Julian Carr on Big Mtn Running & Massive Cliff Jumping

Julian Carr is a professional skier and world-record cliff jumper, the founder of Discrete Clothing, and the founder and race director of the Cirque Series, a group of six big-mountain running events held at some pretty iconic ski areas: Brighton, Alta, Alyeska, Sun Valley, Arapahoe Basin, and Snowbird.

My conversation with Julian really falls into four parts: First, Julian and I talk about the Cirque Series, which kicks off this coming weekend on June 30th at Brighton, Utah. And you might assume that the race director of the Cirque Series probably is a pretty serious runner, but Julian doesn’t really consider himself to be a runner at all, but rather, someone who simply loves to be in the mountains, and enjoys becoming more and more adept at moving in the mountains. And that discussion about not really identifying as a runner makes up the 2nd part of our conversation.

In part 3, Julian and I drill down pretty deep on the thing that many of you probably most associate Julian with: dropping impossibly huge cliffs on skis. Julian has sent many 100+ foot cliffs, and he is the world record holder for the biggest inverted cliff jump ever, at 210 feet. (Go to the show notes of this episode on Blister to watch videos of several of the jumps that Julian and I discuss, including his 210 foot world-record jump in Switzerland.)

In part 4, Julian and I circle back to big-mountain running and the Cirque Series, then talk a bit about Julian’s company, Discrete, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

So whether you are a committed runner looking to learn about the Cirque Series, or a non-runner who wants to hear the case for mountain running, or you who want to hear about overcoming fear and the psychological limits we impose on ourselves, or you want to hear an entrepreneur talk about how his company has evolved over the past decade ... this conversation has a whole lot to offer.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Describing the 4 parts of this conversation (0:19)
• What is the Cirque Series, and why did you start it? (4:25)
• Why Julian doesn't identify as a "runner" and doesn't think the Cirque series is just for "runners" (11:06)
• The 6 stops: Brighton, Alta, Alyeska, Sun Valley, A-Basin, Snowbird (14:11)
• Julian and I settle on the distinction between "runner" vs. non-runner (22:46)
• Growing up, falling in love with skiing (24:06)
• The art & spiritual exercise of sending huge cliffs (29:11)
• The logistics & analysis of sending huge cliffs (37:29)
• Knowing when to walk away from a jump (1:01:11)
• More on how Julian started running & how his dog, Lexi, is actually responsible for the Cirque Series (1:04:39)
• On the 10-year anniversary of Julian's company, Discrete (1:15:58)

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