They say cats have nine lives, well, Peter “Peru” Chrznaowski might have 12.
Peter spent many of his middle years soaring off peaks like this one. Peter took this photo of his friend Trevor Petersen flying off Mt. Waddington in British Columbia. Not exactly a leisurely flight.| I Survived Myself photo.
He immigrated to Canada from Poland, drove to the tip of Chile and back in a van, soloed a first ascent, and made groundbreaking innovations in the ski film industry all before the age of thirty. The man has lived many, many lives, and now, comfortably into his 70’s, he has yet to show any sign of slowing down.
After a paragliding incident in México a few years back, he did, however, stop to write down his plethora of insane memories and stories from his career and thus began the process of writing his new memoir, I Survived Myself.
Living and breathing it. Paragliding has been a significant part of Peter's life ever since he was introduced to flying in 1986. "I hiked and flew off things for 15 years or so. Once I realized I could actually stay up there for ages and go cross country. That's when it really got interesting... | Peter Chrzanowski photo.
In our conversation with Peter, he explains how his process went writing these memoirs. It only took him six weeks to finish a rough draft of the 400+ page story.
“I had a bad paragliding accident, and I was really angry at myself, actually. I needed to focus on something while I recovered in Mexico. I basically wrote it kind of out of anger in about six weeks.”
A fateful gust of wind led to the inception of I Survived Myself.
“I was by myself and a little cabin in Mexico,” He tells me. “And I wanted to do it while I wasn't bothered by anybody, where I could focus on it. I wrote 14 hours a day sometimes.”
Turns out Peru even writes his books in extreme fashion. After living the life he has, this comes as no surprise to me.
Peter’s life has been filled with adventure for nearly as long as he’s been alive. Since he was able to form his own thoughts, he has been seeking out opportunities to explore and experience excitement in life. This drive is deeply engrained in his nature.
“I think part of it being an immigrant in Canada and being an only child, you always wanted to stand out a little bit from others,” Peter explains.
From wanting to stand out as an elementary school kid, to spending almost a year, and several subsequent summers living, working, and exploring South America as a teen, Peter’s early years were as formative as could be.
“During the long trip being away from my friends, I had a lot of time to focus on reading and getting to know the places we were visiting. My whole focus changed, and interests changed. That definitely made me a different person. I mean, that trip to South America and working down there as well, every few summers made an impression on me.”
Longtime friend of Peter’s, and Chamonix legend Slyvain Saudan said of Peter,
“[He] is what we call in French a “locomotive.” An adventurer always ahead, always launching new projects and arousing enthusiasm. Things have not always followed the direction he wanted, but he never gave up, and when down, he would revive like a phoenix and start again. He has an incredible resilience, an example for today’s youth.”
"You could get away with a lot of stuff in film. It goes by quicker. That's where attention to detail was really different with writing a book" | I Survived Myself.
As one of the first of his kind in the ski and adventure filming scene, finding ideas and coming up with new concepts for projects was a practice in creativity and thinking on the go.
“We were always looking for stories” He says. “My first film was really just a trip I had organized with friends. We knew nothing about the filming part, we had a film crew who took care of producing the film. But there was so much more to craft the story around. That’s what came more easily to me, the story telling.”
There have been myriad highs and lows throughout Peter’s 40 plus year career. But the ones that stand out to him are those that hold emotional and sentimental significance to him.
“I think I think the film I did for Trevor Peters, In the Spirit, really stands out to me because Trevor was a close friend. When he passed away, it really impacted us a lot. And [that project] was kind of magical. I hardly received $5,000 advance from a distributor which is nothing to start a film. I went to Europe with Troy Young who had a network of friends there. I went without a camera, just carrying tapes, and everywhere we went, people helped out by lending me cameras, and I met film crews who did interviews for me and everything kind of fell together as if Trevor’s spirit wanted us to make the film. So, that project is important to me and was really memorable.”
Peter grew accustomed to starting projects off underfunded and under situated. When faced with these tougher moments, he largely relied on friend networks and the kindness of people to make everything run smoothly.
“It's tough,” he reminisces on the hustle of low-budget film making. “You know, I think that under funding just make you more creative, you have to look for alternative ways to get to the desired outcome. When we made our North Face film, I think I had three television stations participate. One station gave us the cameras to use, another one helped with sound and editing, and another one the narration and some other assets.”
“And to put things together when I was making the Golden film on the history of Kicking Horse it required a lot of a lot of stock footage and politics. I was worried that I might get sued by the corporation that was making the resort [Kicking Horse] because I really didn't like the way they were going about it. Every story kind of had its way.”
