"Which Mountains do You Guide?"

I get that question a lot. Usually the unspoken context implies that there is some small finite number of mountains that people climb. Usually mountains that you’ve heard of. And, yes, many guides have a list of mountains that they guide that can be rattled off and includes names you’ve heard of. That’s not how my career has gone. I go lots of places for work. Often I’m guiding something on my first visit there. Mountain skill is mountain skill. I can go to a mountain I’ve not been before and do a pretty darn good job. I’ll do an even better job the next time, but I could very well do a better job my first time than another guide might do on their 50th time.

Let this list expand your idea of what constitutes a “mountain”, what a guide can do, and what the guiding life looks like.