Quenching Curiosity: World Class Ski Mountaineer Cam Smith on Reframing, His Antidote to Burnout, and Playing with Paradox

Today’s guest is Cam Smith (@camfromcb). Cam is a multi-sport monster, especially in ski mountaineering and trail running. A quick list of his accomplishments. He’s an 11 time US Skimo national champion, and 5 time north American ski mo champion. Cam holds the course record for the three largest skimo races in the US, the Power of Four, the Grand Traverse, and the Gothic Mountain Tour. He’s the first American man to finish top-10 in a skimo world cup race, with his 3rd place finish in Andorra earlier in 2022. He’s won a long list of trail running races as well, and has qualified for the Mountain and Trail Running World Championships in Thailand this year. In the first part of a double episode, he shared his key mental skill (reframing), his own personal antidote to burnout, and we got to spend a lot of time exploring the balance between performance paradoxes like:

• The Rigidity of Planning — The Adaptability of Acceptance
• Outcome — Process

This episode was packed with a ton of detail when it comes to the nuts and bolts of mental performance, and it was a special treat to catch up with Cam!

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This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.