Credentials:
Wilderness First Responder first aid
Emergency Medical Responder First aid
Swift Water Rescue Technician level 3 (SRT)
11 years guiding experience rafting and canoeing class I-IV rivers
Low Angle Rope Rescue
Class 2 Driver’s License
The Beginning
I have always had a passion and love for the outdoors, but I never realized just how much until I found myself in the world of guiding. I first began in the Okanogan, British Columbia in 2012. It was here that I took my first steps into guiding as a raft guide. I never intended for it to be more than a summer gig to help me get through University. However, as University came to an end I realized there wasn’t much else I wanted to spend my time on then sharing Canada’s spectacular wilderness with others.
Remote
I soon found myself dog sledding during the winter and back on the river for summer. It was after my first season of dog sledding that I decided to make the move from BC to the Yukon, 2015. The Yukon, I quickly learned, was a whole other level of guiding. It’s a place where remoteness is real, and consequences more dire. The Yukon in all its beauty and wonder is a harsh and unforgiving land. It is a place where you have to be on top of your game, always thinking ahead, and prepared for anything.
Expeditions
It was in the Yukon that I began making the transition from simply a day guide to an expedition guide. The learning curves were steep, and hard and consisted of long days, but every moment was worth the struggles.
In the winters I would do expeditions with dog teams, they were a short three days out to camp and back. However, in that time, you were on your own with the clients and the dogs, dealing with whatever came your way: fights, injuries, gear malfunctions, weather.
During the summer I found myself doing 7-10 day expeditions, on remote rivers that required you to either fly into them or out of them. One of my favorites being the Tatshenshini-Alsek River. It is a river so large you can hardly see the other side at some points, and meanders through vast mountains covered in Glaciers. This river passes through a coastal weather system that is strongly affected by these vast number of glaciers. Here you are left to deal with wind so strong you can barely move your boat, torrential downpours, fog so thick you can’t see, and temperatures so cold you can’t feel your hands; however, when the weather is on your side it is a place so spectacular and unique its often indescribable.
Experience
It wasn’t long until I found myself on other expeditions such as, a 21- day trip running a boat down the Colorado, two weeks in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on a photography trip, and working with an outdoor educational school taking high school students on 3-8 day trips: hiking, biking, canoeing, dog sledding, and snowshoeing.
The more trips I do the more I realize that this is where I want to be, teaching others about the outdoors and taking them into the wilderness to see and experience all it has to offer.