that repetition.

[00:55:23] Ian McIntosh: Whereas like on a foot power trip, you might only do one. Or maybe two, if you're lucky one in the morning, one in the afternoon, you know, that's max. And so that repetition, you know, my confidence started building. I'm like, man, I'm skiing. Like I'm 20 something again. And whereas when I was just doing foot power, I felt, I started to think that I was, I must be getting old because I'm just not skiing the way I used to ski.

[00:55:46] Ian McIntosh: And it was really the, the one factor was missing was the helicopter. What a mental game, eh? Yeah, it is. Yeah, for sure. I mean, everything is in life, you know, it's, um, you know, we, we become our thoughts. You know, our thoughts are energy. This is what we were talking about. And we become what we think about, you know, what we obsess about.

[00:56:06] Ian McIntosh: And, you know, if you start thinking I'm old, I don't have it anymore. I'm not feeling it. You're going to become that. But if you're thinking, it doesn't matter what, how, what age I am, I'm still stoked to be doing this. I'm still fired up. I've still got a leg up on all these young bucks out there. I'm still, you know, I've still got it.

[00:56:25] Ian McIntosh: Then you're going to still have it, you know? Um, and you're going to be able to continue to prove that you still have it. So yeah, it's, you literally become your thoughts. 

[00:56:35] Travis Bader: I think that's one of your legacies, something that you can do to, uh, promote that throughout your community and through like just through the podcast and whatever the, um, cause I, I believe in that deeply.

[00:56:49] Travis Bader: Yeah. You do become your thoughts. When you talk about energy at a friend of mine, he's. Similar, I don't know if it's an ADHD thing or what, but he's, he's got it pretty bad. Yeah. Um, but he got into ham radio all of a sudden, it's like, okay, getting to have interesting, great. And he's like rebuilding like these ancient radios and he's like, see this one just operates off of crystals.

[00:57:11] Travis Bader: You take this crystal load, you put this crystal in, and now you're on a different frequency. And he's like, if you think about it, everything's on a frequency. We hear on a frequency, we speak on a frequency, we see on a frequency. 

[00:57:21] Ian McIntosh: Well, I mean, when you go down to the very Quantum level, everything's vibrating, all the electrons in every atom are vibrating around the nucleus of the atom, right?

[00:57:32] Ian McIntosh: Like, and so. Everything is vibrating at a frequency, you know, everything is 99. 99 to the 12th decibel point. Like I said of energy, like empty space, but energy over mass. This table, the only difference between this table and you and I is the frequency where vibe our atoms are vibrating at. That's the only thing that makes us any different because we're all made of the same stuff, atoms, particles, like we're all made of the same shit.

[00:58:01] Ian McIntosh: So yeah, that's all the, the only difference between anything is how it vibrates. You've done some research on this, eh? Yeah. I've been diving deep these days. Like I say, when I, when I'm like, you know, self growth books, you know, are a big part of my life. Um, and it's, and it's because. I want to be a better version of myself.

[00:58:21] Ian McIntosh: I, I'm not happy with, I am happy. I'm extremely happy, but I'm not happy to just. Be stagnant. Like this is where I'm at and I don't need to be any more or any less than this. I want to be more, not because I feel lack, but just because I feel like that's like the, one of the purposes of life is to become a better version of yourself.

[00:58:45] Ian McIntosh: Every day you get an opportunity to live. You know, and so that's why I dive deep into these books, and I've been getting heavily into the quantum world these days, and how quant, the, you know, quantum mechanics and, and physics and spirituality have kind of found this crossroad, um, lately, in the last number of years.

[00:59:03] Travis Bader: Yeah. There's COVID's awakened the, um, uh, a sense of wanting to be outside. That was a Dr. Swart, I forget her first name. Uh, she was talking about that saying people wanted to be outside, but it's also awakened a sense of spirituality in people as well. I'm not sure why that is, but I can definitely see it in the masses out there.

[00:59:25] Travis Bader: I don't know if it's a distrust in government and now it's turning to what, what can I put my faith into, or if there's a idea of, um, a global oneness and, and people are starting to, uh, tie into 

[00:59:37] Ian McIntosh: that. I think, you know, I think it's our access to information. You know, sometimes the access to information can just like overburden us with information and, and not give us education, but if you turn that information into education, like you actually learn it, apply it and use it, um, then it is true information.

[00:59:56] Ian McIntosh: And I think a lot of people are starting to learn that, like the things that I'm talking about are real, they're tangible. And when you align yourself, uh. With, with the energy that you want to align with and, and you're going to find success and you're all, it's like immediate, the results are immediate.

[01:00:15] Ian McIntosh: Like you can, if you just go out and emulate what some of these books are, are saying immediately, you will see that people are gravitating towards you and want to work with you. And all of a sudden money's flowing to you and everything's happening. Like, so the, the. The feedback of like, this actually works.

[01:00:36] Ian McIntosh: It's there and it happens quickly. And so I think people are realizing that. And, you know, I think a lot of people, um, I have no problem with any religion that's out there, you know, and I don't want to turn this into a religious chart. Definitely don't want it. But like, I think what a lot of people who are, who are typically not religious people are, we're missing something.

[01:00:59] Ian McIntosh: Cause they felt like, yeah, I'm not connected to what this religion's telling me about, you know, the mechanics of the universe and, and God and everything. But then in this scientific realm, we have this connection and on this quantum level, it seems to be like these mystical magical things are happening.

[01:01:23] Ian McIntosh: And learning that you're just a ball of energy, influencing all the other energy that's coming into your world and around you, um, can have a profound impact on one's self. And, and so, yeah, I, I think diving deep into that has kind of been something I've been doing lately and, and it's been. You know, like I say, immediate results, like I'm seeing the results happening before my eyes.

[01:01:50] Ian McIntosh: That's one of those 

[01:01:51] Travis Bader: YouTube wormholes that you can get 

[01:01:53] Ian McIntosh: stuck into. YouTube wormholes. You know, I'm, I'm big audible guy. Cause I, I spend a lot of time traveling and you know, I can just audio book and you know, I kind of think of it as like the matrix when like Neo gets plugged into the chair and just like, now, you know, Taekwondo, you know, it's like, you just like.

[01:02:09] Ian McIntosh: Download information. And so, you know, I think it's pretty sad to think that like majority, vast majority of people only read fiction, you know, um, and, and, you know, very few are diving in like, but like, I think that's changing. And I think our, our access to information is changing. And for me, having something like audible, you know, someone who hated school and hated reading and all this sort of stuff to have, to be able to just download these books into my brain.

[01:02:39] Ian McIntosh: Um, and then just keep going down the rabbit hole, like 20 hour book done. Are you retaining it though? Yeah. And, and when I think I don't retain it, I just go back and listen again. 

[01:02:50] Travis Bader: What kind of books you listen to right 

[01:02:51] Ian McIntosh: now? Ah, there's, you know, like there's. Like secrets to manifesting your destiny.

[01:02:58] Ian McIntosh: There's, you know, becoming supernatural. You are the placebo, um, breath. Um, you know, I'm listening to, to books on money these days as well. How, how to, you know, reach your potential, your earning potential. Um, yeah. Which ones 

[01:03:16] Travis Bader: made the biggest impact on you? 

[01:03:19] Ian McIntosh: Uh, you know, Joe Dispenza is a kind of culty, but like in a good way.

[01:03:28] Ian McIntosh: Um, but his book becoming supernatural was kind of like a really eye opener to me. And then, uh, you know, I've dove into a bunch of other books kind of related to that and, and realizing like how much we can influence the energy that is. Everywhere all around us and our own energy and how that influences the world around us, um, is, and then, you know, learning, I'm an adolescent in learning how to meditate, but I always used to think what a kooky thing, meditation, who meditates, what a bunch of kooks.

