16 Knee Surgeries to Warren Miller Stardom: The Real Secrets to Healing, Purpose, and "Never Giving Up"

Ageless Athlete - Chris Anthony
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kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: [00:00:00] always like to, uh, start with this question, which is, where are you right now and what did you have for breakfast this morning?

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: I am in, uh, Avon, Colorado, and I just ate breakfast right before, uh, I jumped on here with you.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Okay.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: made my breakfast this morning. I had, uh, I had three eggs and put it into, made it into a breakfast burrito with some vegetables, and then I had a, uh, plant protein drink.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Wow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: That sounds like a, like a, a delicious breakfast. I know that you were traveling recently, so was this, uh, morning's breakfast and opportunity to, uh, replenish.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: I, have been, I was traveling quite a bit. Now I'm ho have been home for. A couple weeks. And, um, I, it's very rare that I eat at home because I, I [00:01:00] work at home, I do so much at home. I, live alone, so I try to do what I can to get out and, um, uh, be amongst other humans. So I usually go eat at a couple, one of two coffee shops that have good food.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Nice.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: yeah, and also it just makes me feel like I, I can get out in the world. Um, so I don't, I don't often eat at home.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Well just, uh, judging by the breakfast you described, it sounds like you do care about, uh. Nutrition and care about getting the the right kind of foods in you. How do you ensure that you're getting quality Whole Foods when you are eating so much outside?

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: , Definitely the nutrition thing has become incredibly important to me, especially over [00:02:00] It started about, gonna say,

where am I at now? Um, about nine, 10 years ago, a woman, a doctor that, uh, would come to our ski camps um, down in Portillo, Chile really got, me onto a regenerative medicine. Sort of direction. So bottom line is that I had had, had so many injuries during my career uh, especially my knees and everything, and she, I was gonna have actually a double knee replacement around, gosh, probably 10 years ago. And she convinced me to come to Hong Kong where she could run a of basically tests on, on me. basically her whole [00:03:00] premise is taking your DNA breakdown, who you are genetically, and an incredible blood panel. And she morphs those together to figure out exactly. What you're supposed to be eating. And simultaneously, we did some stem cell stuff on my, we also did, um, uh, the other cell and, um, the other where they take blood from your body, spin out the white blood cells,

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: PRP.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: PRP, sorry, I forgot about it. And, um, within literally couple weeks, all the inflammation, especially in my knees, went down. I was, prior to that, I was going into here, the Steadman Hospital and having my knees drained once a week for, for [00:04:00] years. And, um, like lots of fluid was coming out. I, I, I've had over. 16 knee surgeries. a lot of that was prior to this whole, the whole thing.

So we were, I was scheduled for two knee replacements. Instead, I went to Hong Kong, she did all this stuff. She totally put me on a different diet eat, to my blood type and my genetics. then inflammation started coming down. I had canceled the double knee replacement. I lasted another six years with, um, on my current My right knee got better. My left one was so bad that it was, I mean, it was bad, but it got better. But I went from almost disabled to able until my left knee couldn't take it anymore. And then [00:05:00] during COVID, I had a knee replacement. So, um, it, it, and then still sticking to the diet. So this diet that she put me on and how I watch my food now as compared to 15 years ago is completely different and it's changed my life and the supplements I have, all sorts of supplements one thing that's missing is, unfortunately I've lost connection with that doctor, but we were doing, two weeks I would go in and get a, a. Get my blood taken, I would go to, into a lab in Denver and they would send all the, like a huge panel, send all the results to her wherever she was at in Hong Kong or sometimes Canada. And then she would look at everything and adjust me a [00:06:00] little bit on supplements and stuff like that. She goes, okay, we got you here. Now we need to adjust some stuff over here, or we can bring this back down. So basically to get me at my peak performance all the time. But the, the big thing that it did was bring down my inflammation then unfortunately I lost contact with her. But during and that's when I had the knee replacement, I. Was lucky enough to be, um, in a spot where I could have some, we were eating at home all the time during COVID, and at the time I had a girlfriend and we really were eating well. sh we were having lots of vegetables, no fruit, and just protein, protein, protein, um, over, over and over.

So I do eat out a lot, but I'm very, I'm not annoying. when I order [00:07:00] something, I make it clean. Like I remove all the stuff from it, every, everything that, um, possibly has, uh, preservatives or. You know, the cheese in the United States is terrible. Um, so removing cheese, people put so much cheese on stuff.

Removing the sour cream, removing all the, stuff that's just bad. And I just get down to the what, what is there. So it's pretty easy to go to a restaurant if, you know, they're have a pretty good food source and just take everything down to the cleanest level possible and stay healthy, um, eating out. But you gotta, you gotta know your restaurants and you gotta know where to go and, and just tell them, take all the crap off the food. And they're, they're willing to do that. Yeah.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: I'm sure if I was to go to a place and tell the waiter. And give, [00:08:00] give them those exact instructions that may not go so well. But I, I think, I think I, I, I get the gist. No, Chris, that is remarkable. That changing or, yeah, evolving your diet has helped you so dramatically. The couple of things like I got here were you got yourself tested thoroughly by this, uh, very unique specialist that you connected with, and you were, so they put you on the special diet and you were getting these biweekly blood panels done.

I have started getting blood panels done every six months, which is what, what is advice? Most people don't do that. Uh, but you were getting it done every two weeks, so you were really, let's say titrating small differences in your. In your blood panel [00:09:00] to understand the impact your new diet was making.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Absolutely. I wish I would've known of this back, gosh, in my early twenties or late teens when, especially when I was bike racing. I lived down at the Olympic Training Center for a while, and the last thing we ever thought about was actually nutrition. Um, you know, we talked about training and rest and training and we were being tested, but then we would go into the cafeteria and the Olympic Training center and just eat everything in sight.

I just never thought eating. For performance. You know, like like, it was so backwards. Then I re, I remember being off the front of, they call it the Peloton at the State Road Championships here in Colorado. I was starting to lapse [00:10:00] and the idea of nutrition to try to get me to hang out there by myself in front of the whole Peloton the break, the nutrition was, they gave me a can of Coke and it, and I was like, awesome for about another 15 minutes. Like everything went great and then everything closed down. I went into like tunnel vision and I went completely backwards. And you know, now we're watching like the Tour de France is going on. And the biggest thing that's changed, especially since the post doping period, is this incredible nutrition that they're on.

I mean, they have eating down to a science all the way through the race and everything, and they're, it, it, that's where human performance is, can really increase and you can, you know, you're also better, [00:11:00] your health. So I just wonder how much better I'd be if I would've known all this like yeah. In my teens and twenties and, and carried it through.

But it has improved my life in the last 15 years for sure. Mm-hmm.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: There is, uh, so much science that goes into. Competitive cycling. You know, there is the equipment that they use and I'm not surprised at all that they even have the diet tuned down to a t

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: It

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: to enhance performance. It's crazy. But I think what does stunning about your story is it's not just about performance enhancement, but it is maybe even reversing the effects of injuries to be able to bounce back from something, uh, you know, as, uh, debilitating that you have with your knees.

So a lot of the listeners to this podcast are, let's [00:12:00] say, uh, everyday athletes over the age of 35 and 40. And many of us are struggling with like, overuse stuff Yeah. Maybe, maybe you can behoove us. Like what type of, uh, did you, did you also have like. Arthritis type of symptoms that cause the inflammation.

And maybe, uh, tell us a little bit more about the diet that you were put on, because sounds like obviously cutting down, let's say excess fats, sugar processed foods is, is part of that. But any other things that you were doing as well to, to kind of get to this point?

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: I did have so many injuries in my career and I was, I was, you know, broke my back twice, first time at 15 years old, and it's just crazy. Even during my early twenties, I, the way I had to get out of bed and everything with a bad back and, and, um, and it was still competing at a very high level, but I was, I was in [00:13:00] pain. always, and I always had insomnia and everything. And I can honestly say the last, um, now five years the least amount of paying that I've ever been in, in my whole life. I, I feel so good and, um, it's 100% that you can change your. your direction by And, um, so just cleaning it all up, but with what she figured out from my DNA and the blood, right?

