Mountain Trip seeks the best guides in the business. Our guides are well traveled, highly knowledgeable, professional and awesome people. But, don’t take it from us, get to know our guides for yourself! Nick Shepherd joined the Mountain Trip family in 2006 and epitomizes the adventurous spirit of the guiding life. Nick packs a lot…
Denali season is upon us! 2015 marks the 40th year that Mountain Trip has been guiding on Denali. No other guide service has guided continuously for so long on North America’s tallest peak. We are looking at another busy season on the mountain, with 19 teams preparing to attempt what is arguably the most challenging…
Mountain Trip seeks the best guides in the business. Our guides are well traveled, highly knowledgeable, professional and awesome people. But, don’t take it from us, get to know our guides for yourself! Jacob Schmitz chose to become a mountain guide in the late 90s while working in the backcountry of Yosemite National Park. He…
We’ve had somewhat of a breakthrough in our ability to provide reliable helicopter access in and out of the range for our Carstensz Pyramid Expeditions! As problems have mounted with the trekking trips into Carstensz Base Camp with local people and rebel groups extorting money and holding trekkers hostage, the helicopter access has become even…
It takes a bit of effort to track down some of our guides, and among the hardest to keep track of is Ben Adkison! Ben has been guiding for Mountain Trip in 2011 and guided two teams up Denali for us this past summer. Immediately before heading to Alaska, he had been in Africa and…
Part of our job as mountain guides is to keep abreast of the latest and greatest gear that is available. Sometimes the latest isn’t so great. Sometimes we love it, but it doesn’t immediately fit into our vision of how it should work together with our clothing system. The Nano jackets from Patagonia fall into…
I recently caught up with Karen Bockel, one of our go-to guides and someone I am proud to call a great friend. Guides come in all forms, each with a unique story. Karen is a reformed rocket scientist (literally!), who has followed her passion for being in wild places, a passion that has led her…
What to wear, what to wear..? Layering has arguably gotten more complicated in recent years, as the traditional layers that we all grew accustomed to have changed with technological advances. Not new on the market, but better than ever, are the latest generation of “hybrid” garments. This past Denali season, we outfitted numerous guides in…
Last December, our Office Manager, Laura Duncan, joined a Mountain Trip team on an Aconcagua climb, her first venture into the big mountains. Laura had worked with us since April 2010, and is definitely an “outdoor” person, but her Aconcagua climb was a big step. I sat down with her and tried to get her…
What do we do when we aren’t climbing mountains? Just like a lot of you, we think about our next trip. We’ve just updated our latest greatest Alaska Mountaineering Gear List with the input of our guides and climbers. This is a compilation of what we think is the ultimate gear list, with recommendations of…