[01:04:05] Ian McIntosh: But now there's so 

[01:04:06] Travis Bader: much power to it. There's 

[01:04:07] Ian McIntosh: so it's a superpower, you know? Um, and so now I'm, I've, you know. I've gotten out of that judgmental mind of like, you know, assuming something is some way without ever trying it. And now I'm in a very open mind. I'll try anything. And meditation is like a superpower.

[01:04:26] Ian McIntosh: And yes, it is very hard to properly meditate without your mind constantly wandering off because that's your ego. Your ego wants to wander off and think about like things that fuel it, you know, or all the stresses that you have in life and things that cause you anxiety. But if you can continue to realize that, like, every time you come back to that place of, of, you know, just thinking about your breath or whatever it may be, or that place where you've got all those thoughts out of your head and you're like, just in the moment when you constantly can bring yourself back there.

[01:05:01] Ian McIntosh: Every time you do it, it's a little victory and you just get slowly better and better at it. And it's one of these things, it's like anything. Uh, you know, the whole notion of 10, 000, you need 10, 000 hours at anything to become a master of it. So to think that you can just jump into meditation and know how to do it right out the gate is, is ludicrous.

[01:05:20] Ian McIntosh: You need to put in your time and to, and to not give up on it and continue to trust that the superpowers are, are lying in there somewhere. Well, 

[01:05:29] Travis Bader: you talk about the energy and how that we can affect different. Energies around us. And one of the first podcasts I did was with a fellow by the name of Guy Kramer, and he's got a company called Hyperstealth and I just thought, this guy's a really cool guy.

[01:05:45] Travis Bader: How does this tie into things? Well, in the hunting, fishing, outdoors world, well, I'm going to find a way to make it fit in because I just want to talk to him. He's, he's really cool, but he makes, um, a invisible cloak. Oh, no way. Right. And I'd be like, yeah, okay. Invisible cloak, right. And, uh, but. Uh, interesting fellow, but he's also made camouflages for hundreds of different militaries all across the world.

[01:06:09] Travis Bader: Uh, Gore, uh, Optifade, uh, Sitka's line, all the rest, he makes their camouflage patterns. Cool. And he brought in his invisible cloak thing, and you can, you can pull it up on YouTube. You can see it. He actually put a patent on it. He was trying to get the military involved. And finally he's like, oh, I'm going to patent it.

[01:06:26] Travis Bader: Everyone's going to know how it's made. So people on YouTube have gone and they made their own and it's just a, an array of lenticular lenses. With a viscous fluid in book in behind, and they just kind of press these two things together and it different arrays will reflect different things. And so the one he had, I'd be holds up.

[01:06:44] Travis Bader: There's a picture of us in the office. We disappear, but we can see the background. It was really cool. That's cool. But, um, And an lenticular lens sounds really cool, but you know, those little stickers where you kind of move them and it's like a moving cartoon thing. That's what it is. Right. That little plastic anyways, but he's talking about, um, the double slit experiment.

[01:07:07] Travis Bader: Yes. Okay. So you, and you're familiar with that one. Very, yes. So interesting how an observer, for people listening to this, who don't know about the double slit experiment, that's, they were firing, I think a photon. 

[01:07:20] Ian McIntosh: A photon, a light particle. Yes, they're, they're firing light particles at two slits in a wall, for instance.

[01:07:27] Ian McIntosh: And when they. Had an instrument there to detect how the particles would react. They reacted just how we would predict they would react. Um, like particles. But when you took away the observer, it now reacted like a wave. And so, when we're not observing matter, matter acts like energy. And when we're observing matter, matter acts like matter.

[01:07:54] Ian McIntosh: Which is kind of a twisted... It's, it's hard to even wrap your brain. It's like, it's the whole like quantum entanglement thing. That's right. It's hard to wrap, wrap your brain around. Like two particles, once they come, quantum entanglement could be on the opposite sides of the universe and you affect one, the other one's affected the same way.

[01:08:09] Ian McIntosh: Mm hmm. You know. But yeah, this is kind of the mystical, weird thing that happened at the quantum level. And so the whole notion that like matter reacts completely different when you're observing it versus when you're not goes to show that like, I mean, is everything in your world, just a construct of your imagination?

[01:08:29] Ian McIntosh: Oh, are we in the matrix? Yeah. Like what, but like, you know, I mean, really at the end of the day, it's like matter is both, it is a particle and it is a wave. It is energy and it is mass. And. Actually turns out it's much, much, much more energy than it is physical mass. And learning that, um, can pave the way into understanding how to use it to your advantage, to create the life that you want.

[01:09:01] Travis Bader: Knowing that as well, kind of takes it. For the people, the naysayers, oh no, it hasn't been scientifically proven. Well, our science is at the infancy, really where we're at. Totally. And as 

[01:09:12] Ian McIntosh: you start. I mean, when the aliens look down at us, we're basically, we've basically just crawled out of the cave. Totally.

[01:09:18] Ian McIntosh: At this 

[01:09:18] Travis Bader: point, you know. Didn't they just find aliens in Mexico? Yeah, I mean, 

[01:09:22] Ian McIntosh: there's definitely aliens. I mean, anyone who just says there isn't aliens. Okay, go ahead and keep believing that, but like, um, mathematically impossible, but you know, I, I think that, um, again, being open to anything, you know, um, but yeah, the, the understanding that, that everything is energy.

[01:09:42] Ian McIntosh: Um, has a fundamental impact on your life, um, because you understand then that your emotion and this is why all these successful people keep coming back to gratitude because gratitude turns out is your most powerful, one of your most powerful emotions for manifesting what you want. And so if you're grateful, you'll continue to get more things to be grateful for.

[01:10:11] Travis Bader: There was a quote that you had that I thought was interesting, cause we kind of talked about it before we started recording, we talked around it and, uh, here's a quote in the darkest hours, you learn who you really are, but you have to dig, but you have to dig deep, get healthy and get back out there. Yes.

[01:10:31] Travis Bader: And I thought that's interesting because, you know, when we're talking about, uh, the long game, the macro and people, they're high and they're low and, you know, it's, it's Social media, uh, today's culture, I, I see people, a lot of our youth, they become despondent when things go get low. Oh, that's it. I'm going to give up.

[01:10:50] Travis Bader: It's over. Right. , um, in your darkest hours, that's when everything starts to become clearer for you and you realize you can actually get out of the, was that in reference to what was going on with the, the divorce and the, uh, broken femur? Yeah. Yeah. And I 

[01:11:05] Ian McIntosh: mean, I recognized that like, woe was me. I'm sitting in my nice house in Pemberton with a broken leg, and my wife left me, and that's my, one of my darkest hours.

[01:11:14] Ian McIntosh: Like I'm pretty privileged, you know? Mm. That's one of my darkest hours, but at the same time, it was, you know, I was, I had just gotten really successful as a skier. I was just starting to make a really decent living where I didn't have to work a construction job in the summer. And, um, you know, and my life felt like to me, like it came crashing down.

[01:11:35] Ian McIntosh: And so that was a low point. And now I look back at that is like the best thing that's ever happened in my life. I love that perspective shift. My, my lowest moment. Was the best thing that's ever happened to me. And I think you need to go through those intense lows to ultimately get to and appreciate your highs.

[01:12:01] Ian McIntosh: Yeah, I agree. Or you can just let it consume you. And, and the low becomes lower, you know, um, but it's your decision, uh, and that's what I think a lot of people are, are starting to realize, but maybe a lot don't realize yet is that it is our decision on how our mental state is. And, and it's easy for me to say.