So of your genetic background, how you should eat, you know, some, some people that descended closer to the equator eat more grains or have been adapted to eat more grains and people that came from more closer to the poles, meat and fat, you know, protein and fat. And, um, she, uh, I'm [00:14:00] kind of a combination of a bunch of stuff, but straight up, she's like, when we were in Hong Kong, she took me out to dinner and she goes, here's what you should be eating. And we bought, we got a steak and I love them. Rare. So we, and she was happy about that, ate a rare steak and she goes. Don't take any of the fat off. Eat all the fat you can eat as much fat as you want. And I was like, okay. And so full fat. And she goes, and no, no more fruits. Don't eat any fruits. Um, too much sugar. And then, um, also vegetables and just, uh, uh, a lot of bone marrow and uh, stuff like that. So I'm just carnivore, like as much I can eat as much as, as possible. And so, like even during the, the knee replacement, post knee replacement, I was [00:15:00] eating five steaks a week and I was getting the, we, the steaks sourced from a, from a ranch right here, uh, not too far away.

So I knew, you know, knew exactly no hormones, grass fed. meat, came right from the source. And, uh, yeah, it's just, uh, yeah, I just went that direction and again, took Yeah, eliminate the sugar, know, things that you didn't even, I didn't even realize because we'd just been so lied to for advertisement.

Like, things like Gatorade, one of the worst things that you could be drinking apparently. I remember my professor in high in college talking about how bad Gatorade was, but didn't take it too seriously, but eliminating all the sugar you gotta, she had, she wanted me just like, I almost have zero sugar intake during the day.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Wow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: it, and the other thing that's kind of wild about all this that I learned, especially about our [00:16:00] healthcare system, so prior to the knee replacement, uh, when I was gonna get the double. I had to go do a pre-op with a regular doctor. And I went in and of course they take your blood, they send it into the lab. And then she had contacted me and she said, you know what I, I'm, I'm gonna fly you to Hong Kong. So a few weeks later I flew to Hong Kong and she had me cancel my double knee replacement. I got to Hong Kong, immediately went to her office, we did the DNA, and she did the blood. And then she goes, she has her own blood lab.

And she goes, okay, why don't you go walk around and check out the city and, uh, you know, I'll give you a call when we have results back. And I'm walking around literally 20 minutes later, she goes, Hey, can you come back? [00:17:00] And I go. She goes, she goes, I see something and I want to test my theory. And so I came back and then she sent me across the street to get an MRI, um, on my liver. And the people at the other with the M MRI were just like going, you Americans, you're, you're in, you're in terrible shape and it's all 'cause of your food. So I had this incredibly fatty liver, like a

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Oh,

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: fatty liver, and I was, you know, uh, pre-diabetic. so she immediately had me come back to her office and immediately we started changing things. within one week we brought down the, liver by a ton, just in, in one week. And so she wanted me to stick to that. So now. A few weeks later, I'm back in Colorado already. Um, my [00:18:00] performance has increased. I, I've kept records of how I ride. We have a pass here, they'll pass. And ever since, um, high school, I know my times from one, it's like a six mile section, four mile section.

And

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Sure.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: ever since high school and ever since I was racing professionally, cycling, and all of a sudden I was getting back near those like I had

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Wow,

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: I it like, it was crazy, but how much power I had and everything from the supplements, what she did, the change the diet and we're talking within month and then all of a sudden I get this phone call from doctor's office that I went to do that blood panel in and Denver. We're talking months later. They go, oh, we need you to come back in. We're worried about your liver. So it took [00:19:00] months for our western doctors and the system to even figure that out. And then want me to come back in. It took her 25 minutes and then to change everything in two weeks and then within a month I was a different person.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: that's crazy.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: And um, then I start, that's when I started going to the blood lab. She was either, she transferred between Hong Kong and Canada, so that's when I was going to LabCorp by myself getting my blood panels taken. I can't see 'em. They have to be sent to a doctor or her, like she's a doctor. I started talking, getting to know the blood lab guys pretty well. this is even the satter part is that they take your blood, they see everything. But they'll only send back to the doctors what the doctors request. Right? And the [00:20:00] doctors are charging your insurance and they want to get as much of your insurance out as as possible.

So they're only gonna ask you for the blood lab for minimal stuff unless you really, really request it. but the, the doctors are gonna not look at your full panel. So Lab Corp will see your full panel and they'll see if somebody has markers for cancer, aids any, they'll see everything, but they're not allowed to disclose it unless it's asked of them. So

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Sure.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: they're, they see stuff all the time in people's, blood labs they're not allowed to say anything. And this could be. Caught preventatively, and we could already be changing those people's health, but if the doctor doesn't have, so this is how backwards our whole system is. so she, this doctor that I was working with in Hong Kong, she's [00:21:00] very much on that, you know, regenerative progress.

She's western educated, eastern educated, and she's combined both of them. But she's circumnavigated the whole of how regular medicine works. and she's also, you know, doesn't want to do prescriptions. She feels she can get around everything, which is changing diet, supplements and whatnot. And she's never had one patient have cancer.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Damn.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: it's, it's pretty amazing. Um, she really did change my whole life by, through diet.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: yeah. Yeah. A remarkable story. Thanks for sharing. I, I have maybe a couple of follow ups. So one is , she had you undergo a comprehensive examination and looked at your, like you said, your genetics as well. And I'm guessing that type of diet she recommended [00:22:00] was based on your, your assumed ancestral diet.

Right.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yep.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: so I guess what she was trying to get you back to is eating the way your ancestors did

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Eating what you're genetically designed to, to take in.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: totally. What you've, what you've been evolved to, uh, optimize

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yep.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: and I'm, I'm, I'm guessing that if somebody had a, a, a different genetic makeup, so for example, I likely have a different genetic makeup from you.

I grew up near the equator and I haven't gone through like a big genetic panel yet. But I'm guessing, yes, I have, you know, ancestry from that part of the world. So I'm guessing that if I was to go through this or somebody listening was to go through this, they would prescribe a diet which would be good for [00:23:00] them.

So in your case, it was, let's say a lot of red meat and, uh, vegetables and no grains. And for me it could be something different and for a third person it could be something different yet, but also maybe there are some like fundamental that she also, let's say, uh, strongly advice, which was like giving up sugar, which I think, so there's some universalities here, giving up sugar, stopping like, uh, you know, really like junk calories that you get with like, uh, I dunno, sour cream and dressings on your salads.

So, is that correct? Like, so change your diet and, and eat what you are designed best for, but then also like as a layer cut out completely a lot of this processed food that's part of the American diet.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: But there's also, it's more than that, especially here in the US 'cause we have, um, which, [00:24:00] you know, they're trying to get rid of now. We have a lot of, um. GMOs and stuff in our food hormones. So the overall testosterone level of American males is far below the world average of all the estrogen that's in our food. And that's why our girls are also developing faster and maturing faster. So, and we see this shift in character of our, you know, American males and everything. So, just that alone, which across the board every. should be trying to get away from, and, as males, we definitely have a deficit in testosterone. but it's highly frowned upon to testosterone. But it's starting to, I feel like there's starting to be more that it's okay, it's okay. But I've, I've had a couple, she was, [00:25:00] she was boosting me up with peer dis testosterone that we can't get here in the us but then she was also, um, adding these, um, supplements, uh, D-H-D-H-E-A, which I have, it it's like a jumpstart my system.

