Karen Bockel

I grew up in Germany and moved to the United States in 1995. I have a M.S. in Physics, used to do lots of custom wood working, and competed as a professional athlete in cycling and ski mountaineering, but my passion has always been the mountains.

I began guiding on the West Buttress of Denali in 2010, loving the hard work and lasting rewards of expedition guiding, and now I work year-round as a mountain guide, climbing rocky peaks in the Tetons in the summer, sending rock climbs in the desert in the fall, climbing ice in Ouray in the winter, heli-skiing in Valdez, and of course heading up to the grand and beautiful Alaska Range, home of Denali, which I have climbed six times, in the spring. I am an AMGA Certified Rock and Ski Guide and passed my Aspirant Alpine Guide exam in the late summer of 2015.

 

Meet Our Guides