With all of his adventures and escapades making films and skiing extreme lines, Peter still needed a proper home base where he could experience great winters with good terrain at home. So, in the early 80’s, he travelled from his childhood town of New Brunswick, to explore what waited for him out west.
“When I left, I stopped in Lake Louise in the Rockies, but I just found they didn't really get a base there, they didn’t get that much snow. I always heard that Whistler had more and generally got a better winter. Whistler was still very small. In ‘79-‘80 they were just building the town centers, so it was a nice community. Everybody knew each other.”
Peter already published "I Survived Myself" in Polish, his native tongue. | Jeremy Bernard photo.
As we’ve seen in most ski resort towns, that kind of close-knit communities did not last long. Seeing the trend of commercialization starting to take over the town, Peter elected to pick up and relocate to a place that still resembled what he had found at Whistler in the early 80’s.
“As it got more commercialized,” he explains, “I really didn't want to live there anymore. I found I always wanted to move to Pemberton. I bought some property there with my family back in the 80’s – ’89 maybe – and we just kind of sat on it. Luckily its value went up and we were able to subdivide and build a place in Pemberton and that's where I've been for the last 15 years. I really like it. It’s a little less claustrophobic, a little quieter, but still close enough to where you can find some action.”
Well, Action is something Peter has never been short on. He began his career of delving into the critical and extreme as a skier, but as he writes about in I Survived Myself, extreme paragliding quickly became part of his repertoire. It’s not always the case that we get to feel the weightless, flight-like sensation of skiing powder. Peter’s way to avoid this little problem was to take to the skies.
"It was horrendous weather and windy. And we just found a hill to jump off and give each other rides back up with a car."
“When they broke out, I had been hearing that paragliding was really like skiing powder, and I wanted to have that weightless, flying sensation. I was introduced to paragliding by famous climber and skier Mark Twight who was working with a company called Wild Things in the US. They had developed a paraglider – copied the French design. He brought those to BC in the fall. It was horrendous weather and windy. And we just found a hill to jump off and give each other rides back up with a car. I tried a few flights and liked the feeling and I really liked the idea of hiking up something and then not having to hike down.”
“That was kind of our introduction in ‘86 in the fall. And then I hiked and flew off things for 15 years or so.”
And in those 15 years, Peter went on to go on some incredible flights all over the world. Many of which were risky descents off high elevation peaks.
“Though I didn’t really start learning how to thermal till after 2000. Technology got better around then, and I realized I could actually stay up there for ages and go cross country. That's when it really got interesting.”
Using pockets of hot air to climb up low-density air columns is a technique called thermal paragliding - used to take longer flies both in duration and distance. Cross country paragliding became more and more a part of Peter’s life over the years. Though he spent his early years paragliding making more ambitious attempts at technical flights, he has now shifted a bit in his practice.
Keeping it mellow these days, Peter mostly flies cross country when he takes to the skies. | Peter Chrzanowski photo.
“You know, now I'm 66 years old, and I really have to tone it down these days. Now I just fly for pleasure, really. I don't do risky crossings anymore. Now adays, I have been taking it easy and looking forward to doing other things. I did a few film workshops out of my house in Pemberton - I may get that going again. My publisher is also trying to talk me into doing another book!” Peter has much to look forward too in the coming years!
Peter only had thirty minutes or so to chat before jetting off for the 40 year reunion of his expedition to Popocatepetl Volcano, in México where he filmed his first ski film.
With his parting remarks he thanked me for reading his book and encouraged you all to read it too – as do I. It was hard, at times, to believe that I Survived Myself are stories from just one man’s life. This collection of memoirs felt as though they could have come from several. It was an enthralling read.
After all was said and done, Peter says he’s just happy to have completed another life goal and milestone. “It just feels really nice. You know, we all want to leave something positive behind and I hope I’ve done that with this book.
If you want to read I Survived Myself you can find it on Amazon! It’s a great read. Click the link below!
Thank you, Peter “Peru” Chrzanowski, and good luck!
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February 23rd, 2024
Peter’s life reads like an epic adventure film. From immigrating to Canada to traversing the entire length of Chile, his exploits are the stuff of legends. The image of his friend soaring off Mt. Waddington captures the daring spirit that defines his journey. Now, in his 70s, his decision to pen down the incredible stories and memories from his paragliding incident in Mexico for his memoir, “I Survived Myself,” promises to be a gripping narrative of a life lived to the fullest.