Euan Wilson -
Ambassador Highlight

A quick ‘Yeti bike adventure’ Google search introduces you to the work of Yeti Cycles Ambassador, Euan Wilson, without you even knowing it. Wilson has been bringing the International Yeti Gatherings to life for ten years through H+I Adventures, a tour outfit co-founded by Wilson in 2007. 

Euan shares a drink with fellow Yeti Freak and outspokenly eccentric photojournalist Dan Milner to chat about how the International Gathering began, type-two fun, and reminisce about their most epic adventures to date. 

Dan: Now enjoy your whiskey. Let’s start with that. 
Euan: Well, that's how we usually start breakfast in Scotland, isn't it? 

Dan: A nice wee dram… 
Euan: Is that why you moved to Scotland? 

Dan: Yeah, yeah it is! It's taken me a long time to be able to drink it again. Thanks to a certain Eurobike event with the Yeti crew and a bottle… 
Euan: It tends to go that way with Yeti, doesn't it? 

Dan: Hmm, yes, which is a damn good segway to you and Yeti, and the fact that you’re now organizing all the Yeti Gatherings, not just the international ones. So, I think we should have a little chat about all things adventure and why you think you’re so qualified to herd some freaks across mountains!
I think we first got together on an adventure in Patagonia about eight years ago after the Chile International Gathering. We combined forces and went down to explore the trails of Torres del Paine. 
Euan: We were there with the crew and then when I shipped the Gathering crew out after 12 days you then joined me, and yes, we went down farther south, didn't we? 

Dan: I like to see it as you joined me, but, you know, small details and all that… But never mind all this small talk, how did you start these international Gatherings? 
Euan: That’s ten years now we've been running these, first one was in Nepal. 

Dan: But how did they come about? 
Euan: If you take a step back, way back in time, the first time I ever met [Chris] Conroy was at the World Cup downhill in Fort William. I walked into the team house and Conroy was standing with a beer in his hand… yeah, I know that's hard to believe… but he was standing with a beer in his hand and I said to him “C’mon we're going to ride bikes for a few days around the Highlands of Scotland” and he said “Where and with who? I'm not sure about that.” 
And I said, but we'll also drink whisky, and he said “When do we leave!?” 
So we jumped in the car and I took him around Scotland for two days riding bikes, drinking whisky and then shot the idea across his bow about International Gatherings. 
He was keen to try, then we went to Nepal the year after with 25 Yeti freaks from around the world. And then the year after, I think that was when we ended up in Patagonia and since then we've been all over the world with the Gatherings. 

Dan: We have combined forces on a load of really mega trips around the globe from Nepal to Iceland and all sorts of more local projects and shoots for brands and athletes, but I think our trip to Kyrgyzstan, riding 12 days to the foot of mount Lenin, was a highlight for me in the last couple of decades of adventures. 
It’s hard to label something truly pioneering nowadays, but there was something about our Kyrgyzstan trip that made for a very, very authentic adventure for me. Did you share that kind of feeling? 
Euan: I did, I think for me it hit a sweet spot, you know, fitness and in life, and what I was looking for. Everything was just bizarre, challenging and amazing about the trip, turning up thinking we’re pioneers and this is the first time anyone has used these trails on a mountain bike, and then hooking up with our Russian guide. Dmitri turns up wearing gym shoes, armed with just a plastic bag with some snacks in it that look like dog chew sticks and a two-liter bottle of water, who then proceeds to walk across the mountains for seven days in front of our bikes! It's hard to feel pioneering when your guide is doing that to you every day! He was quite a character, wasn't he? 

Dan: Yeah, I remember when the first time we met him in Bishkek, we went for lunch and I looked at the menu which was not particularly vegetarian friendly, and I said to Dimitry, “Do you think it's possible for me to be vegetarian this trip?” and he just looked at me straight and just laughed in my face… and that was the first time I met the guy who’d be our fixer and guide for the next two weeks! But, I mean the menu featured things like ‘rectum and anus of a horse’. 
Euan: Yes, it was on a pizza, wasn't it. 

Dan: I guess that’s part of adventure though. So for you, what are the elements of adventure that that make it an adventure for you? 
Euan: Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? I think for me, it's the unknown; it's not knowing what is around the corner, and I find that you don't necessarily need to go to Kyrgyzstan or Bhutan for that. I mean we’ve got our local trails that we ride every day from the office, and every second day I spot a little trail I have never been on and I'll go and have a look and see where it ends up and try another piece of that puzzle. It's that same unknown as we’re trying to find and unpick in another country. That's what keeps me driven. 
But I think we are glossing over the eight-and-a-half-hour hike-a-bike, followed by the four-hour hike-a-bike the next morning to get to that awesome bit of trail in Kyrgyzstan. You know, we did carry our bikes for 12 hours to enjoy one piece of singletrack and you forget the pain and hardship because of that fantastic descent. 

