Peter Chrzanowski was 14 when he first went to Peru, 17 when he organized a ski adventure there, and 21 when he helped produce a movie called Ski Peru. In 1979, he fell 800 metres off a Peruvian precipice and was saved by a local climber, thus earning the nickname Peter Peru.

An avid filmmaker and athlete, he has led expeditions to many other locations. The latest is Whistler, which will be the snowy home from April 13 to 20 for Peter Peru’s Extreme Film & Expedition School, an intense exercise in photographing sports under duress.

Reached at his Vancouver home, Chrzanowski was slightly abashed at marketing something with the word extreme—a notion he popularized in the early 1980s with his Extreme Exploration company.

“[Sports filmmaker] Warren Miller picked up the word from us,” he said with a chuckle. “And now you have everything from extreme dating to extreme homes.”

Currently, he’s piggybacking his workshop on the concurrent Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival, with students shooting events during the day. If you want to tag along—extremely—visit www.explorex.net/.