[01:12:24] Ian McIntosh: As someone who has this great life going on, but it hasn't always been that way. I haven't always had everything I have today, but I approaching life with that mentality is ultimately always going to get you from your lows back to your super highs. And it doesn't matter how many times you get batted back down.

[01:12:46] Ian McIntosh: You'll, you'll recognize like, this is another opportunity for growth. I need to go through this. In order to get to where I'm eventually going to be. 

[01:12:56] Travis Bader: Have you read, uh, Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning? 

[01:12:59] Ian McIntosh: No, I'll put that on my list. 

[01:13:01] Travis Bader: Okay. Uh, cause there's one thing that always stuck out to me in that one.

[01:13:06] Travis Bader: And he was the father of modern logotherapy. He was in a concentration camp and he took an analytical perspective to what was going on around him. Yeah. People who'd had everything taken from them. They're stripped naked, all their belongings gone, their loved ones. Dead, they're despondent, um, beside themselves.

[01:13:28] Travis Bader: True lows. True lows, true, true lows. Right. Yeah. But some people, well, they'd given up on life. Others had found reason to crack a joke or laugh about things, or there was, um, there was a difference in some of these people that he was observing. So he's putting all of this together and really the crux of the entire book that I took away from it was a quote that he had, which is, um, And he'd had everything taken from him.

[01:13:57] Travis Bader: He says, the one thing you can't take from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of life's great freedoms is one's ability to choose their own attitude in any given circumstance. And that's, that was the biggest takeaway. And that was one thing that, you know, it doesn't matter how bad things get.

[01:14:15] Travis Bader: It's my choice. Do I look at this as that's it? I'm giving up. Do I look at this as, okay, what can I learn from this? How do I move forward? 

[01:14:24] Ian McIntosh: Right. How is this, how is this moment going to eventually be one day and a moment I look back at as a really positive. Experience that I needed to go through and it's hard to say that even in like, you know, you, you, you stories about people who hit their ultimate true lows and I'm not saying that they're ever going to get to a place where they can look back and be like, I'm so glad that happened to me, but.

[01:14:48] Ian McIntosh: The person that the people who pick themselves up and change their mentality from like, you know, just being down in the dumps to a more positive outlook, those people are eventually going to be able to look back and be like, I'm not happy it happened to me, but I am the person I am today because of that.

[01:15:08] Travis Bader: I used to ask a question of people and say, if you could look back on your younger self, uh, what advice would you give? What would you do differently? Right. Yeah. And I've had to reframe that question because more and more of them. The people who are doing well in life and who are successful and have things kind of squared away and sorted would give the exact same answer.

[01:15:28] Travis Bader: Exactly. Nothing. I wouldn't change anything. It's made me who I am. The good times, the bad times, they've all culminated to where I am now. The things that went poorly were there to teach me a lesson. Yeah. The things that went well or because I was getting things 

[01:15:41] Ian McIntosh: dialed in. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, you know, taking that woe is me attitude or the poor me attitude and switching it to like, you know, I can, I can do anything and I can get myself out of this.

[01:15:55] Ian McIntosh: And I, um, I'm, I'm going to be stronger and better for this. You know, when I broke my leg, I, Lived in the gym. I came back physically, mentally, you know, I started reading books and going to the gym. I didn't see my friends. I just went to the gym, read books, and I came back out of that experience so much better, mentally, stronger mentally and physically than I ever was before.

[01:16:21] Travis Bader: And they, now you can pass it on to your family. 

[01:16:24] Ian McIntosh: Exactly. Yeah. And that, and the, probably the reason I love telling that story is because I, I look at it as the most positive experience that's ever happened to me. You know, there's a young kid who's the son of one of the founders of Teton Gravity Research, Kai Jones.

[01:16:39] Ian McIntosh: He's the star of our movies. Now he's 17 years old. He's been in there for years. He's incredible. But last year he broke both of his legs. Hmm. And he was down in the dumps, like in a wheelchair. And it's like, dude, trust in the fact that one day you'll look back at this as like, I'm like, lucky you, you get to go through this at 17.

[01:17:01] Ian McIntosh: I didn't get to go through this till I was 30. Or 29, you know, lucky you. And he's like, what? And I'm like, dude, you're going to become a better human for this. You're going to be stronger physically and more and mentally. And you're just going to be a better human because of this, this, you needed to go through this hard time.

[01:17:21] Ian McIntosh: Cause maybe everything was, it had been just a little too easy up until now. You're talented. You know, everything fell into place. Now you've got some hard times. You'll come out of it better. 

[01:17:32] Travis Bader: You know, we talked about, uh, the individual who's talking, said that when he was younger and he had nothing, and that's when he felt the happiest.

[01:17:41] Travis Bader: Yeah. I have to wonder if you go another 20, 30 years in the future, are you going to look back and say, man, 30 years ago, that was the time. Probably, I mean, the brain's got a way of varnishing over the past that we freak, no one ever thinks about the bad old times. They always think about the good old times.

[01:17:58] Travis Bader: Well, 

[01:17:58] Ian McIntosh: that's the only reason women have baby, a second baby. You got it. We ultimately, we forget pain, you know? Um, and, and we try and. You know, uh, things that stick in our mind are the positive, more memorable experiences. And we are conditioned to forget pain. We're supposed to forget it or else we'd never like animals wouldn't hunt anymore.

[01:18:19] Ian McIntosh: Because their last hunt, they got injured. They would never go out and eat again if they were afraid. Of, of pain. So, you know, um, we're conditioned to, to forget that sort of stuff. And, and ultimately, uh, you know, these, these are opportunities like we're saying for, to grow as a human being. And one day you'll look back at it and you'll be like, I only remember the good.

[01:18:40] Ian McIntosh: Mm-hmm. , you know, it's like when I was living in the closet, I only remember the good part in a closet. I was 

[01:18:46] Travis Bader: like, were you? I like, yeah. Literally in a closet. 

[01:18:48] Ian McIntosh: Yes. It was like in a kitchen. It was a pantry closet that we like turned into my bedroom. And I mean, I would wake up like my floors on my heads on the kitchen floor, like my buddy's like making coffee, you know, but, uh, when I was living in the closet, like, I look back at that was such a nostalgia and like, oh my God, that was so amazing.

[01:19:08] Ian McIntosh: I was just flying by the seat of my pants. I forgot all the times where I couldn't. And like, you know, I'm just thinking about like the fact that I skied every day without a care in the world and I didn't have any bills or stresses of any kind, but there was stresses. I just don't remember those. There was the stresses of like, you know, not being able to eat and not being able to afford to, you know, pay my 200 bucks a month rent, that sort of stuff.

[01:19:34] Ian McIntosh: But yeah, I only remember the skiing. Yeah, I skied every 

[01:19:38] Travis Bader: day. I remember when I got my first snowboard, it was around 17, I think it was 17, 18. And the entire season I would sleep in the back of my wood panel station wagon and a broken window on it, but I'd be first up sleeping in the parking lots of the local hills 

[01:19:53] Ian McIntosh: here.

[01:19:54] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. And I mean, you don't remember how cold you were and how uncomfortable it was. You just remember how good it was. 

[01:20:00] Travis Bader: How good it was. I can still remember the smell of 

[01:20:04] Ian McIntosh: Right. So there's one aspect that maybe wasn't

[01:20:09] Travis Bader: so

[01:20:13] Travis Bader: positive that you Or I'm hiking up the side and everyone's like. 

[01:20:16] Ian McIntosh: And it didn't matter. That's right. Didn't matter. Yeah. I was like, now, if you went to the ski hill and couldn't get yourself a lift ticket, you'd be all bummed and stressed about it or whatever. Totally. It's like back then, it's like nothing mattered.