And then that's the messenger that tries to get your body to do it itself and everything. So you're not taking the testosterone all the time. You just. What happens is your body, when it gets drops too low, it just stops. So she was trying to ramp it up so that the body would kick it back in. And then the DHEA was this messenger that said, okay, we're going again. was like so surprised at how low my testosterone was too.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Interesting.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: that was, um, that was a big thing. And it was 'cause of all, 'cause of our food, all the estrogen in our food. So I have to admit, when I get to Europe, I said, no cheese over here. But when I get to Europe, I can eat bread, I can eat cheese, [00:26:00] I can eat so much more because the sourcing of the food comes from a totally different direction, especially in when you're in mountain towns. I mean, the eggs are coming from across the valley there on this little farm. And, you know, the, the cheese is made up in a hill, you know, so it's, um, very different and I can fill it immediately. The other

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: And you can even eat grains, and you can even eat grains when you.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: I can eat almost everything in a good place in Europe. All the stuff that I, especially bread.

I can't, I can't eat bread here. and I, I even, uh, I'm not a big drinker at all, but I cannot drink California red wines, but over in Europe, I can have it, like literally over here in, if I drink a California red wine, um, I'll get an instant of headache right here and my knees will swell and over there it doesn't happen at all.

The other thing, since [00:27:00] alcohol wise, um, was like, if you're gonna drink. Alcohol she had, she'd really turned me on to if I was going to sipping tequila and

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: wow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: really good tequila, which unfortunately is super expensive, but it, you know, it's an antiflammatory and it's antioxidant, no sugar. And, um, the really good stuff that they aren't stuff in, but just pure tequila, it's actually pretty good for you.

But not shooting, it's sipping tequila. So, you know, in a social setting, I started getting, I actually started getting people onto tequila. We, we just sip it, you know, and, um, yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's better than a lot of the crap. Again, that's in

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Chris, you, discovered this incredible doctor,

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Mm-hmm.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: I'm guessing, and not to sound a bit blunt, but I'm guessing you must [00:28:00] have been in some state of desperation to take this chance, go all the way to Hong Kong to check this out. And so I was like, this had, uh, promised. It met this promise delivered. Were there other things that you had also tried over the years with, again, with medical interventions, with diets, which did not work?

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: So, um, I, so I did meet this, uh, doctor, the female doctor, Dr. Bramley, you had, uh, Wendy Fisher on your podcast earlier. We all, Wendy Fisher and I to do a camp down in Portillo, Chile, she, and this doctor was one of our clients, and she came, I don't know, 10 years in a row, this doctor, and we never really talked to her much about. she did or anything. But when I started to find out what type of doctor she was, I, I learned about, [00:29:00] my knees were so bad. They were so bad, they were so inflamed. And, um, I, I mentioned at a dinner table one night that I'm gonna try this thing called PRP except for it's not covered under And there was a doctor here in valley where I live in the Eagle Valley that was charging $5,000 for PRP. So I kind of asked, I go, does anybody know about this? Is that worth it? Is it the magical thing? And and she goes, wait, he's charging how much? And I

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Right. Oh, right.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: goes, I'll just do it for you. And I go, what are you talking about? She goes, this is a very simple procedure and there's no downside to it.

'cause all I we're doing is taking. Material outta your body and putting it, cleaning it up and putting it back in your body. And it has all these effects on it. Um, since it's, so basically taking your blood out, spinning the white blood

It tells, you know, it tells your body, [00:30:00] since the white blood cells are going into this and injecting it into these certain parts, it tells your body good hyper mode to recover itself because of the messengers of the white blood cells along with the extra white blood cells you're putting in.

And I'm like, you wait, you, and she goes, just come to Hong Kong and you can do that. I'll do it there. and I had enough airline miles and then. She called me, she goes, you know what, um, I've never worked with an athlete before. She's worked with actresses and women that wanna stay young and all these high, but she's never worked really with an athlete. She did work with Jackie Chan, you know, the, the,

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah, sure.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: also, I mean, that guy gets injured all the time and she worked with him, but uh, goes, you know what? I'm gonna fly you over and I'm gonna have you stay because I wanna basically make this research. she really wanted to, [00:31:00] try things on me.

And she goes, as long as you're willing to try, let's, let's do this. So for me, I had nothing to lose. So, um, yeah, we did the stem cells. I did stem cells out of Switzerland, we did the PRP, we changed the diet, we injected the testosterone. it, it was, uh, there was no downside to anything that I did with her. I don't know if the stem cells took, but then later on we did stem cells, um, where they went into my own, drilled into my IAC crest and took stem cells out there and put 'em in, in my body. And I think those did a little bit. They weren't, it wasn't the magical bullet, but the biggest thing has been eventually when I had to have the knee replacement and then coming back from the knee replacement, now that I had my body aligned with the proper nutrition. And I, [00:32:00] I feel so much better now than ever before.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Amazing. you went through so many things like this whole Milan of interventions of lifestyle transformation. Did you ever, like, if you, if you were like, really think back and analyze which of these different things you, you think were the catalyst, you think it was the, uh, PRP or the diet or something else?

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Diet. I really, really wish, especially when I was, uh, you know, a ski racer, but I left ski racing for a while in professional skiing, and moved towards, I, I, I was using cycling as training for skiing, and then all of a sudden I was getting bored cycling I decided to, start competing in, in bike racing.

found a new, [00:33:00] I I, I was doing very well. Um, and my 16, 17, 18 years old. And then things kind of went like this in the cycling. My scheme went back up like this, but it's too what I've, so much we know now, but literally two different body types. So I was confusing the heck outta my body by changing in from these two sports. But I wonder where I would've gone with my cycling if I would've known half of what I know nutrition wise now. I mean, I was training like crazy, but then I'd eat a Domino's whole Domino's pizza at night by myself, you know? Um, and a lot like, like I would go, I just ate everything, you know? I can't even tell you how many times I would stop at like Arby's and, and Burger King and, and get [00:34:00] milk, those terrible milkshakes and. I just ate everything and, and, but I would eat like Domino's Pizzas, like the single one every

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: night at 11 at

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Wow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: And, you know, you can get a, you kind of, you can kind of get away with that in your twenties and all that stuff. But just wonder if I would've gone as clean as I am now those natural abilities, then would my bike, especially my bike racing, gone to a whole different place. because eventually I, I started having, um, some problems just with my, GI tract and everything. And I think it's just 'cause I wasn't. I was putting poison into my body and trying to get my body to perform like a Ferrari. you know, it just doesn't work. You gotta put the right fuel in. [00:35:00] probably get away with it when, you know, in your teens and twenties, but eventually it's gonna backfire on you. And I don't know if a lot of people notice this, but especially when you hit like 30, your metabolisms, everything changes and that's when all the bad habits really catch you. Um, so you gotta, yeah, that's when people go, oh, I should get on a diet.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Um, you know, and the funny thing is like, as, as athletes maybe we don't often exhibit outward signs of a harmful diet. You know, we. you know, we don't gain fat because we are always moving. So it is like, for, for somebody who's not a, not an athlete, it is, you know, way easier to identify that, Hey, I was eating pizza and ice cream every night, and if I stop doing that, I will lose weight.

But when you're trying to act out like that extra bit of performance and you're not overweight, you don't have those other signs, I think it becomes a bit more challenging because a lot of people will of [00:36:00] course, think that, well, I was out there, I mean, you know, I did all, did all these like difficult rock climbs today, or I bike like 50 miles today.

I can of course eat a huge meal and ice cream. But I think they don't realize that even if they're not getting fat, they are still, maybe even, yeah, even maybe poisoning is a, is a strong word, but like, they're certainly not helping their cause by, uh, Chris, uh, moving on a little bit, um.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yep.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah. Uh, moving on a little bit, uh, I know we jumped ahead.

Uh, fascinating to hear about your dietary evolution. I think there's so much we can learn from many people listening may not know who you are. So how do you describe yourself these days?

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah. Uh, that's a tough, um, so I, I grew up obviously, um, [00:37:00] let's see, how do I put all this? I, I grew up, I wasn't a great student, but, I had, I definitely had a athletic ability. I grew up in a place that was very diverse and, um, I was the white redheaded kid in a, predominantly, I was the minority in a very tough situation.

