Our guides work hard all winter to ensure our guests have the best time on their trips with us. But, what are they up to in the summer? We caught up with a handful of our guides to find out just that.
Family Adventures
Program Director Joe Shults and his family enjoyed a trip to Europe and a trek along the Haute Route from Chamonix, France, to Zermatt, Switzerland.
Mark Rikkers has been guiding heli-skiing in northern Iceland during the past four spring seasons and has fallen in love with the country. This July, Mark returned to Iceland with his family for some summer adventures.
Summer Skiing
Guide Matt Steen enjoyed early summer skiing up Tomboy Road with his dog Annie Oakley and Helitrax’s marketing gal Heidi Lauterbach.
Angela Hawse and Speed also enjoyed skiing in our backyard well into early summer. Last winter’s snowpack allowed for skiing through June and into July. Here, they enjoy their surroundings in the Cirque/Yankee Boy Basin.
Continuing Education
Bill Allen spent a week in April deep in the Selkirk mountains of British Columbia for his hut-based AMGA ski guides exam. We are happy to report that Bill passed with flying colors.
Angela Hawse has been busy training AMGA alpine and rock guides in the Rockies (photo: off of Trail Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park) this summer and will be heading to Chile to heli-ski guide with Powder South in September.
Story of the Summer
Bill Allen spent early June in Alaska guiding Denali expeditions with his company Mountain Trip. It was his 41st trip into the Alaska Range. On the way down, lower on the mountain, Bill got involved in a rescue of an unroped climber on the Kahiltna Glacier. The climber (on a different private team) fell about 50 feet down into a crevasse and stopped when he was wedged in by two icy walls. Bill and a few others rapelled in to try to haul him out, but it wasn’t until a National Park Service crew helicoptered in with a pneumatic chisel and eight more rescuers that they were able to get him out, 15 hours later. Crazy! Thanks for keeping the people safe out there Bill.