[01:20:26] Ian McIntosh: No, you figure it out. Yeah. 

[01:20:29] Travis Bader: Um, sponsors, you got a number of sponsors and you got a company too. That's, uh, kind of cool. I wanted to talk about. Yeah. 

[01:20:36] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. Um, yeah. So like, you know, my, my obvious, my premium sponsors, I guess I would, I would mention are the North Face, Volcom Marker Dalbello is a ski boot binding, uh, brand, uh, marker being binding, Dalbello being boot, um, Smartwool.

[01:20:53] Ian McIntosh: Uh, you know, Mammut safety equipment, uh, Stay Wild Organics, which is the company that you were referring to, uh, Surefoot skiing. Um, yeah, the list goes on, but those are the kind of the major ones. Mammut. 

[01:21:08] Travis Bader: I'm glad I know how to pronounce it. I always call it Mammut. I got the, uh, the transceivers and the, uh, you got the safety equipment.

[01:21:16] Travis Bader: You 

[01:21:16] Ian McIntosh: got the best gear in the game then, in my opinion. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's Swiss made, it's like a Swiss company, right. And, um, the owner of that company is very focused on making high quality safety products. Oh, I love it. And yeah, they do a great job. 

[01:21:33] Travis Bader: So did they approach you being a safety oriented company, did they approach you before or after your, uh, your pig spill down the mountain in 

[01:21:40] Ian McIntosh: Alaska?

[01:21:41] Ian McIntosh: Much after, but it was actually after an incident with another, uh, another pro skier friend of mine where we had to get him out of an avalanche, but his transceiver malfunctioned and we won't name names on all that, it all, it all went. On the internet and big things happened with that brand. But, um, you know, ultimately we realized that like not all safety equipment is created equal.

[01:22:07] Ian McIntosh: And, uh, I wanted to align with the safety equipment that I felt was some of the best in the game and, and Mahmood was also, uh, looking for ambassadors. So it worked out. 

[01:22:18] Travis Bader: Can you talk to me about Stay Wild? I looked at it on the internet a little bit and, uh, I got questions. Yeah, 

[01:22:24] Ian McIntosh: sure. Yes. Uh, stay wild is a medicinal, um, mushroom brand.

[01:22:30] Ian McIntosh: Um, you know, mushrooms these days are all the craze. Uh, there's a lot of hype around the, uh, how good they are for you. And the hype is real. They're, they are incredibly good for you. Um, there's, there's a lot of science, uh, pointing to, uh, the benefits of mushrooms and, you know, when you learn, have you ever watched the fantastic fungi?

[01:22:51] Travis Bader: I have, I I've seen clips out of it. I haven't, I haven't watched a whole thing, but is that the one where the, it mapped out a better way for like a Tokyo, um, subways? 

[01:23:02] Ian McIntosh: Yes. Okay. Yeah. But like, basically, um, if you're walking in the forest, every footstep you take has about 300 miles of mycelium network under that footstep.

[01:23:14] Ian McIntosh: And every footstep you've taken the forest. And so mycelium is connecting everything. And it's like the neural network of the forest. Um, it also does incredible things for your neural network of your brain. Right. Um, and mushrooms are not like a plant. They don't photosynthesize like a plant. Um, they're not an animal, but they eat like an animal.

[01:23:36] Ian McIntosh: Right. They eat decomposing things. And so they're kind of in this middle ground. And I, I truly feel like the power of mushroom. There's a lot of great studies coming out. If you just eat, like, I can't remember how many ounces of mushrooms a week, it lowers your chances of dementia by. a huge amount. Um, and I mean, I could pull up the numbers again.

[01:23:56] Ian McIntosh: I can't remember exactly, but um, people can look at it for themselves and, and that's just like regular, like store bought brown mushrooms and so on and so forth. And then you look into these more medicinal mushrooms and their powers are even exponentially more. Um, you know, like something like a lion's mane is incredibly good for your brain.

[01:24:15] Ian McIntosh: Whereas, you know, you look at. Something like chaga, which grows on birch trees. Um, that's just like, there's more antioxidants in a spoonful of chaga than there is in like a entire box of blueberries. You know, it's, it's, I mean, the exact numbers again, I don't remember, I've read them all in the past, but it's, it's astronomical.

[01:24:34] Ian McIntosh: The, the amount of antioxidants there in something like a chaga mushroom. And, and so, yeah, I've. I got on board cause my buddy, Chris Brown, he's a pro snowmobiler or a pro snowmobiler. Um, used to be like, you know, throwing crazy stuff on his sled these days. He does more, um, tours and stuff. He's beaten up his body pretty bad.

[01:24:54] Ian McIntosh: Uh, he got a lot of concussions and that he got into lion's mane and that kind of really helped him with his concussion symptoms. Oh yeah. He's night and day different. Um, and so then he's like. What is this medicinal mushroom world? And then he decided to start his own company and they've grown in Pemberton.

[01:25:11] Ian McIntosh: And, uh, they're, they're just getting things going. They've got like a lot of future plans going on for energy drinks. And, um, I won't even get into. Into it all just because I don't think it's, uh, the right, the right time to announce, but, um, they have a lot of cool things, some, some government grants and stuff that are going to allow them to do some really cool stuff that I think, you know, people are starting to see the power of, of the therapeutic power of mushrooms as well.

[01:25:38] Ian McIntosh: Um, psilocybin obviously is, is, uh, starting to be really used as something that can help people a lot with depression or dealing with mortality or whatever it may be. And, uh, I was 

[01:25:51] Travis Bader: surprised at the number of people who I've spoken with on the podcast, who, uh, Use psilocybin, I've had some ex, uh, special forces folk and talking with one fellow and he's like, oh, I don't like medication.

[01:26:07] Travis Bader: I don't, I don't use meds. Right. Okay. Oh, but I do take, I do micro dose psilocybin and there was a time I did ayahuasca. He goes through his whole list. I'm like. To me, that sounds like meds, but I think it's being viewed a little bit differently nowadays. Well, yeah, 

[01:26:20] Ian McIntosh: it's like holistic meds. Right. You know, I think, um, I think our system in the world is, is really set up to like, the fact that the food and drug administration, and there's one in every country, not just talking about America, but the fact that they are the same administration.

[01:26:37] Ian McIntosh: So we're going to feed you the food that gets you sick so that you can take the drugs that don't make you better, but. Deal with the symptoms of your sickness. Right. So, you know, this is where medicinal mushrooms are outside of that world. And they're dealing with the actual sickness and actual healing and preventative medicine.

[01:27:01] Ian McIntosh: You know, there's a, there's a book that I, I, I did recently, um, lifespan. Okay. And I can't, I'm trying to remember the author, but he's a PhD, um, at Harvard, uh, scientists that he studies longevity in human beings and, um, and he, he was touching on the fact that, you know, Australia, for instance. In the 90s, I think it was, they made this huge initiative because they have a government healthcare, just like we do in Canada.

[01:27:34] Ian McIntosh: They're like, we want to spend less money on our healthcare system, so we're going to work hard on preventative medicine. And they've, in that period of time, in 30 years, they've extended the lifespan expectancy of an Australian by 10 years. At the same time, the lifespan in America has gone the other direction.

[01:27:53] Travis Bader: 10 years extended, do they just cut out the VBs? 

[01:27:57] Ian McIntosh: They're just, they're, it's more of a holistic health based focused preventative, you know, like the, all the obvious stuff, eat well, exercise, yeah, good mental health, you know, all these sorts of things that, you know, not too much stress, all these, these, these sorts of things ultimately keep you healthy.