So I had to, perform. and one way to build stance is if you were the fastest kid or the, the athletic kid. So, that, uh, sort of toughened me up, but thankfully, my parents are both gone now, unfortunately, they met very young and they were in the mountains. They got pregnant with me and they had to move to the city and in a pretty tough [00:38:00] neighborhood situation. I got in a lot of trouble as a, as a kid a lot of trouble. And I went through a lot of schools and whatnot. But thankfully because my parents were skiers, they figured out on the weekends to get back up to the mountains and they worked at ski areas. So I learned skiing very young at the age of one, um, 18 months old. And, um, obviously that I, I was a better person as a kid in the mountains, especially on skis and whatnot. So thanks to my parents going up every weekend, I got to, um, excel at this sport. And then as I gradually was getting in more trouble in the city. And being a better kid in the mountains, I thankfully got to be up in the mountains more full-time and live with different families and, uh, sometimes on my [00:39:00] own at a very young age to train. And I was so focused on skiing, so I train, train trained, tried to go to the highest level with that. I've always been surrounded by incredible mentors um, athletes, mentors, everything. The biking was brought to my attention by, former US ski team, guy Annie Mill, that was an Olympian. Everything. I, I've just gotten to work with great people and great mentors because of sport. And thankfully, despite my low grades and all that, I have a high iq, but I have low, not great in school, I was able to go on to college. back then the US ski team, things weren't quite as organized as they are now, but, I had to make a choice. and back then when you decided, I got a scholarship to University of Colorado and back then when you went to college, the ski team was kind of done [00:40:00] with you they also made you feel old, which is really strange 'cause you're only 19, 20 years old. And now we're learning even that, that especially for males, you're not even coming into your prime till you're 26, 27 years old. that was weird. So that, so thankfully I had the cycling for a little bit to get away, get away, but I was, I became very lost. But the one thing that saved me was I was asked to go do some stunt work in a film some skiing performance stuff and I start, so I started doing that and then I was picked up to go start skiing in some ski films, and particularly the biggest one at the time, Warren Miller, uh, films, and I to go skiing their films. And then I kind of worked really hard behind the scenes to be the best athlete and be the best person. For them, um, literally by going down [00:41:00] even to their warehouse and working in the mail room and, and I could do to be around and hopefully they'll choose me for the next film and choose me. So I ended up being the longest running athlete in the Warren Miller films at 28 years. also would travel around with the film tour and it helped me learn how to speak to people and be on stage and perform and present. And in that process, built my brand. Um, so the, it gave me a second life, right? Especially with skiing. And so I'm more known, I guess, nowadays as. The, the big mountain skier, the guy that did the Warren Miller films, true love was always ski racing. but that, to me, those are the best skiers in the world. But I had a second life through the, the film stuff. My brand started building, you know, my name. And I started taking advantage of [00:42:00] that by, um, putting, putting camps together, special camps, special things. And then I was made a spokesperson for a youth program that started with, Colorado ski country. They were the marketing body for the entire state of Colorado for all the ski areas. um, they made me the spokesperson for the fifth grade passport program. And they didn't really have a plan for me. I came up with the idea we need to bring skiing into the classroom. I could do it through my film segments and then especially the classrooms that were the underserved communities back in like the neighborhood that I started in.

So all of a sudden I realized that being a mentor to that lost kid that I was. so Colorado Ski Country kind of opened that door what it was the fifth grade [00:43:00] passport program offered every fifth grader free lift tickets to go to the mountains. And I would go into the schools and share all these wonderful experiences.

I started to create something very creative there where teachers in schools were asking me to come back share these lessons, these life lessons, these multimedia presentations. and then eventually. it grew a lot. And then eventually Vail Resorts, the big company, pulled their membership outta Colorado Ski Country. it killed the fifth grade passport program. But schools kept reaching out to me to come back. And so was doing that on my own until a big foundation here in Colorado, Anchos Foundation, uh, came to me and said, who's funding all of this? Who's funding you going into schools and all that? I go, I'm just doing it 'cause I [00:44:00] enjoy it.

I want to be a good mentor to, to youth. And they go, well, you need to become a 0 1 C. You need to be a nonprofit because we want you to do more, not just go into the classroom, but we want you to offer more. And I didn't know what any of that meant, but by. They basically mentored me into a 5 0 1 C where I could start raising money using my brand now, raising money. And then, so I started my own nonprofit, my own foundation, and now that foundation has a component of in classroom education and mentoring and with all these, a menu of, um, material that teachers can choose from. And now I bridge underserved kids from a low, lower underserved communities to the mountains.

And I pay for everything. in two weeks I have a whole 25 foster kids. Um, I'm for, to go to a camp in the [00:45:00] mountains to learn archery and riding and camping and the whole thing. And I'm, I'm paying for it. while all that was going on, I was still doing the films still. competing a little bit.

We got away from that, but then we started doing these camps all over, ski camps and like the ones that I did with Wendy Fisher down in Portillo, Chile, I was heli guiding. I heli guided up in Alaska for 28 years, taking people, heli skiing up there. So I had to build a brand as also a sort of a guide tour operator and, um, and also taking people to Europe.

So I had developed connections all over the world because of skiing, and now I could use those connections and bring people in a very personal way to these wonderful skiing experiences and a little cycling. COVID kind of killed a bunch of that because we all got shut down. The heli [00:46:00] operation that I was guiding out got sold a lot of other stuff left.

So now I've, um, evolved a little bit more. main focus is my foundation and everything else I do for the foundation. So the, um, guiding and the trips and all that they do I call 'em donor trips. So people make a donation to my foundation and I take them on an amazing ski trip in Europe and my specialty is like Austria and Italy, and I can personalize it to the greatest level because of all my connections over there. So that everything benefits the foundation. And then as all this was going on, this is a lot. All, all this was going on. As I said, I was skiing a lot in these films and the particular film company was Warren Miller Films they usually, it's an entertainment action sports travel log documentary that [00:47:00] was produced every year. Upon my travels, I came across a story that took place in Europe on the border of Yugoslavia and, um, Italy and during World War ii, and I brought that ski story back to the Warren Miller guys. And again, this is just prior to COVID, but companies were taking over companies and everything and they didn't have any interest in doing the story. But I had all these connections over there. So I ended up, um, basically trying to tell the story by myself, The way that I did it is I figured I'm gonna build it as educational programming for my foundation to take into the classrooms because it's about history it's about this amazing generation, the greatest generation and what they did. it's about the, the, the 10th Mountain Division, which is a ski troop that was developed during World War ii. And I ended up [00:48:00] making a that won all sorts of awards. a con film festival and everywhere. And I've been touring that, and that raises money for my foundation as well. So now I'm working on two sequel projects 'cause of that one, so now I guess you could say I'm a filmmaker too.

So, but everything is for the foundation. Um, so the foundation's kind of in the center, the filmmaking feeds it and also helps it, the, the trips, the guiding trips. I take people on. Help feed the foundation. Um, and just everything. So staying, staying in shape, staying healthy, staying fit and staying just constantly evolving. But it all comes from me being an athlete, as a skier. Um, the foundation of all of it is your [00:49:00] health.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Sure. Wow. No, so badass. Chris, you have absolutely carved out this rich and very unique path for yourself, from your beginnings into the mountains as a toddler, to the point now where you're taking other kids and sharing the gift back with them. And it's allowed you to also enrich your life and create this Yeah.

Just tapestry of different things that you do. So many fascinating things about your journey. I am, absolutely. riveted by your career in the Warm Miller films. Like I am not a skier, but those [00:50:00] films are so good, they're so iconic. And I guess you guys were making these movies at the time before GoPros and you know, before drones, if it was probably like a whole I.

Different era, like Yeah. I would love to have you take us behind the scenes for a moment. Yeah. What was it like to shoot some of those breathtaking segments?

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: it, it's so mind boggling in what a short period of time and just in my career, which, what technology I've gone from, to where we are now. So, yeah, so that, I skied for

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: I.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Miller films for 28 years we, and one reason that I was able to keep, Where they would reutilize me over and over because I was willing to do [00:51:00] anything, and especially go on the very exotic segments where we didn't know what was gonna happen.

