JUST GO: Meet John and Kim Kircher

If Sean and I had to “stand” for one cause, it would be simple: Don’t let your circumstances determine your dreams. We could muster countless excuses for why we shouldn’t do this or that, but what truly matters is one reason to GO BIG. From there, it’s just intention setting, patience, persistence, and a few inevitable sacrifices along the way.

Kim (43) and John (56) Kircher live and breathe this mantra every day. Kim is a Seattle native, and has been a ski patroller at Crystal Mountain for 25 years. She keeps her creativity flowing off the mountain as an author. Her book, THE NEXT 15 MINUTES, is a memoir about patrolling and how it helped her manage her husband’s medical crisis. John hails from Boyne Mtn., Michigan, and for the past 15 years, has served as the general manager of Crystal Mountain and a principal owner of Boyne Resorts. Together, the pair—who has been married for 8 years—has traveled the world, skiing, surfing, trekking, straight up adventuring. And despite both living with autoimmune diseases, they continue to live the life they want. Not the life their circumstances deem necessary.

Meet the Kirchers.

Tell us the short story of how you came to be together.
I have worked as a ski patroller at Crystal for 25 years. John became the General Manager 15 years ago here when his family company bought the ski area. We officially met at a pre-season ski show in Seattle when a large group of us went out to dinner. We sat next to each other. John was fascinated when I said I had to give myself a shot [of insulin]. He asked if he could do it. For some reason, I said yes. I just trusted him immediately. I’d never let anyone else administer a shot of insulin before. After that first date, John has always been very attentive and helpful in managing my T1D.

What does adventure mean to you?
Adventure requires a bit of uncertainty and risk. You don’t know the outcome beforehand—whether you’re traveling to a foreign country or skiing a steep chute or jumping out of an airplane. If you embrace adventure, you must be flexible and ready for anything. Adventure stretches you and brings out your true self. Sometimes that true self might not be the person you’d hoped. Adventure gives you the chance to practice being better.

What is the top bucket list item you’ve crossed off together?
There’ve been so many! We both agree that our best adventure was trekking in Bhutan. Bhutan is the youngest democracy in the world. A tiny Buddhist Kingdom in the Himalayas, Bhutan only recently opened up to tourists. The Bhutanese still live in traditional fashion. Our trek took us through the amazing mountain scenery via several small villages where we interacted with locals. The people are amazing—full of joy. We especially loved meeting the children, who loved to have their picture taken (as long as they could look at the pictures!). I later sent English books and pictures to a school principal in one of the villages, who told me that the children had never seen actual photos of themselves before. These items arrived to the village on a yak!

Tell us about your funniest or most memorable adventurous moment together.
In retrospect, visiting an outhouse perched 5,000 feet above a glacier in the Alps while ski touring the Haute Route during a windstorm in the middle of the night was pretty funny. Most memorable? We climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro a few years ago. Standing on the summit above the entire continent of Africa was truly special. The sun rose just as we reached the summit crater. Later, we flew out to the bush for a safari. The pilot had to do a low fly by to clear all the giraffes from the airstrip.

What is your advice for other couples to get out and adventure?
Don’t hesitate to indulge in your adventurous dreams. Sure, there will be delays, risks and sacrifices. But it’s your adventures that will fill your lives, bring you together and allow you to truly share your passion. Adventure requires us to push ourselves. When you push yourself alongside your partner your marriage grows too. I never worry that John and I will grow apart. Our adventures keep us growing together.

What are your future adventure-related goals as a couple?
We both want to learn to kite surf. We also have many more travel-related goals, such as Antarctica, the High Atlas, and more travel in the Alps. We also love to surf and love to travel to warm places.

How do you manage your T1D while traveling?
Both John and I have auto-immune diseases. He had a liver transplant and must take medication everyday. When we travel, we must be extra careful that our medication doesn’t freeze or get too hot. We each carry a small cache of each other’s medicine just in case. Going through security is always as bit of a challenge. But it’s all worth it. It would be easy to use our diseases as an excuse to stay home. That’s just not us, though. We have to get out there and experience new adventures.

To read more from Kim, CLICK HERE to visit her website, where she also has past episodes of her podcast, The Edge, on which Sean has been a guest! Click this link to read more about her memoir, THE NEXT 15 MINUTES (which I can’t wait to read).