[01:28:16] Ian McIntosh: And in, in our world, it's, it's more about like, Yeah, whatever. Just eat whatever you want, do whatever you want. And then when you get sick, we'll give you something that, you know, doesn't cure you, but it'll deal with the symptoms of whatever your sickness is so that you don't, you're not in pain or discomfort anymore, you know, and, and, you know, companies are making huge amounts of money.

[01:28:39] Ian McIntosh: The food industry and the drug industry are making huge amounts of money, uh, with this system the way it is. And so, yeah, uh, for me, yeah. Stay wild mushrooms, medicinal mushrooms lie outside of that. And they're the more holistic, they're the more preventative medicine. And the thing about mushrooms is, you know, someone like Chris Brown, who had like hardcore concussion issues has really noticed the difference, someone like me, I have noticed the difference.

[01:29:06] Ian McIntosh: It's not that I haven't, but it's a lot more subtle. But it is, I, I trust in the science and I believe in the fact that I'm doing preventative medicine. And also not only do I trust in the science and believe I'm doing preventative medicine, but going back to a book I referenced, you are the placebo.

[01:29:27] Ian McIntosh: Whereas just my belief alone, I could be taking pills with nothing in them, but if I believe hard enough that that is going to make me healthier. It will, because the ultimate health machine is your mind. Yeah, I agree. And, you know, believing in something will make it true. And it goes back to everything we already talked about.

[01:29:48] Ian McIntosh: What a man thinks he will do. Yes. And so there is amazing health properties to medicinal mushrooms, but I know just the fact that I believe in those health properties and I'm taking them, that in itself. Is going to make 

[01:30:00] Travis Bader: me healthier. But isn't the government talking about the Canadian government anyways, talking about clamping down on all of this holistic type medicine.

[01:30:06] Travis Bader: Of course 

[01:30:07] Ian McIntosh: they are. Right. Who do you think's in charge of that? Yeah, there you go. The Canadian, the Canadian FDA. Yeah. You know, the, the people that want to make money off of feeding us crap food that they can mass produce. And then when we get sick, uh, selling us drugs to deal with, uh, the pain of our sickness, um, that's, that's the MO.

[01:30:29] Ian McIntosh: And of course they're going to try and clamp down on this sort of stuff. But I will say at the same time, you know, uh, stay wild has, has gotten Canadian government grants to. Do stuff, um, and you know, they're growing facilities and the new facilities that they're developing in Pemberton, uh, for the future are a big part of that.

[01:30:48] Ian McIntosh: And so they might be trying to clamp down on it, but at the same time, um, they're not. And, you know, I think the legalization of marijuana is a, is a, you know, I'm not going to sit here and be a proponent of you should do marijuana or not, but for a lot of people, it's helping them and, and just like allowing people to have that.

[01:31:07] Ian McIntosh: Choice, uh, and take that holistic approach. If that's helping you with your anxiety or whatever it may be, then great, you should be able to do it, you know, um, instead of being like, no, that's illegal because we're going to sell you this instead, 

[01:31:22] Travis Bader: you know. So very early age, I was diagnosed with ADHD, high dose of Ritalin, I was on an experimental program in the province and I took myself off cold Turkey by, uh, before I went into high school.

[01:31:35] Travis Bader: Right. Um, you'll notice we have. Pads here that we can write stuff down as we talk and that way we don't interrupt each other. But it's also a long term memory is fantastic. My short term memory, man, I better get this written down right away. Right. So you're saying lion's mane. Is that the one that's supposed to help with that 

[01:31:50] Ian McIntosh: kind of stuff?

[01:31:51] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. Lion's mane and reishi mushrooms will really help with your cognitive function. And there's actually new scientific studies that are directly pointing to lion's mane helps your brain grow new neural pathways. It's not like we, the old science used to be like, you get to a certain age, your brain becomes fully developed as a human and you do not grow any more neural cells or new neural pathways.

[01:32:13] Ian McIntosh: And that's no longer the truth. Psilocybin is another one that does it, but, um, lion's mane, uh, does actually help your brain grow new neural cells and neural pathways. And so it really, it, it heals your brain and helps your brain, um, become. And if you're, if you're combining that with like some educational tools, you're, you're literally making yourself smarter every day.

[01:32:41] Ian McIntosh: And you're decreasing your chances of one day developing Alzheimer's or dementia immensely. 

[01:32:47] Travis Bader: So a friend and past podcast guest lives up in the Squamish area, Sonny, he is a pro bare knuckle boxer and he's a, uh, uh, Raises money for heroic hearts and their, uh, they use psilocybin treatment for PTSD and veterans and anyways, um, and he keeps saying, you know, these medicinal mushrooms out there, but you have to put the work in, right?

[01:33:11] Travis Bader: Cause the same thing he says, you know, makes a new neural networks and all the rest. I have to wonder though, because I've heard the analogy, it's like. A ski slope and everyone's going down the slope and you got the ruts that are all worn in, it gives the ability to basically fresh snow and you can start choosing new paths, new, new ways to go.

[01:33:32] Travis Bader: Would it. If it gives the ability to create new neural networks, so hopefully you're putting the work in to be able to do something that's a little bit more positive. Yeah. If you don't put that work in, are you doubling down on those past neural pathways that aren't bringing you the success or the happiness 

[01:33:49] Ian McIntosh: that you're looking for?

[01:33:50] Ian McIntosh: I mean, I think so, but I mean, I, I don't know the, I don't know what the science is there, so I'm not going to say definitively. Yes or no, my gut instinct is probably yes, but it goes, it goes back to the same thing of like manifesting. It's like, you know, the whole idea of like the energy connects everything.

[01:34:08] Ian McIntosh: And you know, the feeling of abundance creates more abundance, but you got to still put in the work. There's an action 

[01:34:16] Travis Bader: piece that needs to 

[01:34:17] Ian McIntosh: happen. There's a reason that, and I might offend some people here, but there's a reason that simply sitting there and praying to God. Is nothing's going to happen.

[01:34:28] Ian McIntosh: God's listening, or in my mind, the energy that connects everything is listening. Sure. But if you then don't turn that prayer into action, nothing will ever happen. And so it's about combining all that stuff, right? So it's, yes, take the lion's mane, but continue to download. Books into your brain, continue to exercise your brain so that those new neural pathways have reason for developing in the first place, you're growing your brain, you're becoming smarter, you're becoming, you know, uh, more intelligent and, and you're healing past traumas and, and healing parts of your brain that might be damaged.

[01:35:06] Ian McIntosh: And so, um, yeah, you got to put in the work. 

[01:35:09] Travis Bader: I'm sure you've heard that old joke. There's a flood coming and the guys. In front of his house, person drives by, he's like, there's a big flood, the dam broke. It's going to flood the whole town. You got to get out. Right. And he's like, I'll pray to my God. Don't worry.

[01:35:22] Travis Bader: We're good. Right. I said my prayers this morning. I'll just continue praying. Right. Okay. She goes inside and water levels rise. And so the guy gets up on the second floor and a boat comes by. He's like, buddy, you got to get out. No, no, my God's going to save me. We're all good. Right. Next thing you know, he's on the roof and a helicopter comes by.

[01:35:37] Travis Bader: Here, I'll throw you the ladder. He's like, no, no, no. My God's going to save me next thing you know, he's in heaven. He's like, what the hell God, you're supposed to save me. He's like, I don't know what happened. I sent you a car, a boat now on the carpet, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. 

[01:35:48] Ian McIntosh: There's all these things that have come your way, providing you help and you didn't take them because you were expecting some sort of mystical thing to happen.

[01:35:57] Ian McIntosh: And it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. You got to still put in the work. You still got to take those opportunities that present themselves, uh, and, and almost just, you know, try everything. You know, I'm, I'm a big pro I'm big proponent of like, right now in life, I'm just throwing darts and seeing what sticks, you know, and I'll throw as many darts as I can, uh, you know, coming into winter, I've got a lot coming up.