Would we even get anything? a lot of the athletes, they want, you know, the, they want to be the, get the cool segment with the grape powder, steep stuff, heli ski and all that. I was the one willing to go to Iran, to Mongolia, places where we have no idea if, if we're gonna get to ski or what we'll come back with. So that's one reason I kept my longevity. But the benefit is I got to go on all these super exotic places. So I got to see the world in the craziest way. And um, like one of the most bizarre trips that I went on was when we went into, north. Western China and walked into Mongolia go find a, tribe of, [00:52:00] of Mongos Mongols that have been skiing for 5,000 years. And they lived in the, um, the, the mountains and without completely live off the grid. They have, they've lived as they have for thousands of years. And in that process they themselves invented skiing for themselves to move around in the deep snow and the winters through the mountains to go hunt just basically survive. So they, they had come up with a form of skiing that was remarkable. And when I think about like what we did, so we, we shot it. Still all on film. So think about this film now. Everybody has like their phones and everything, but film 16 millimeter film. So the canisters are this big. And we had, we had to take tons of those.

'cause each canister only has like nine minutes. If you shoot [00:53:00] it, um, at 24 frames per second, and they weigh a lot. And then you have the, the battery, the cameras, there's 16 millimeters metal, big the battery cases, right? And then the audio and all that. But in this case, once we were in the field, we didn't always have power.

So one of the cameras was hand wound, right? So like 1940s, hand wound, camera, And then, then you this film, you have no idea if you're even getting the shot because you're

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: You're exposing the film. And then the cameraman in a portable darkroom. It is trying to get the film out without exposing it and putting it back in the canister, taping it all up. We won't have any idea if we even got a shot till months later when

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Cheese.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Right. but this is very fragile stuff that we have to get now out of that environment and all the way back to [00:54:00] Boulder, Colorado, then to a lab to be developed and then digitized. you know, the amount of weight, so like when we, I think about when I climbed with the film Crew Code Epoxy and Ecuador, and we skied off the top of Code Epoxy at 19,000 feet. I had so much weight on and most of it was that I was carrying extra batteries and film and everything for the shoot, not necessarily stuff for skiing. And I had all that too, but I had to help carry, we had the tripods, we had everything.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: wow,

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: all that stuff to the top of the mountain, so that we could get the shots and, and everything.

And um, and I ha I was actually the photographer on that shoot as well. They, since we, it's low budget, so they're like, Chris, you're also gonna be the athlete, still photographer mule.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: that's crazy.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: [00:55:00] all, all the athletes are mules 'cause you gotta help carry the stuff, especially back then. so that, I had a F 16 Nikon still camera that was filmed too. That thing weighed. Five pounds or something, you know, so all this stuff in your backpack and then going to the top of the mountain and skiing for the camera, making it look like action and, um, in a vulnerable place, long ways from safety so you don't wanna get hurt and all this. So there's a lot, lot to this game, compared to when I decided to do this film by myself.

Oh, and one other item, in Alaska, when we go film there, um, you have a helicopter. It's 1500 to $2,000 an hour when it's running, you know, and the pilot and everything. You're setting the skiers up on mountains and all this, and then the helicopter goes back down and [00:56:00] then the cameraman gets in and then they take the doors off and they fly up to get the shots right. Um, stuff where you needed helicopters for all the time. Now we have drones. You know, I

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: right? Sitting right over here that like, some of the stuff I can get is just unbelievable. So jump forward to all of a sudden I'm gonna try to do this ski film documentary about the 10th Mountain Division. And I'll just give you the most amazing example. I came, I, I wanted to, to shoot the opening shot for my documentary. And, um, the name of my documentary is Mission Mount Mangar. Mangar is a, is a mountain. On the border of Slovenia in Italy, and, um, it's a beautiful mountain. And I go, I need that shot in my opening shot.

And I would love to have me tied into that shot, possibly skiing something [00:57:00] in front of it, right? So here I am in place, right here in my little apartment, and I get on Google Earth. I go over to Italy, fly myself in using Google Earth, find a qr a a shoot in the foreground with Mangar in the background, try to get all the alignment set up with the GPS and everything like that. I send that, all that information off to a camera man, a drone pilot. Italy that speaks a little English, but I've gotten to know, and I go, do you think it's possible that we could get, if I can get up on that mountain and that and ski that, do you think you can get Mount Mangar in the background, which is like, it's five miles away. he's looking at it and he goes, I think so I, I'm kind of familiar [00:58:00] with the area. And so I go, okay. And I book my plane ticket, I fly over, I go check into a little hotel. It's raining for several days. He DI never see my drone pilot. I just, you know, email him with him. then it looks like the next day is gonna be clear. And I, so I email him and go, I'm gonna start hiking early in the morning. And he goes, okay, I'll, I'll drive. And he was like, two hours away. And they go, okay, I'm gonna put, I'm gonna take three GoPros. I'm gonna have one on my helmet, one on my chest. I'm gonna have one that I can set away from me so I can get all those angles. Me personally. And if we could get that, that establishing drone shot, which would normally, have to get a helicopter and get all this stuff and have a whole crew and everything. I go out early that morning by myself, go and start climbing into the back [00:59:00] country. I climb this kugar, I left him a radio at my hotel that he picked up and he called me and he goes, Hey Chris, my dad and I are here. where are you at? And I go, I'm just at the bottom of the climb. And he goes, oh, perfect. And he goes, I'll get you climbing up and then we'll get you on top and then we'll get you skiing down. We'll shoot all these shots. so. I'm out there by myself. I've got my GoPros going, getting my angles climbing up this steep thing.

I hear the drone coming in from a distance and

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: he's doing what he needs to do. And I get to the top and turn around the drone, does some flyovers and all this stuff, and then I ski it, and then he gets those shots and, and then they, leave and they leave a thumb drive the hotel [01:00:00] and they go back home.

I never see 'em

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Wow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: trip.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: That's crazy.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: and, and, get down and I take the thumb drive, I put it in my computer and I have my opening shot. And

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Amazing.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: went from, we went from me, like I was lugging around, like if it, if it would've been 20 years earlier. That wouldn't have been possible at all.

We would've had to have a cameraman with me on the hill with a 16 millimeter, with a camera, like eight millimeter with film, you know, trying to get the multiple shots. We would've had a, like back when we did get POVs, point of perspectives, we would take and put the big 16 millimeter camera on my helmet or tape it to me somehow with duct tape. that we would've had to have a helicopter and the, and the crew and the helicopter, all of that as compared to what

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Wow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: so [01:01:00] that's the, that's the evolution that I've sort of gone

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: That is crazy. Yeah. Like. Yeah, back in the day, you know, you were doing these like expedition, like film shoots, you know, where you were, I don't know, jack of all trades in some way. Like all of you were chipping in to make this vision come to life. And this is unbelievable that modern day, snow films like you may never see others in your team.

Like you, you're communicating virtually, like you are like being very precise with everybody's tasks, but you may never see each other in person because, you know, you are doing this thing over, like this huge expanse of the mountain and you all have your assigned duties. You know, the producers, the camera people, these skiers, the stunt people, uh, these specialists like drone pilots.

And you just, wow. Yeah, it boggles. Park is the mind, [01:02:00] and you took us through this almost like an evolution of like, uh, skiing, filmmaking, but you know, it's, yeah. Modern ski films like a whole different, like the quality of photography and everything else is, is something else. But something about those, I guess those old Warren Miller movies, I mean, they're so memorable.

Like even to a non skier like me, uh, why do you think they, they, they, they hold up so well all these years later.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Warren.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Okay.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Warren, the man, his, his humor, his narration. honestly too, could do stuff back then that, um, know, he, he would, would go up to the top of a beginner lift just set up the camera and watch people fall off the lift, just letting the film run. And, [01:03:00] and, and then he would go home and, you know, back then too editing you, you're literally cutting and splicing

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah,

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: the film together.

