EP 39: Chasing Limits, Life In The Tetons, and Inventing The Picnic with David Gonzales

Hello, and welcome back to the Shadows Run Podcast! 

David Gonzales is a professional filmmaker, author, and photographer. Some of his more notable work includes co-writing the narration for Renan Ozturk’s The Ghosts Above and Renan and Alex Honnold’s Life Coach; and founding Treefight in 2008, a nonprofit that raised awareness about the plight of whitebark pine trees in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. 

He is also somewhat of a local Teton celebrity, possibly best known these days as the guy who started the “Picnic,” which has become a well-known unofficial triathlon in the Tetons. He has also pioneered a number of other “Picnic” variations both in the Park, and elsewhere in the country. 

David is also an advocate for various environmental issues in the West, and has been involved with a number of non-profit organizations across his career. 

In this conversation we talk about...:

• what brought David to the Tetons
• working with high profile mountain athletes (Jimmy Chin, Alex Honnold, etc)
• mountain triathlons and where the inspiration for the Picnic came from
• David's relationship to fear
• scary experiences on Picnic attempts
• why we pursue the goals that we do
• how the response to the first Picnic surprised him
• ...and a whole lot more

If you love adventure-packed storytelling, this is the episode for you!

David's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treefighter/ 

The Picnic Website: https://thepicnic.medium.com/whats-a-picnic-df675c8ec6d1 

Protect Our Water Jackson Hole: https://protectourwaterjh.org/ 

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