[01:36:24] Ian McIntosh: I'm just like, like, what else can I, you know, sign myself up for? And, you know, all. Probably only like 25 percent of it will end up coming to fruition, but I'm just trying everything and seeing, seeing what sticks. And then ultimately the universe, it's like, okay, you're putting in the work. Here's the 

[01:36:43] Travis Bader: path.

[01:36:43] Travis Bader: The universe will unfold as it should. Yeah. Yeah. Here's 

[01:36:46] Ian McIntosh: the path that you need to take because here's, here's the darts that stuck, you know? Um, and so, yeah, that's kind of my mentality right now. 

[01:36:54] Travis Bader: Is there anything. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that we should be talking 

[01:36:57] Ian McIntosh: about? Oh, good question.

[01:37:00] Ian McIntosh: I mean, You know, we can, we can talk about, uh, I don't know, you know, what's a huge trend these days that I've gotten into? What? Fasting, intermittent fasting. There's 

[01:37:10] Travis Bader: so much science behind that. That's positive. Yes. Particularly for men. Yes. Uh, women there's benefits, but there's, I think there's a little bit more to it that they have to watch out for.

[01:37:20] Travis Bader: Yes. 

[01:37:20] Ian McIntosh: Um, with men, it's a huge, it definitely helps your testosterone levels and stuff. And, uh, And I mean, just longevity in, in, in general. And it goes back to that book. Uh, I was talking about lifespan. Uh, he goes deep into that and that guy actually, he, his job and he's funded heavily and works at Harvard in a lab to study human cellular structure and how to elongate human life.

[01:37:46] Ian McIntosh: And he's like very, he's very adamant that our generation. In our lives, we're going to have the inter, we'll have what we need to live to 120, no problem. But he's like, the sky is almost the limit for human lifespan. And don't worry, there's a huge chapter on what's that going to do to the planet if everyone lives that long.

[01:38:06] Ian McIntosh: And he actually has some great points in that about like how it's not going to be the decimation of the planet. Um, but. Anyway, the whole point of it is, is fasting is a huge part of what he talks about, because we didn't get to where we are as human beings by having three meals a day. 

[01:38:26] Travis Bader: Well, doesn't fasting have cellular regeneration?

[01:38:30] Ian McIntosh: Yes. Cause when you, when your body has no food to digest and your cells don't, aren't full of glucose, they now go. Oh, what's our other job. Oh yeah. Regeneration. Whereas if they're so focused on just dealing with the constant digestion and the constant processing of food and, and energy and, and glucose in the, in their cells, they're, they never have time to go like, Hey, there's a cancer cell over there.

[01:38:59] Ian McIntosh: We should get that out of here. Or there's like a virus. Let's get that out of here. Also a fun fact, if you're in a fasted state. Uh, you can, you cannot get coronavirus or any other virus like that, or anything like that. Yeah. Because there's no glucose in your cell. You can't, you can't develop cancer cells.

[01:39:18] Ian McIntosh: If you're in a fasted state, it literally is the silver bullet to health because when you're in that fasted state, there's no glucose left in your cell. And I'm talking like 15 hours plus 17 hours beyond 17 hours is actually like the real money. Uh, time. So if you can push yourself so you have an early dinner and you're pushing yourself past noon the next day before your next meal, before anything but water goes in.

[01:39:43] Ian McIntosh: Now your cells have turned within and they're like, they're cleaning up junk DNA and junk cells. They're, they're cleaning up your system, but also. Uh, if a virus enters your body during that time, now, after you eat that goes away, cause then you now have glucose in your cells, but all these diseases and viruses, they need glucose to reproduce in your system.

[01:40:05] Ian McIntosh: And so if they don't have it, if there is no glucose in your cell, you will not get the virus or the disease. And, um, again, that is only when you're in the fasted state, it doesn't count beyond that. So it's not like, Oh, I intermittently fast every day and I can never get sick. Well, there still is periods of time where you can get sick, but, um, you know, there's a lot of science behind, like, if you are sick or you're getting sick, you know, Stop eating, just drink water.

[01:40:34] Travis Bader: Feed a fever, starve a cold 

[01:40:35] Ian McIntosh: or whatever. Yeah. And I mean, like, you know how, when you get really sick, you're not really hungry. You don't have an appetite. That's your body going like, don't eat. Interesting. We, we need, we need to just focus on dealing with this. And then after we're done dealing with this, you can eat 

[01:40:49] Travis Bader: again.

[01:40:50] Travis Bader: Cause anecdotally, I will do that. I'll just, I won't eat. I feel myself getting sick, something 

[01:40:55] Ian McIntosh: happening. But like growing up, my mom would always be like, you know, like you gotta have chicken noodle soup or you gotta, you know, like. Here's some Sprite. I'm filling my body with, with sugar and, and, um, I'm, I'm putting food in.

[01:41:07] Ian McIntosh: So now my body's like, well, we can't deal with getting you better. We're dealing with deal with all this food and sugar that you're putting into us. Yeah. Sugar's a killer, isn't it? It is. I mean, there's good sugars. There's like, you know, like your natural, like honeys and, and maple syrups and stuff. And to a certain extent, like you can't just like consume just huge quantities of it.

[01:41:29] Ian McIntosh: But, you know, it's like, I, when my kids get sick or a cold, now I just give them a scoop of honey, like local honey from my town. And it works way better than giving them Tylenol because Tylenol, Tylenol works great for, for them to sleep because it like numbs them. And it like, it's, it basically masks all the symptoms, never will make them better.

[01:41:51] Ian McIntosh: It's not a healer. It's just a, something to help you deal with your symptoms. And so the scoop of honey actually has those antimicrobial antibacterial properties that are going to actually, and they love it. So it's easy to convince them to take it, but it actually helps them get better. 

[01:42:08] Travis Bader: Kept bees for a number of years.

[01:42:10] Travis Bader: My wife and I, I'm thinking of talking about it here. It makes me want to put a couple more hives up. Right. 

[01:42:16] Ian McIntosh: My neighbors used to have bees and my yard is packed with flowers and they were, they would give us honey and we're like, oh, this is honey from our yard, which is, you know, about as close to home as you can get.

[01:42:26] Ian McIntosh: But, uh, but yeah, man, it, you know, if you, if you have the time and energy for stuff like that, it's of course amazing to do. 

[01:42:34] Travis Bader: Awesome. Fasting, intermittent fasting. 

[01:42:36] Ian McIntosh: Intermittent fasting is a game changer for me. I've, I've noticed nothing but positive, um, uh, aspects to it. I am so sold on it and, uh, I'm going to continue to do it for Well, as long as I feel necessary, but at the same time, I don't see a time where I won't at this point.

[01:42:54] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. We'll see. I mean, I haven't even been a full year of doing it yet, but I've just, I've just noticed so much good coming from it and I just feel better. I feel light. Is it 

[01:43:05] Travis Bader: easier if you're a vegetarian? 

[01:43:09] Ian McIntosh: No, cause I love food. Yeah. You should see me eat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My brother and I, like we ate, almost ate my parents out of house and home and like, I'm a big eater.

[01:43:17] Ian McIntosh: And it's not about like eating less. It's about eating less often, you know? And so I still consume similar amount of calories a day, but I just put the space in between. Yeah, much longer. And, and then I, I do two bigger meals instead of three. 

[01:43:35] Travis Bader: I spent a couple of months over in Greece and, um, I love eating.

[01:43:41] Travis Bader: I love food. And I realized I just like all the variety of flavors. Like we go, we got Vietnamese food, we got Japanese food. Vancouver is great for that. We've got everything right. And I'm like, and then we've got access to all this stuff. And when I was over there was. The same kind of access to food, the same greens, lamb, chicken.