And in that's what they would do. And then be, the beginning it was basically silent film. So he would show the film and he would narrate live over the film from the side of the stage. So he would bring to life this home video, these home films. So he could sit there with his humor and his voice with the camera just focused on people falling off a lift.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: sure.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: the whole audience just cracking up. And the thing that was great about that is that it, it wasn't extreme sports or action sports. This is just real people doing real things in a funny way. And it's timeless, you know, like, and I, [01:04:00] I, I, that art form's just not anymore. And so I'm so intrigued by the, the old films.

I'm right now on the, the two, um, sequel projects that I'm working on. I mean, over here to my right, I have here, I'll just grab one like this.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: So for those, uh, are watching this on YouTube, Chris just walked away and he's now holding up this. Oh wow. You have this like anthology of box of like

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: ski

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: cube.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Dick Durance, uh, John Jay. These are, these are black and white films, shot on hand wound cameras.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Wow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Miller, um, John Jay Otto, laying Dick Barrymore, and you can see the cameras there. I actually have one of the little cameras over here, you can't make this anymore the way that they shot.

And you think about how they did it and everything, and they're just timeless. And the [01:05:00] quality, since it is film, quality's unbelievable.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Right, right.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: it's amazing. They're is still, you know, the digital stuff is there, but there's something very real and crisp about the film, um, platform.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Have some of these, uh, some of these old like, uh, films, have they been, uh, remastered and released? Because there, there's a lot of, like, Warren Mill, Warren Miller, archival, uh. Libraries on YouTube, like you can find a lot of movies, but do you think there are still some gems out there that haven't made it to the internet yet that are like maybe just uh.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: there's so much. Like, for example, um, so I, as I mentioned, I did this film Mission Mount Mangar, which is about the 10th Mountain Division from 1939 to 1945. I raised a little bit of money and I went down to the Denver [01:06:00] Public Library and they have an archive that's got boxes in it of undeveloped film or, uh, undeveloped.

And some of it developed but it hasn't been looked at or transferred to digital, and they're. Like, it's so fragile right now. Like if you were to put it into a projector and it all of a sudden break or burn up, you would, you, it'd be terrible what you would possibly have lost. So there's boxes and boxes of this stuff people's basements and, and archives and everything.

So

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Wow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: I did go down to the Denver Public Library and I just, I just took a guess and I go, can we get these developed? I'll pay for it. And then it gets digitized and then one side paid for that. It was put in the public domain and then like the library will put it online so everybody can find it and it's free. but it needs, somebody needs to pay for this, you know? So I was able to transfer a little bit amount and [01:07:00] some of the magic. That I found in there, you know, shot in 1940 this military unit ski military unit, training some footage that nobody's ever seen before. You know, whether it was off of one of the soldiers, you know, own cameras or there was professionals there, but, but there's, there's, there's this stuff sitting in people's basements.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: That's crazy.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: it's sitting in. So yes, there's a lot of stuff we not seen and, um, but it's quite expensive to transfer

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Sh.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: if, from that format to the digital format. And, but once we have it in the digital format, it's so easy to share

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah,

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: to remaster and correct the things on.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: sure, sure. Chris, you know, you embraced these firm shoots, or should I say even like expeditions to [01:08:00] travel to some, uh, of these, uh, let's say off the beaten path places, you know, the Irans and the Mongolias of the world, you know, places most of us would not even be able to visit, much less try to ski. And here's a different type of question.

When you look back to some of your travels, like I have been lucky to have also traveled to some, not to those countries, but to some pretty amazing places to rock, climb and surf. And I feel it's connected me with some of those cultures in a way that feels very special. So what do you think is it about these cultures in those places that most of us, let's say living in the west don't understand and it doesn't, doesn't have to be skiing, but just those people, those communities, what did you learn about them [01:09:00] that really makes you appreciate.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah, so answers to that question. One is that I'm lucky that whether you're being an athlete or going to do an athlete as a film, right, you have to really go deep into the, it's, you're not being a tourist. So a lot of people go and they visit places and they're tourists. They, they stick to that thing. But to go make a film, like, like when we did to Mon China Mongolia, we actually, we hired Uyghur guides and Kazak Horsemen and, um, a Chinese cook. And we trekked for three days in sub cold temperatures with horses.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Wow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: not a, you wouldn't do that as a vacation, but we did it because we were doing the film. There's, there's no other reason to. So I got to really go deep into these [01:10:00] cultures that would've never been possible if I didn't get to go ski in these places. So I've gotten to go pretty darn deep and do some of these exotic spots. So, constantly

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: may maybe, maybe worth adding also that you were doing these trips. When was the last time you went or what, what, what, which were those years when you were doing these trips?

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Gosh, it's all through the nineties and then halfway to 2 20 14. Yeah.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Sure, sure. So at least in those early years, in the nineties, you know, there was no, you know, there were very few people had cell phones and the internet was just beginning. So you really were going off into these places, which you probably, you and others may not have known much about. And also those people probably.

[01:11:00] Also, I hadn't gotten exposure to, let's say, a Western American ski and film crew coming through their lands.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: 100%. I definitely, several times where I've been completely off the grid. I mean, if we would've had somebody get hurt or, anything go wrong, that's when you realize how far away you are help, which also takes you back to what were the pioneers doing, you know, the, you know, captain Cook that, you know, out there just roaming the seas and yeah, you didn't, you couldn't call somebody for help.

You couldn't call for rescue. Um, you went west in the United States with a horse in. a trailer, uh, uh, a trailer, and you, you're just off the grid. So I've, I guess in some glimpses of the wave, I, I've gotten to fill that [01:12:00] it's given me such great respect for our pioneers, for history, for all of that. And an answer to your other question is do I, it's made me a different person, but it's also made me realize easy we have it right now. We, I think we lived right now during the best time of the human race, we're, we're like, I can go over there and run hot, hot water. I can go, I'm sitting here comfortably talking to you wherever you're at in a van. the things that are at we have taken. So for granted, I can turn a light off and on and, um, it's just. It's, it's, it's almost numbing because we're so used to it. But when you get to go on these trips and you go to these places, and then you realize in some of the places, this is how people live. And if you're, your Western mind would like, oh my gosh, they're poor.

They don't have these things. They aren't, are not poor. They [01:13:00] are living in equilibrium with the, the circumstances and the environment they're in. They're rich in a whole different way, and they're there and they're living life. Um, which makes you realize don't need all this stuff. that, and I, I take, we're taking a lot of things for granted and for them, like just the basic necessities that give them thrill and joy, during the day, ba just down to the basics, family food. warmth shelter. that's, I, I feel privileged that, I've had at least glimpses of moment of being around that and with those people and, and, and it has changed me. 'cause I did think, oh my gosh, they're poor. They are not poor. some super aliens might come here and think we're primitive sitting, doing what we are right now, you know, um, but, and feel bad for us.

But, but it's, that's been [01:14:00] the true blessing of this whole journey that I've been on, is that those opportunities to, uh, experience that. because of that, I literally cherish everything that's around me right now.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Perspective indeed is everything you know. And, you know, one can, yeah, one can be part of the, let's say the, uh, the wealthy 2%, 5% living in this country and constantly be dissatisfied with one circumstances. And one can also lead a life which might seem to an outsider of like extreme privation in the barren landscapes of Mongolia or somewhere else.

And, and yeah, just not understand that one doesn't need all of these comforts. And I think another beautiful thing about. [01:15:00] Being able to go deeper into the sculptures through the lens of, let's say, adventure sports or something else is, you know, if you're just a tourist, you know, like you go for two weeks and you check off the boxes and you stay in your nice, uh, hotel, like you, you don't get to see that side.

