Part 1: A Wrinkle in Time with Ptor Spricenieks

In this episode of The High Route Podcast, we connect with Ptor Spricenieks, a noted ski mountaineer, husband, father, cosmic traveler, guide, and Canadian of Latvian descent, who has lived with his family in La Grave, France, since 2007.

There, Spricenieks has carved a life for himself with some consistent themes. And in learning about Spricenieks, who is a contrarian, anti-establishment, thoughtful, and bold thinker, one begins to wonder what exactly we’re doing on this big rock hurtling through space. And thus the name of this episode, which is part one of our interview, A Wrinkle in Time.

And through time, Spricenieks has maintained a devotion to adventure skiing. Although his name is most often associated with a bold first descent of Mount Robson’s North Face with Troy Jungen in 1995, he has explored uncharted steeps across the globe. There were expeditions to Shishapanga, South America, and into the far corners of the mind. Fun fact, one which we are still exploring, Spricenieks was in the first class of inductees (2013) into the Action Sports Hall of Fame.

Part one of our interview dabbles in the shamanism Spricenieks holds close and the more grounded pathway in his life, where he began skiing in Ontario, pursued an engineering degree for three years, and then the serious mind-expansion began... and with that, came a trip west to Whistler. And then there were mountains, the development of an under-the-radar style, a devotion to doing things in a minimalist fashion, and a commitment to his core values, which often collided with the ever-increasing commercialization of adventure skiing as he cut his teeth and evolved into a low-key but hard-charging pioneer.

We are grateful for Spricenieks' time.

And for those eager to read more from Spricenieks, he has an excellent Substack.

If you are new to The High Route, we are a reader and listener-supported enterprise focusing on human-powered turn making. Our mission is simple, but it takes real-deal calorie-burning to piece it all together.

We’d like to thank Patagonia, Blue Ice, and ATK for supporting us.

We are also excited to announce that you can subscribe to Issues 2 and 3 of our fine print journal (The High Route journal) on our site. Fancy paper. Good reads. High-octane photos. And some fine mountain ranges. And turns. You can learn more about our subscription options here.

The theme music for The High Route Podcast comes from Storms in the Hill Country and the album The Self Transforming (Thank you, Jens Langsjoen). You can find a link to the album here—there are so many good songs on this album. And if you think you've spotted a UFO in the past or visited the 7th dimension, "Beautiful Alien" is a good tune to start with.