[01:44:01] Travis Bader: Uh, and I just got bored and I was not hungry, but I lost 30 pounds. Yeah. That was over about a two month period. 

[01:44:10] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's your body. Like a lot of people think that, oh, if you starve yourself, starve yourself, if you go hungry, your body's going to start eating its muscle mass. Our bodies are not designed like that mother nature didn't design us so that the first thing our body starts eating when we're, when we don't get food is our muscle mass.

[01:44:31] Ian McIntosh: It goes straight for the fat reserves. It's like a bear hibernating, you know, it's like, uh, a lion doesn't lose its muscle mass. If it hasn't eaten in days, it loses all of its fat. And that's the first thing to go. So yeah, that's the, another huge benefit. You get into that 13 to 15 hour fast, that's your like fat burning, big time stage.

[01:44:52] Ian McIntosh: That's when your body's just like feeding on fat. 

[01:44:55] Travis Bader: Well, Michael Easter wrote a book called the comfort crisis. Yeah. Popular book. I just finished. Actually, I started reading it and I finished listening to it on a, uh, on a road trip. A friend of mine gave me the book says, you gotta listen to it. It's really good.

[01:45:08] Travis Bader: It's got some good info. And he talks about intermittent fasting, but also the psychological benefit of not always being comfortable. It's okay to be hungry for 

[01:45:17] Ian McIntosh: a while. I think it's really good for your mental strength. It's really good for mental fortitude and, and like not becoming someone who has an addictive personality or, you know, if you can like just be hungry and be okay with it and then move on with your life, it's one thing to just sit there staring at the pantry or the fridge.

[01:45:38] Ian McIntosh: And like you're 17 hours into a fast. You just be like, screw this. You know, it's like, but if you just go out and do stuff, you don't even notice, you know, you just forget that you're, that you haven't eaten. And yeah, it's, it's, it's how we evolved. We didn't evolve eating three square meals a day. You know, it's the whole notion too.

[01:45:58] Ian McIntosh: And again, don't take offense to anyone who's listening, but eating meat, three square meals a day is not how we were designed to do food either. And I'm not anti meat. I think eating meats. Really good for you in certain amounts, but it was only 50 years ago where people didn't eat meat three square meals a day.

[01:46:19] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. And there are farming 

[01:46:20] Travis Bader: practices have allowed that now. 

[01:46:22] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. And it's, it's, uh, our farming practices have allowed it, which is doing huge damage to the planet, but, um, they've allowed us to have meat all the time. Our body, it's just too much for our body to deal with. It's it's meats really. High in nutrition.

[01:46:38] Ian McIntosh: I have no, no, uh, qualms about that. It is very high in nutrition, but it is really hard for your body to digest. Well, 

[01:46:46] Travis Bader: didn't Jordan Peterson and his diet, his diet, Jordan Peterson and his daughter go on a, uh, a diet where all they eat is meat. Yes. And they're talking about how great that is 

[01:46:55] Ian McIntosh: for them. Well, there, okay.

[01:46:57] Ian McIntosh: So the thing about all these diets, vegan or, or all meat or anything, you know what all the common denominator is between all this, it's a whole foods diet. Why are you feeling better? Because you're not eating processed junk anymore. I 

[01:47:11] Travis Bader: can a hundred percent get 

[01:47:12] Ian McIntosh: behind that. So this is the thing why I don't, I'm not, I'm not the vegetarian or vegan that's screaming from the rooftops.

[01:47:20] Ian McIntosh: Don't eat meat. I'm saying you, you shouldn't eat as much because your body, it's just really slowing you down. Um, in, in the right amounts, it's going to help propel you. The people who go all meat. First, I don't understand how they poop, but they, they, they clearly get into this like lion, uh, style of digestion, which is people can do that.

[01:47:43] Ian McIntosh: Sure. And, but I, I ultimately think the reason they're feeling better and, and there's been some research done into this is because they're now on a whole foods diet. They're cut out all the processed junk. And that's really what. Ultimately, everyone should be trying to do is eat more whole foods, eat less processed junk, look at the ingredients on the stuff you're buying.

[01:48:03] Ian McIntosh: You know, there's a lot of great wording that food companies put on stuff like made with fruit, made with fruit, not made of fruit or something like that. You know, as an example, you know, um. So, and then you look at it and it's like sugar, first ingredient. And then, you know, fruit is like way down the line, you know, these are examples of like heavily processed things.

[01:48:25] Ian McIntosh: So really actually, you know, I don't buy anything new to me without reading what's in it, you know, and the less that there is in it, the better, the more. It is closer to a whole food or it is just a whole food, the better. And that's really what people should be focusing on more than like all meat or all vegan or whatever it may be.

[01:48:48] Ian McIntosh: And also I think like. You know, if, if we are, if we're lucky enough to live in an area where we can go hunt for our meat, that is obviously a really holistic, healthy meat that you're eating. Um, you know, the tortured pig that, uh, spent its life in a, in a. In a pin that it couldn't turn around in, in Georgia, um, and is just constantly being, you know, pregnant.

[01:49:13] Ian McIntosh: And, and, you know, that meat is not good for you. It is full of bad energy for one it's, it's depression meat. Interesting perspective. Yeah. You know, you're, you're basically eating depression hormones. Hmm. And that animal is depressed. Yeah. These animals are very intelligent. Right. So again, it goes back to like a whole foods diet and, and understanding where your, where your food came from.

[01:49:41] Ian McIntosh: And if you're just buying like, you know, the cheapest stuff off the shelf, I know that a lot of people it's hard times right now and we're all feeling it. And things are expensive, but that cheapest stuff off the shelf is also the, the worst, probably the worst for you. Yeah. The cost 

[01:49:59] Travis Bader: behind that's pretty high.

[01:50:01] Travis Bader: Yes. Your health cost behind 

[01:50:02] Ian McIntosh: it. The environmental cost behind it. Um, the, the cost that went into whatever, if it's an animal, that animal's mental health, you know, like there's all, there's a huge cost associated there. And it's, it's the whole notion where people are like organic blueberries, eight 99, that's ludicrous.

[01:50:18] Ian McIntosh: But then they immediately go over to the. Brewery and buy a 12 IPA, totally. You know, it's like, all right, well, don't get me wrong. I love myself a 12 IPA, but. That is alcohol is poison and those blueberries, those organic blueberries were a whole health food. And you're saying, so our mentality around food, especially in this day and age is got to switch a little bit because we got to prioritize where we're putting our money.

[01:50:49] Ian McIntosh: And I think prioritizing, putting your money into your health. Is ultimately going to allow you to be a happier, more fulfilled person. It's going to change your mental everything. And therefore you're just going to find everything flows your way better. Even like, it's like feeding your mind, you know, feeding your body is feeding your mind, our, our, our, our digestive system is full of neural.

[01:51:17] Ian McIntosh: A neural network as well. Like there's that we're literally feeding our brain. And if you've are, all you're eating is junk, your mind is going to be junk and you're probably going to be depressed. Like it really impacts everything. And I think people are starting to realize that, but more people should is what we're putting into our bodies is, is directly affecting not only our internal health, but our mindset.

[01:51:44] Travis Bader: Do you think people are recognizing it? Cause my, I look in my circles. And I would say so based like my wife's a red seal chef, she worked in a bakery for a number of years, worked at, uh, some high end restaurants and we do all our own butchering, everything like I'll complain, I open up the fridge and it looks like it's all condiments and like, how am I supposed to make something out of, uh, All these different crazy containers and whatever is in there.

