Dan McCann wants to take you skiing.
Recently back from skiing on and near K2 in the Himalayas, he leaves this week for Kashmir. In the summer he hikes and skis Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood in the Pacific Northwest. McCann isn’t a normal ski guide.
“I met him in rehab for ski injuries,” said Harvey Sax, a friend and fellow skier. “He’s very passionate about the mountains and backcountry. He’s got a keen sense of the aesthetics of it.”
But McCann isn’t elitist. He’ll take anyone anywhere. Sax trusted him with his kids, aged 10 and 16, to go into the backcountry. Friend Sarah Johnston said she’s basically a beginner and went with McCann to some of the most challenging resorts in the French Alps.
“I accompany clients to help them achieve whatever is their priority that day whether it is a lifetime goal or a day event,” he said. “My goal is not to command the day, but to help them not get into something dangerous for them, and help them get into something that is truly theirs.”
McCann has 20 years experience backcountry and extreme skiing. He jokes that he has a doctorate from nature in snow awareness. He doesn’t do a lot of heli-skiing. On a good day he can climb 6,000 vertical feet in four hours.
He likes glacier skiing because the snow is hard and easy to move around on. He said there’s nothing that compares to skiing past three-story ice spires and past 100-foot-deep crevices. He also likes that it’s “wicked” dangerous.
McCann believes his comfort and familiarity with danger is one reason he’s so good at keeping novice adventurers away from it.
“I present the highest quality of experience in the safest manner,” he said.
He’s not interested in guiding adrenaline junkies with something to prove. He seeks clients with a blossoming appreciation for the wilderness.
If McCann sounds a little philosophical, it’s because he is. His business is named Satori Guiding after the Zen term.
McCann defines the word as an “instant understanding of something.” Some philosophers have argued the purpose of Zen is to achieve satori, a deep and lasting enlightenment. McCann also applies the term to states of being others might call being “in the zone.”
“The wilderness seems to strip my perspective down to the bare essentials. You can’t get that anywhere else but the great outdoors. Those elements are anchors when things get confusing. I want to share that,” he said.
Paul Mitchell sponsored his latest trip to the Himalayas and he holds the record for the third highest descent on Telemark skis in the world. But McCann calls Park City home because he loves the connection with nature possible here.
He said he wants to build his clientele here because he believes there are people in this community feeling a physical need to enhance their connection with nature, but are having trouble putting a finger on it.
“The Wasatch Mountains are ripe for adventure,” he said. “In a town like Park City there are people capable of these types of experiences but who don’t have the background to do them safely and efficiently.”
McCann said he’s willing to lead small groups, but prefers to guide one-on-one. Because he wants his clients to achieve a personal experience with him, he prefers to work with one person at a time to fully understand their goals and make sure they’re achieved.
“On the mountain, he is very attuned to whoever he’s with, and very attuned to their needs,” Johnston said. “He knows the snow, the sky, the clouds; he knows what to expect.”
Johnston said she’s also been climbing with him and said she appreciated how he hooked her up to a harness when he knew she’d need extra support, and then let her go when she didn’t so that she was able to climb fully at her ability level.
“He was there with me, watching over me,” she said appreciatively.
Satori Guiding with Dan McCann
801-673-8145