Breakthrough with Matt Segal
- March 02, 2021
- Featured
Photo: Ian Glass (@ianvaso)
We all know 2020 was a crazy year filled with emotional upheaval and loss. As a professional athlete and small business owner I was forced to reconfigure everything to a new normal. When 2021 rolled around it was time to shift focus in all aspects of life and business. They say you can’t have light without the dark, and I’ve found myself shifting focus toward becoming a more well rounded athlete and business owner.
Like most people I have the habit of compartmentalizing my life and perfecting one task at a time. With so much in flux in 2021, however, I decided to begin the new year focusing on three major aspects of my life: embracing winter, training for rock climbing goals, and furthering my business, Alpine Start Foods. I found during this time of flux, a consistency and rhythm to my life through music. Jaybird Vista earbuds gave me the ability to tune in and focus on the task at hand, while I was, in fact, juggling multiple aspects of my life. Music is a part of my soul, and as the late and great Jimi Hendrix once said, “With the power of soul anything is possible.”
Embracing Winter
You simply have to roll with the punches. Over the years I’ve realized it’s less about the activity or sport I’m doing and more about being in the mountains with friends. I normally spend the winter skiing but with a less than ideal snow year in Colorado I was forced to try something different. Over the years I’ve dabbled with mixed and ice climbing but this year I chose to dive head in for the challenge.
Having spent the majority of my life rock climbing on dry, warm rock it felt like a whole new game when I put sharp objects on my hands and feet. Kicking and scratching up cold faces forced me to look at climbing with a new lens. Ultimately the goal is the same, to get to the top, but mixed and ice climbing forced me to problem solve in ways I had never thought about. There’s just so many more variables that go into it, the ice is ever changing and you always have to be aware of the fact that you have very sharp objects attached to you.
But at the end of the day it felt like more of the same in all the best ways. There’s nothing better than being outside pushing yourself mentally and physically with your close friends.
Photo: Ian Glass (@ianvaso)
Photo: Ian Glass (@ianvaso)
Training
I can’t always be outside in the mountains, and the winter has typically been the perfect time to focus on training indoors for spring and summer rock climbing objectives.
When I was younger, training was purely about getting as strong as possible, but after a paragliding accident in 2017 that left me with over a dozen broken bones, I had to change my perspective on fitness and life. I couldn’t just go to the gym and do the exercises I enjoyed and was good at. I had to really focus on my weaknesses so that my old injuries wouldn’t flare up again. I was forced to spend a lot more time doing bodyweight exercises in the gym. Training turned into a balance of maintaining my physical health and strength.. It was imperative for me to stay on top of each injury, or else I would end up in tremendous pain and be forced to rest when I otherwise would be pushing myself in the mountains.
The COVID-19 pandemic proved difficult in grasping to maintain any balance in my life, be it professional, athletic, or personal. With gyms closed, I was forced to spend most of my time climbing on a friend’s home wall. During those times on the homewall it was often just me, a space heater, and an epic music playlist on my Vista earbuds motivating me through my sessions. Without music it’s questionable whether I would have made it through some grueling training days.
Furthering Business
In 2015 while on a climbing trip to the Bugaboos in BC Canada I had the idea to create an instant coffee company. In all honestly I was sick of drinking shi** instant coffee and was looking for a new challenge in life. It didn’t happen overnight and I spent months and months experimenting with many different coffees—tasting tons of varietals and mixing all sorts of creamers and flavors. I knew immediately when I tried what now is our original blend that it was the one. It was the same feeling you get when you’ve been working on a climb for days and days and all of a sudden it comes together and you send.
Two years and many playlists later Alpine Start had three products on the shelf in retailers like REI and Whole Foods. It was the perfect cup of coffee for backcountry adventures. Last year I decided to get back into the world of product development.
Photo: Ian Glass (@ianvaso)
Photo Right: Cory Richards
After my accident in 2017 I was looking everywhere for ways to optimize my recovery and health. My business partner Mike Crouch introduced me to the health benefits of medicinal mushrooms. From there I started experimenting with my morning routine and began adding all sorts of beneficial ingredients like vitamins, MCT’s and CBD to my morning cup.
A few friends heard about what I was doing and before I knew it, I was making custom blends of coffee that helped friends on adventures all over the world. From breaking long distance bike records to summiting 8,000-meter peaks, everyone who tried it loved it and seemed to perform better when drinking it!
Thus, Alpine Start with Benefits was created. We decided to launch these new products on Kickstarter. A bold move, but as a community focused business, we felt it was the best way to give our supporters the opportunity to purchase our products before they hit retail shelves in the spring, and completely sell out…Okay, well, hopefully!
As I mentioned earlier, they say you can’t have light without the dark, and I’ve worked hard to find the light and put my heart and soul into all my endeavours this past year. It has required a level of determination and focus that I am able to reflect on as a successful period of my life, despite the outcome. And it has taught me invaluable lessons in perseverance and, well, to just get out there and have a good time! Life is short and I sure am grateful for tasty coffee and good music.
Blog by Matt Segal: National Geographic Explorer, Professional Climber, Adventure Enthusiast & Wannabe Chef. Founder at Alpine Start: Quality Coffee, Instantly. @mattsegal
