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The Ride Companion

Dan Milner on Wild Adventure MTB Photography (North Korea, Afghanistan & More)

The Ride Companion

TRC Media House

Sports, Wilderness

4.9533 Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2025

⏱️ 133 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Adventure photographer Dan Milner has spent three decades turning a bike into a passport. From North Korea to Afghanistan, from camping among polar bears in Svalbard to being buried by a 10-day Alaskan blizzard, his career has been about chasing risk, chasing stories, and suffering for the photo. During this episode we get into the infamous 1994 MBUK self-timer 'selfie' that started it all, smuggling bikes onto gondolas in flip-flops, why real risk changes as you age, the strange normality of Pyongyang, bivvying through a typhoon with minders in polythene raincoats, and the wild beauty of Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor.

Dan also opens up about leaving Chamonix after 24 years for a biodiversity project on the Isle of Skye, the demise of magazines versus short form content, mentoring the next generation, and where AI does (and doesn't) fit into adventure storytelling.

We hope you enjoy the fascinating look into one of the world's most respected adventure photographers.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I would go and see some Inca ruins, you know, and it just be beautiful.

0:04.0

And you could hike the Inca Trail without booking it or paying anything.

0:07.0

You just got a bus up to the pass and got off it and went hiking for a few days across the mountains,

0:12.0

came out at the other end, eating coca leaves, you know.

0:16.0

And it was a mix of that and like the next two weeks later I'll be down in Chile in the streets

0:22.9

getting tear gassed and water cannons flying around and all this sort of absolute mayhem.

0:32.4

I think Dan is the closest thing I know in all of my years to a real life Indiana Jones.

0:44.3

Nice, that's good.

0:44.9

You like that? That's pretty good, yeah.

0:46.7

We've got a venture photographer, Dan Milner, here with us today.

0:50.0

Oh my goodness.

0:52.2

He's going to be a bang-up.

0:53.5

Yeah.

1:12.1

He's set it up, he's teed it up, and now it's over to you to knock it out of the park. And we're going to just sit here. So, Dan, can you just impart wisdom upon us now? That's what we're after, really, yeah. Yeah. How long have I got? How much wisdom do you need? Well, you've just come from a speaking gig. is that correct? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So what was it? Tell us about that. That was an Outkitt Festival, outdoor festival. Okay. Near Sheffield in the Peak District. Yeah. So they, they're a brand that they help me out with clothing. Okay, cool. My outdoor endeavors. Yeah. So, which there are many.

1:27.8

There have been quite a lot, yes. Yeah. And so I was doing a talk there on Friday night. It's a real family get together, you know, lots of, there's lots of little kids running around. And it's just really quite actually really good to see. There's so many kids getting excited. and there's like bike schools that, like they set up like pump track things and trick things, teach people how to ride and do little jumps and things. And they're just kids piling around everywhere. Like getting under your feet, sort of like hoofing them out of the way, right and center. Like, go on. Don't you know who i am that sort of thing

2:01.1

go out my way i've got to get to the coffee stone how do you do your intro i've never

2:07.3

asked a question yeah how do you do your intro in one of these things you're on stage

2:11.4

yeah i have it like the lights are down yeah some sort of like ted talky kind of like music

2:16.1

comes up i walk on trip over usually

2:18.9

that sort of thing

2:20.0

and just like head button the microphone

2:22.0

I'm thinking like gongs when you come in dude

...

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