Dan: I think that's where we’re really similar. I mean, I am better looking, but apart from that we are similar, in as much as we tend to just accept an eight hour hike-a-bike to reach these unknown locations and when we come back people ask, “So what's the riding like?” and we say “oh, it was flowy with a bit of tech” having completely forgotten that we carried bikes for eight hours to get over a pass to ride a that descent before doing the same the next day. 
Euan: I think that's what people call ‘type-two’ fun. 

Dan: But when ‘adventure’ is often laced with this ‘type-two’ fun, how do we separate the two? How do we make adventure appealing to all when it's sort of saddled with this kind of image of pain and discomfort? 
Euan: It takes some work, but it’s about the stoke. Let’s use the Bhutan example: I remember in Bhutan when we got to that spot that was covered in a kind of laurel forest where the trees were really short and twisted and gnarled, to the point that it wasn't just tough, it was almost impossible to get you and your bike through at the same time. And that was when ‘type-two’’ becomes ‘type-three’, and you're puffing at 4000 meters and you've been going for, you know, five hours and you're looking for that glimpse of something, anything, that just gets you stoked. 
Then I remember we caught a descent off the back of that forest, and it was probably, something like just a four-minute descent, but after that we were stoked for the rest of the day. It didn't matter what came next. We had four minutes of that truly surreal feeling - finding something special and unique in the middle of the mountains at four and a half thousand meters. 

Dan: I think for me Bhutan has the best adventure riding. The actual riding, in terms of enduro style, is the best I've ever had on any of the trips I've done in 30 years. But there's more to it. There's also the culture. There's this whole kind of package that combines it all. I mean, for me… it's almost blasphemous to say… the culture and travel side is as important as the bike riding. Oops! But it is. I can ride out of my back yard on a trail and I can get a buzz, but it's a different buzz.  
So for you is it about the riding, or is it about the culture and how do you get the balance when you're putting together a trip for clients or Yeti Freaks? I mean you guys do what, ninety-plus trips a year for clients? 
Euan: You need to balance it carefully for the location you go to. So if you're taking people to Finale or to Whistler, then people are going there not necessarily for a cultural experience. They're going there primarily because of the biking; the riding is mostly what's drawn them to that location. 
But the key is to help people unpack and find those ‘little moments’ wherever they are. I mean, it might be that people are riding for eight hours a day in Finale or Whistler, but where are you having lunch? Where are you having dinner? Where are you staying? What's the special beer? Always thinking, why are you riding here? The big question is, ‘why ride somewhere’? 
Because as you just rightly said, I can ride all day long out of the back of my house and I can ride on world class trails. I don't need to travel to the other side of the world. So, I ask myself every single moment of a day when creating these trips, why? 
I remember you saying recently that the bike opens doors, and I think that is one of the most important things that leads to experiences on these trips. You could hike through a village or hop on a bus with a backpack and you're just another person, you just look slightly different or you're carrying slightly different stuff. But when you roll into a village, any village in the world whether it's in Scotland or Bhutan, on a mountain bike and grab a coffee or whatever, people talk to you. 
They ask you where you've been and they're trying to understand what you've been doing. It creates conversations even when you can't speak the language. I remember in Morocco coming round a corner of a sheep pen in the middle of nowhere and two guys were sitting having their tea and bread. And we stopped because it was the first time we saw people all day. And before the dust had settled, they were already offering us some of their bread. Their own piece of bread they had ripped in half for us. 

Dan: Yeah, well, I think there's a universal respect for human-powered transport, and it doesn't matter that you you're on a superbike or a little supermarket bike. It's just that you're on a bicycle, a universally recognized form of transport, and so there's a connection and these connections open up these conversations everywhere you go. 
Euan: Remember in Bhutan we stumbled upon a lunch in the monastery when they were having their festival and the young monk walked up and politely asked to see the bike, instantly pushed the dropper seat lever knowing exactly what to do? We were all standing with our mouths open, asking, “How did you know how to do that?” 
It turned out his brother was a mountain biker. And then next, he was pulling manuals down that track in his monk robes. 

Dan: What a phenomenon, that was incredible! 
Euan: It really was incredible and you know, it’s moments like that that make me think that you’re dead for a very, very long time, so why not just get out there now and see the world. 

Dan: Well, that seems like a good way to finish. Yeah, go ride a bike. 
Euan: Yeah, so let's go to Bhutan in November and ride bikes. 

Dan: Yeah, I'm just putting that one out there; I am available to ride bikes in Bhutan in November. 

Yeti is honored to announce that Euan and his team at H+I Adventures will be assisting in the planning, coordination and execution of all 2025 Yeti Gatherings. Having led countless International Yeti Gatherings in the past, we’re thrilled to be calling on their expertise in helping create memorable experiences for our Yeti Freaks.