But you were out there trekking and commingling and spending time and maybe skiing with the locals there. I think it helps, helps you gain a perspective of how rich their lives are. And I'm guessing that also helps, uh, bring across a different angle on somebody from the west to them. because you know, you go out and you share these like, precious moments and I think it probably also shifts their idea of like, you know, you know, a white person from like the US is, [01:16:00] is maybe more nuanced and maybe similar to us than what we would know just by looking at something on our screens.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: It. One thing definitely it, it's always funny that, um, you definitely don't feel as. Tough as you, you, you, as you think you are when you come across this. And then they, um, they, they look at us at all the things that we need to, like, get through the night and the luxuries that we have. So, for example, when we in Mongolia, didn't know exactly where we were going to stay. We just started trekking and with the horses and with the, and we, we were trying to find a tribe of the ua, Mongolians Mongolians that live in these mountains. we didn't know where we were gonna find them. And the way I explained to students when I go speak at schools, coming [01:17:00] into Denver, Colorado on a train years ago, then you hire some local, Indians to trek you a hundred miles into the mountains to go try to find this tribe of. Native American Indians that you've heard about, but you don't know quite where they're at. And apparently they do a unique thing. And that's what we did. And we trekked and then we, we found, um, in the, literally in the middle of the night, we found, we came across a man, uh, a man with his daughter on a horse. And they were, you know, in that fur and everything else. It was a step back in time. And of course, they didn't speak our language, we didn't speak their language. somehow we were able to communicate and they pointed us, the, the man to point us in the direction of what would be a home. [01:18:00] And so we, we went up a hill and we got to this yurt and woke this family up in the middle of the night.

And, you know, they're, they're off the grid. There's no power, there's no anything. We, we shocked the heck out of 'em. they invited us into their home because it was 2030 below 30, below outside, and our horses needed to be fed and we needed shelter and we needed, uh, to rest. And we traded money meant nothing to them.

Like, like you couldn't offer 'em money, but we could offer food, we could offer other things. and then they actually gave up our, their beds, which were these big things on the floor and in their, their living room, which was a dirt living room. And they had a fire going and they had some of the young li inside so they wouldn't be too cold outside and they'd help keep the indoor clean. walked into this world of this, this, this [01:19:00] life. We took this step back in time and again, I thought. I need to give one of these people my coat because their stuff doesn't look as good. And it turns out that their stuff was all more adapted to the environment than our stuff. And we had to come with so much stuff to even survive in that environment.

And they, so they, we were so cumbersome and so clumsy and, and moving. We just had so much that we needed to survive in their environment. And they were just laughing at how just clumsy we were as they moved around all the way down to the skis. So the next day we got to go out and ski with this family they have their homemade skis with their leather bindings and there's, uh, horse hair on the bottom of the skis that are, is faced one way so they can slide in forward, but they can walk up the hills and they literally would slide down the mountain, climb back up, slide down the mountain. [01:20:00] I'm sitting there, uh, putting all my gear on and make it, it

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah,

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: 15 minutes longer. By the time I was ready to go back up the mountain with my at gear on, they were at the top they had every, they, they, everything was just easier for them. They were so, and we were just like a clumsy mess with all this modern stuff. And,

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: hang on. So they are still, even in the nineties and until like a decade ago, they were still skiing with. Some of that like ancient, like maybe handmade skis and equipment, like,

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: when they saw our stuff, that was the first time they've ever seen

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: wow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: that.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: And did you, did you also try, uh, skiing with their gear?

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: I never got on it. One of the other guys, we, I didn't have the proper sh. Footwear because basically they had their homemade boots too. [01:21:00] Like everything for them was made naturally. There's photos of it on, um, my Facebook and, and there's also, of course, this is a Warren Miller segment, so we did a whole thing on it. Um, this is very much National, national Geographic,

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: um, they, but yeah, like, um, yeah, my hard plastic boots that need to be buckled all up and I need those boots rather than the boots that I'm walking around in them. They have their boots and they have their leather bo and so like, all this other stuff that we had

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: That's crazy.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: to them.

It was cool. It was shiny and bright, but they've, they were just like, oh my God, this is too much. Then the other part of that that really put me in perspective is I thought, oh, I'm gonna leave them a coat or something like that. And then I realized this throws off their [01:22:00] whole world. And this is where we have to be very respectful of. You know, there's those tribes that they talk about that live in the Amazon that are completely and they don't wanna disturb 'em because they've evolved and they to, to live in their environment. If all of a sudden you go down there and give 'em a radio, it's gonna

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Great havoc.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: them from singing.

You know,

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: all of a sudden they're, they might start losing 'cause they'll go, oh, this is, let's do this instead of creating our own music. Right. And which is beautiful already. And um, so that was the sad part too, because I did see where. And this is the dark part of the, the Uyghurs that we came across.

They were being basically enslaved and put on trains and, um, to go work in, you know, fa [01:23:00] factories that are Nike, things like that, So in our film you'll see some Western clothing on these kids, and it's coming as the byproduct out of these factories that are being built in this part of the world because it's very easy to go into their culture and go, Hey, we'll give you, uh, $5 a week, come into this factory and we'll give you some food and hand you this Nike hat or something like that. And to those kids, they're like, that's so intriguing. they go this direction and all of a sudden they lose the ways of their culture. Um, and so then you realize how fragile this all is and how vulnerable they are. and the shi bright, shiny stuff that we have, um, is actually kind of a curse to the whole thing.

So my first thing from my heart was like, oh, I'm gonna leave them my coat. And then I realized, no, don't do that. [01:24:00] They, they, they, they can make their own coats. They can do it. It's, they're not poor. but if I do this, I'm gonna throw off their whole system they'll, they'll lose. That's the start of losing their way of life.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: it makes me think of some of those stories we hear about tribes, ancient tribes, you know, who have been exposed to, who have been sold marketing by the soda companies and now they are addicted to Coke and Pepsi and they have completely destroyed their. Destroy their teeth and worse. So, no, I, I think your sensitivity around that is, um, is, is, is, is well understood.

Um, one thing absolutely. Moving on, I, I feel you are such a good person to ask this, is you have been [01:25:00] a skiing a mountain athlete, you've been a, you know, you've been a, a, a movie maker and you've also been a teacher and coach. And for people listening who are very curious about the sport of f moving on snow, but feel intimidated and don't know how to get started.

So maybe just a first question could be what. I mean, skiing has been your main sport, but there are other sports as well. Like I, I did a bit of snowboarding back in the day. So which sport might provide an easier entry point and maybe some other tips on how they can get started to make the whole experience, uh, you know, uh, [01:26:00] easier and fulfilling.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yep. So the first thing everybody was like, oh, skiing is so expensive. It's for the rich and stuff like that. Yeah. At the top level, like to go to an Aspen or Vale or Shaman, you know, St. Maritz's. But that's the upper thing there is, it's a sport that I can, I've literally proven. With a hundred thousand kids you can be introduced to. And there's plenty of small little ski areas that are very economical, that have one lift a rope toe, that's simple and they have, learned to ski programs or specials for those first timers to get on the lift it's very approachable to, to do that. then even the equipment rental packages [01:27:00] can be very, these are at the smaller ski areas.

So like for example, here in Colorado, I work with Loveland Ski area that's an hour out Denver. And I bring the kids up and um, I gear them up with the skis and the boots and goggles and helmet and get the lift tickets and I can do it. kids at a time and I'm paying for the whole thing. And if I can do that, certainly individuals can open this door to themselves.

And it's unintimidating. It's all right there. Um, very easy to approach the mountain. And it's very, uh, easy to get a lesson. And then the equipment, I mean, there, there is, um, a clothing we, we are a country of excess. And is, like, I have piles because of clothing right now for my kids this coming winter because I just reach out and there's, [01:28:00] families that are like, okay, well we outgrew this. What are we gonna do with it? So, there's such things as ski swaps and trade shows and, and things like that. It, it, you can go get the a coat. was once, probably $500 for $20

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Wow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: of a family, you know, they're like, it's taking up room in their closet, they got a new coat, they don't wanna go like, try to figure out how to sell it on Amazon or anything like that.

They're just like, let's just get, send it somewhere. So like here in our valley, we have a thrift store. You walk in there, there's world class stuff in there it's, they're just marking it to move, you know? So, having warm clothing, having the right clothing, it's pretty, it just takes a little bit more work, but you can find all this stuff.

