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Retreats

Winter Retreats

Retreat Facilitators

Megs Pischke

Professional Snowboarder

Megan has been snowboarding for over two decades while practicing yoga along the way.  She truly feels that the mountains, the surf and yoga have been like old friends through the ups and downs of life and are a grounding force that continues to keep her in check on a daily basis.

Kasha Rigby

Professional Skier

Kasha is a beautiful skier, with talent for both telemark and alpine.  For over two decades, her dedication to exploration through skiing and climbing has driven her to ski over 8,000 meters and on nearly every continent, while weaving a web of service and friendship around the globe.  She attributes all to her continually expanding love and fascination with nature and humanity.

Kendra Starr

Professional Snowboarder

Kendra Starr is an accomplished doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine.  A professional snowboarder for 10 years, excelling in freestyle and the backcountry, Kendra has coached several camps internationally.  Kendra always has fun in the snow and strives to bring that to her teaching.

Linda Kennoy

Life Counselor/Advisor

Happily residing in Boulder, Colorado, Linda has been a trusted counselor and coach through life’s challenges and difficulties for over 30 years. Her honest, witty and down-to-earth slant on the art of manifesting is both entertaining and informative.  She is a grounded intuitive willing to help you achieve that which you are striving for, while helping you to recognize what is ultimately holding you back.

Kristin Campbell

Yoga Instructor

An EYRT 500, Yoga Alliance Certified yoga teacher and teacher trainer, Kristin’s classes are a passionate offering of sweetness coupled with a commanding presence.  Teaching full-time since November 2000, Kristin believes in using a precise dialogue to convey key alignment principles that will enhance your practice and offer modifications for those who need them.

Nevada
 

Holistic Chef

Nevada lives in Squamish, BC where she teaches Conscious Eating programs to individuals, families and athletes who wish to improve their health and athletic performance through diet.  She works as a holistic chef at the Chopra Wellness Centre and owns Food Nerds, a small business that distributes an organic, allergen-free food bar.

Susan Chapelle

Massage Therapist

Susan is a Squamish-based RMT who specializes in post-surgeries and mastectomies.  She opened her own Integrated Health Clinic in 2012 and, two years later,  accepted the “BC RMT of the Year” award from the Massage Therapists Association of British Columbia as a recognition of her significant contributions to the profession.  Susan has been working with palliative care patients for over 5 years, and recently embarked on a research study to deepen the understanding of how massage therapy affects post surgical complications in breast cancer patients.

RebeccaPortrait

Rebecca

Rebecca Amber Photography

“A picture is worth a thousand words”, and often Rebecca’s images leave us speechless. Rebecca approaches photography much as she approaches life in her mountain-town home of Squamish, BC. Her work is authentic and at ease. It is her composition and eye for capturing images with unobtrusive intimacy that have become her trademarks. She considers life in general to be a natural storyboard and as such is inspired to watch it all unfold without interruption, documenting and preserving the emotion, joy, and energy of any given event on any given day.

History

Megan began hosting retreats fifteen years ago with her close friend and fellow pro snowboarder Barrett Christy. The two were constantly on the go, traveling the globe for film shoots and competitions. They wanted to create a weekend experience in Vail, Colorado where friends could join in "ReTreating themselves" to yoga and snowboarding as a way to unwind and recharge from the physical rigors of their profession. Both women were also long-time supporters of Boarding for Breast Cancer (B4BC) and wanted to extend the concept to a wider range of women by hosting a benefit in support of the cause.

Five years later, Megan took the lead with yearly retreats and began integrating health and wellness elements as a result of her growing passion for a more natural approach to living.

According to Megan, "I was pregnant with my first child and was very interested in health and wellness so naturally this became my foundation for the retreats. I had also been through a health crisis in my early twenties which set me on a path of learning about alternative, integrated health therapies. I wanted to learn more and share with others."

The retreat schedules began to center around snowboarding/skiing, yoga, nutrition, massage, rejuvenation and life-skills coaching for women in need of a wellness experience. The response was phenomenal which prompted the collaboration between B4BC and Megan to offer scholarships for breast cancer survivors, as studies were beginning to correlate the benefits of complementary care and long-term survivorship.

To this day, over 60 women have benefited from the ReTreat Yourself experience which continues to serve as a safe and nurturing environment for breast cancer survivors. The now twice-yearly retreats are offered exclusively to this community of women, inviting them to breathe in the fresh mountain or ocean air, ski, snowboard or surf with new friends, learn about ways they can better manage their health, and share their experiences and stories with those walking a similar path.

Following Megan's own diagnosis of breast cancer in 2012, her commitment to these retreats and B4BC has grown. Working together, the Chasing Sunshine Project was conceived as a way to build upon the retreats and extend educational content to this growing community of breast cancer survivors.

"I have met the most inspiring and beautiful women through this program," says Megan. "Because of them and my own experiences, I've learned that there are so many options in the integrated health arena by way of prevention, cancer care, and Survivorship. I'm excited to pass this knowledge forward through the Chasing Sunshine Project so that others may benefit."

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