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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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A couple of our guides, Jacob Schmitz and Josh Garner, are off on a personal adventure to climb the 5th highest peak in the world, Makalu (8481 meters/27,825 ft). They have arrived in base camp, and had their Puja and they are ready to climb! They are with a couple of climber/guides from Argentina and…
DetailsThis summer, we underwent the long, detailed process of becoming an Accredited Program of the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA). Accreditation is granted to guide services that meet or exceed the high operational standards required by the American Mountain Guides Association during an extensive safety and business review of their operations. After submitting the lengthy…
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