One Foot in Front of the Other
Contributed by Debra McGhan
By the time Dan VanDerMeulen was 10 years old, he was leading a string of pack mules across the Sawtooth Mountain Range in southern Idaho following his father. As an adult, he came to Alaska to work as a Helicopter Ski guide in Thompson Pass near Valdez. Now he’s ready to share the lessons he’s learned throughout his travels to help others experience amazing adventures in the backcountry safely.
“I think my greatest attribute or skill is that I have a very strong will to survive. And I’m very good at taking people and tiptoeing through the mountains by managing the terrain I’m traveling through. I travel and guide others in a way that ensures we get to come home and do this over and over again.”
He sees himself as shaped by the lessons he gained as a child spending time with his father. “My Dad was a surveyor and spent years traveling and exploring and mapping the Sawtooth Range. I got to go with him a lot. But I think he actually wanted to be a rancher because he got these mules and I learned to work with them.
“Unlike a machine, mules start every day. And they are loyal and will carry your stuff and do lots of things for you just for some grain feed and an occasional scratch on the ears.”
For VanDerMeulen, life has always been about putting one foot in front of the other everyday, never knowing what is around the next corner. “I’ve learned that sometimes that fear of what might be around the next corner keeps people from ever going there. They miss out on so much.” He is confident he can teach people the skills they need to build their confidence so they too can love the experience. “My dad gave me the drive to seek adventure and I like giving that to others.”
For the past two years, he’s joined Alaska Safe Rider’s Executive Director Mike Buck as a co-instructor, traveling the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers to teach in the villages along the way. This year they spent 10 days traveling by snowmachine to 14 villages.
“We had an amazing trip in so many ways. The weather was good for 90% of the time, which (in Alaska) is amazing.” He said the week before they made the trek it was degrees below zero and the week after they finished there were wind gusts of 80 to 120 winds. Beyond the good weather, people in the communities welcomed the team and expressed sincere appreciation for the training, helmets, and safety gear they distributed.
“Mike is such an awesome mentor because he totally has this program dialed. He’s really skilled at including local information relative to the communities he’s visiting. And we were able to give away a bunch of really valuable safety gear thanks to sponsors.
“One young boy, who won a helmet during the program, was in a really bad accident a few weeks after our visit. He would most likely have died without that helmet so this is really important stuff.
“And being able to see where you’re going is another absolute must. The goggles we awarded were probably the best ones many of these people had ever seen, let alone owned. So that’s another key part of this program.
“Mike has been doing this awhile now so he’s built relationships and gained a lot of respect. It's impressive. Now that I’ve done it with him, I think I have enough stories, even if I use some of Mike’s, to be able to teach this and keep people engaged.”
VanDerMeulen describes his personal teaching style as Active Participant. “I want to get people involved. And I know I’m going to learn something in every class I teach. You just never know where it’s going to go, like never knowing what’s around the next corner, and I like that.” He says he uses visual aids like PowerPoint. “I really benefit from that because it keeps me organized so I don’t skip anything critical. And the images are so powerful.
“When I take people out in the mountains, I know to have a successful experience they have to trust me. So, I know I have to give them a good briefing. It’s the same way when I teach. I tell people what I’m going to tell them. Then I tell them. And then I tell them what I told them.”
If you’d like to experience a class with Dan VanDerMeulen and the Alaska Safe Riders education team, send in your request at https://alaskasaferiders.org/contact. These programs are made possible thanks to support from the Alaska Department of Public Safety, Division Alaska State Troopers, Donlin Gold, Knik Construction, Lynden Transport, the Mat-Su Health Foundation and dozens of other sponsors and individuals who support and believe in this mission.