And then there's plenty of intro programs, the ones that I do for the kids. as far as which [01:29:00] ICE always suggest that you get on skis first, and if you want to take up snowboarding, do that later a skier. learn all the basics of the mountain, just the mountain rules moving around, understanding all that, and then go try the snowboarding.

And a skier will pick up snowboarding so quickly. vice versa, it's, I have a lot of very amazing snowboarder friends that wanna start skiing and they're, they'll do it, but it's, they're, they're so used to being at this level, snowboarding, and then they gotta start here like skiing as compared to a skier.

They'll go, Hey, I want to go try snowboarding. And they can just like, go here and they'll be, they'll be going in pretty quickly. So, um, a, a skier learning to snowboard's much easier than a snowboarder learning to ski. So I always. Try to get [01:30:00] every parent and everything. Put your kids on skis first, and if they want to go the direction of snowboarding or you want to add it on as a second, that's the better direction. you know, and with skis you have both your feet moving. You have access to both your feet. So it's very much a, a, a, it's like learning to walk, especially for kids as compared to trying to teach a kid and you're gluing both his feet down on one board and go, okay, get from here over to there. Um, it's just, it, it is.

So that's my, my

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah,

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: yep.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: no, I remember, uh, when I. First went snowboarding. This is at Mammoth in California, uh, maybe like 15 years ago. And obviously I was this, uh, hot, you know, this, uh, stubborn, you know, stubborn younger person and I didn't wanna take lessons. And yeah, I don't know how I survived those early, early falls and those cartwheels down the snowbank.

And the other thing also is like, just that part [01:31:00] about, just how frustrating it can be to like, try, try to dismount and mount back into your snowboard. So I think your advice on at least that bit is, is well, uh, received on scheme because you can, you can move uphill, you can move downhill. It's no issues.

Chris moving, uh, moving towards the end, taking a lot of your time today. Where are you now? So I don't think I asked you this earlier, how old, uh, what's your age?

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Uh, tell my age. I'm in my fifties, um,

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Okay.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: tell my age.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: That, that's, that's fine. That's fine. I think, I think hosting this podcast emboldens me to ask, uh, you know, mild, mildly rude questions.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: I'm, I'm, uh, uh, not old enough to brag about and not young enough to be psyched about, but I'm, I'm staying healthy. I

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Amazing.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: I'll [01:32:00] start saying my age. When you get to that like 70 eighties and you're still doing all the cool

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: can start really bragging about it. Like, know, like, yeah, we have a couple, um, here that are turning a hundred years old and

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Wow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: you know, they're still get out there a couple days on skis and you could brag about being a hundred then and, um, Klaus over Byer, I think skied last year. And he is 103 and he, so he skied, he learned when he was three.

So he skied a hundred years. Pretty

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: That, that boggles the mind. So, coming onto this part of the podcast, I ask everybody this, uh, question. So what does being ageless mean to you, Chris? And, and not just as an athlete, but also as just a [01:33:00] human who's, uh, navigating change and still trying to grow.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Yeah. That, that's, um, become a very big question for me 'cause I've been surrounded by so much death lately and I'm realizing this is a very short life. We're, we're on this planet for a very short period of time. even if you've lived to a hundred, you look at the scale of everything, incredibly short.

And then you look at that period of when you might have your health and hopefully some financial freedom, you know, 'cause you've put your done all the, done the hard work and done the stuff that you can pull off in your twenties and thirties with no sleep and stuff like that. And you can start to like do the things that, uh, have a little freedom, right? and then you, uh, and, but the, you [01:34:00] need your health. So that period, I don't mean to sound gloom, but if you don't take care of yourself, if you aren't ageless, that may be only for some people a 20 year period, right? that is even less for some, if you know. You know, if you don't take care of yourself, I mean, as I said, there's, I, I've taken people on ski trips that are way in their late eighties and they are just it, or bike trips and things like that.

And then I look around at some 50 year olds that basically, oh, I don't do anything anymore 'cause of the, uh, you know, they're, they're already acting 80. and so you gotta be ageless so that we can enjoy this life that we've been given because this life is quick. And, um, yeah, I had a, a family this year that I took to Europe and, uh, the dad's a, a doctor.

He is a very hard worker, [01:35:00] obviously, and the mom's amazing. She's, they've both been very hardworking, successful. They have four kids. And, um, uh, on this trip to Europe and near the end of the trip, the, the, the dad. Got kind of, uh, emotional and he and I, he goes, I just, he goes, I just realized that this is kind of a perfect storm. he goes, I don't know when this will happen again. He goes, I hope we get a few more of these. But to have all four of his kids, for him to have his health, his wife, to have her health, for them to have the finances, for them to all go on this trip together and be on the same level, you know, whether it's on the slope skiing or in the apre and the afterwards where they all can drink together and they're all together before they've [01:36:00] gone separate directions or before one's health can't do this with the others.

So, you even narrow it down to that, that window, very small. So you wanna make those windows as as long as possible, it all starts your health. so that, that agelessness. So not really caring about your age, but caring about your health and what you're, because we gotta milk this life.

We gotta, we gotta take advantage of it.

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: We gotta take care of our health. Absolutely. And that was a special, uh, story because we also have to keep in perspective on things that we may not be able to realize over and over again. I recently had the good fortune of, um. Spending the winter season this [01:37:00] past, past year, rock climbing and traveling in Mexico, and I was able to have my parents visit me for a few weeks and we drove around and visited some enchanting off the beaten path towns and villages and, and mountains.

And I, yeah, it's, it's, those things are special and so if people have the opportunity to realize those things, they should not hesitate because like you said, like that trifecta of like just health ability and togetherness that cannot be taken for granted. Maybe just a couple of, uh, final questions, Chris, before we end here.

what might be a routine. That you have developed, which might seem mundane, but which gives [01:38:00] you Yeah. Overwhelming, uh, joy every day

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: Well, I definitely have to have at least an hour, an hour off, two hours, three of exercise, you know. have to at

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: I.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: at minimum have an hour. you, you have to keep movement in your life. so even if you're overwhelmed with, uh, obligations and things just, and you're whatever with work or whatever, if you can even at minimum get out for a walk, you know, but, um, that changes everything.

You can't, you, you always gotta stay in front of that. So that to me the most important. And then we've, we've talked about nutrition and I think once you start getting on that sort of just eating well and clean, it makes you feel good. And you might not realize it until you eat something really [01:39:00] bad and then you'd have that terrible feeling, oh God. but at the same time, you gotta enjoy pleasures. Once I did have my first, uh, milkshake, like. Seven years. The other day, I felt like I had a rock in my stomach afterwards,

kush--he-him-_2_07-17-2025_100735: Oh my goodness.

chris-anthony_2_07-17-2025_100735: But, um, no, and then those joys and, uh, again, I've had sort of a different life, uh, 'cause I, I don't have family and I, which I, I'm regretful of, but, um, so I've been, uh, so for me, I could very easily just disappear into my own, my own stuff, especially now that I'm working on these documentaries. But I have to get of here like I said, I'll go to shops and do things and, um, I'm always trying to figure out what, um, the next journey and the next thing. But now I'm doing [01:40:00] it and taking people with me and so trying to come up with creative stuff, but it's a lot of work too. It's a lot of work to live, you know, it's a lot of work to keep that activity.

It's very easy to come very complacent and get in a mundane routine, whether it's with just with yourself or with your partner or with your life. And so, waking up in the morning and having that checklist, like, here's what I'm gonna accomplish today. just, just sticking with it with energy. So, yeah, I, I, for me, I'm just, I'm always trying to, uh, stir the pot for myself, you know?

the, the one thing I can honestly say that, uh, wish I had more of is that we, you realize you can't take any of it with you. When you, when you're gone, you're gone. And, uh, the, the one thing that you can take with you everywhere is memories and fillings [01:41:00] and, um. So friendships and relationships and, family.

These are, these are important things, friend, friendships and stuff. So I've been, uh, trying to, um, improve on all that stuff too. So, these are my, my things than my personal battles. But it all starts with, uh, the health, the workout, and just feeling good about yourself.