[01:52:08] Travis Bader: And I look in the pantry and it's stuff full of stuff. Yeah. We have awesome food all the time. Yeah. And everything I hear back from her is a new book. She's read about basically how we should have our own farm in our backyard and we should have, um, so my circle is definitely leaning towards the, uh, recognition that, Eating whole foods, proper foods is, is the way to go.

[01:52:31] Travis Bader: Do you think people in general are seeing that? 

[01:52:34] Ian McIntosh: And the entire world? No. 

[01:52:37] Travis Bader: And, and I mean, when you're saying times are getting tight and money's getting tight, um, it's easier for people just to go and buy the cheap fast food. 

[01:52:47] Ian McIntosh: Um, I think, I mean, it's kind of by design, isn't it? Yeah. You know, we're going to go there.

[01:52:52] Ian McIntosh: Well, I mean, it's the FDA, you know, they're, they're, uh, they're not. Um, they're not worried about your health. They want to make big profits on the crap food they sell you. And then when you get sick, feed you full of meds. That's what we talked about, you know? And, um, and so, yeah, you need to, you need to take a step back and realize that like, I'm not a big conspiracy guy, you know, I, I love conspiracies.

[01:53:18] Ian McIntosh: I love entertaining the notion of them. Sure. I'm not going to buy into anything without concrete evidence or proof, but, um, I will say that there's some pretty good concrete evidence and proof that the powers that be do not care about our health. And so you need to take the matters into your own hands.

[01:53:39] Ian McIntosh: And yes, we're in a time where just going to get the cheap food is, seems to be the better option, but I can guarantee you, there's a lot of people out there that will still have budget to go to the pub or go, you know, get drunk on the weekends. But they're not willing to invest into that high quality food at the grocery store.

[01:54:00] Ian McIntosh: Well, wasn't 

[01:54:01] Travis Bader: that food pyramid that we all learned in elementary school? Wasn't that? Basically put together by in groups that had an interest in seeing people eat lots of, uh, uh, grains essentially. 

[01:54:14] Ian McIntosh: Yes. And, and dairy and, and, uh, I mean, it's, yeah, it was, you know, the whole notion that like pork is a breakfast meat.

[01:54:23] Ian McIntosh: Right. Everyone eats pork for breakfast. Why is that? Well, it was because in the, I think it was in the fifties, they went on this huge market, nobody was eating pork. They're like, we need to change this. So more people eat pork. We're going to make it the breakfast meat. And then they like went on this huge campaign to make it the breakfast.

[01:54:41] Ian McIntosh: And now everyone eats pork for breakfast every day without even questioning why. It's like. This happened by design. It didn't happen by accident. Yeah, 

[01:54:48] Travis Bader: you raise a good point. I should have break, he can breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Yeah, exactly. Or not just breakfast. Not 

[01:54:55] Ian McIntosh: just breakfast. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I've got a buddy like, you know, uh, here I am like the vegetarian vegan, but like one of my good friends, he's an avid hunter and he grows his own pigs.

[01:55:06] Ian McIntosh: He's got five acres up in Pemberton. He grows his own pigs. They have a garden. Um, the deer come and eat their garden all the time, but then they went up on the mountainside and they shoot those deer and then they cut it with the pork that they've been growing in their backyard. I'm like, that's a closed system right there.

[01:55:21] Ian McIntosh: Not everyone has that. Living the life. That not everyone has that like ability. They don't all live on a five acre property in the countryside, but like. But like understanding that that should be, you should really try and understand where your food's coming from and what's in your food and it should be the most simplest basic ingredients.

[01:55:42] Ian McIntosh: You know, it's, um, when you look at bread. For instance, mm. Like 12 grain artisan bread. And you look at the back and it's got like a million ingredients in it and it's full of all these like B 12 and rib flavin and thi rib flavin, you know, all this stuff. And you're like, oh, this stuff is all good for me.

[01:56:02] Ian McIntosh: Your body doesn't know what to do with all that. It's, there's too much stuff. Mm. In one little mouthful that your body's like, nah, I can't deal with this. Um, you know, whereas if you just had bread that was just like flour mm-hmm. yeast. Water, salt, that's a way healthier product and it could be white flour is still healthier than your 12 grain artisan riboflavin filled bread, you know, so.

[01:56:27] Ian McIntosh: Understanding that the most simple ingredients is, is ultimately the best, best food for you, you know, and this is mushrooms are just mushrooms because, you know, they're a whole food and they're a whole food. That's really good for you. And so there's a lot of whole foods that are really good for you. You look at the, um, you know, the, the blue zones.

[01:56:48] Ian McIntosh: You ever heard of this? No, what's that? Oh, it's like the zones in the world where people live over a hundred, like where there's like a higher concentration of people living over a 

[01:56:55] Travis Bader: hundred. So we're not talking about the conductive energy weapons and the color blue. Okay. 

[01:57:01] Ian McIntosh: Different blue zones. But yeah, the guy who wrote the book blue zones, which is, uh, he came to a North face athlete summit that we had one year and presented his book to us and all the blue zones that he had found around the world.

[01:57:12] Ian McIntosh: I think the big common denominator aside from the fact that these elderly people were still valued in their community and still felt like they had purpose, they weren't just shoved in a home and forgotten. That was a big part of it. Um, but also that they were eating a very whole foods diet. You know, um, and had been their whole life, whether it's fish or meat or plants, it doesn't matter.

[01:57:34] Ian McIntosh: It's basic whole food ingredients. So, and then, yeah, maybe not eating like, you know, three massive meals a day. You don't need to be full all the time. You don't need to be full all the time. It's like, I now embrace the feeling of hunger. It's weird. I was the same way. I used to. Like the second I felt hungry, I would like shove a giant burrito in my face, you know, like, and now I'm just like, oh, I'm hungry.

[01:57:59] Ian McIntosh: Sweet. Like I am officially in a fasted state. Done. Done. Yeah. We're doing it. You know, it's like, this is good for me. 

[01:58:08] Travis Bader: I find that hunting as well too. I'll go out and I might miss a meal or I might end up working on an animal for a longer time and I'm real tired and I'll skip it and I go for the next one.

[01:58:19] Travis Bader: I don't. You're in a more wild state, I think. And perhaps a bit more attuned with things, but I don't find I, I. Eat, I know others I've gone hunting with and like, you're just picking away a little bits all through the day and eating a little bit here and a little bit 

[01:58:33] Ian McIntosh: there. But, uh. Well, and your, your body, everything that's going on in your body, all the cells in your body are working on processing that.

[01:58:40] Ian McIntosh: Yeah. And meanwhile, the person who's in a more fasted state, your body is 100 percent focused on your environment and your energy is 100 percent in tune with your environment. You know, so there is a, there is a real scientific thing going on there. And, um, and I think, I think it's really cool to, to, to start to go down that path.

[01:59:03] Ian McIntosh: And for me, it's just been very enlightening. to to realize all these things in the last number of years of my life. And, um, I'm not, I don't know everything and I don't claim I ever will or, or anything like that. But, you know, I'm just, like I say, I'm just trying to become a little bit better of a human or more educated human than I was the day.

[01:59:24] Ian McIntosh: yesterday, um, and tomorrow I hope to again, and if I can keep doing that, then I think I'm winning, you know, in life. And, and, uh, yeah, a big part of that education is, has been all the things we're just talking about, about diet and food and the reality of the world we live in. 

[01:59:44] Travis Bader: Ian, really enjoyed the conversation here.

[01:59:48] Travis Bader: I want to thank you so much for being on the Silvercore podcast and I know I'm going to be picking your brain about a bunch of other things when we're, uh, off air here. 

[01:59:55] Ian McIntosh: Thank you. Awesome. Travis, thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure, man.