Experience
As the guide of these expeditions, my goal is to provide you a safe, enjoyable and rewarding experience. My extensive experience guiding in the outdoors reaches from the peaks of the North American Rockies to the desert outback of the Australian bush. The Andes mountains and rivers of Central Patagonia in Southern America to the arctic coast in the north.
I’ve done solo treks through some of the most remote wilderness in North America, photographing and exploring along the way, and have the skills and experience to safely lead even novice hikers.
Courses and training include Wilderness First Responder, Glacial Travel and Crevasse Rescue, Swiftwater Rescue and Outdoor skills and leadership.
Safety
is paramount. I am a fully trained and qualified Wilderness First Responder, certified through the Wilderness Medical Training Center. I carry a full First Aid, a Basic Life Support kit, and a satellite phone for emergencies. I also carry a secondary form of satellite-based communications as a backup.
I choose routes for guided backpacking trips that don’t involve anything too technical or dangerous. I work hard to ensure our route is the safest possible. Having an evacuation plan is an essential element of trip safety, and I always go through a full safety talk at the beginning of each trip with the guests – prevention is the best First Aid tool we have.
I’m not afraid to say ‘no’, and to turn back if need be. My experience as a wildlife photographer gives me helpful knowledge about animal behavior, which is important traveling through bear habitat.
The Outdoors
I’m a passionate lover of the outdoors and the wild and spend a good deal of time every year in the backcountry, spring, summer, fall and winter. A reverence for what is wild, for the primordial, is embedded in the way I see the world. I suppose this stems from my early years growing up in the bush in Australia.
After college, I came to the US where I spent years hiking the Southern Appalachian mountains while pursuing my other life as a professional musician in Atlanta, GA. I was hooked on Alaska after my first trip here more than 25 years ago, and I’ve been exploring and guiding in the Great Land ever since.
Artist
My love of the natural world is what I offer through this guiding service. I draw inspiration as an artist from the wilderness and its wealth of wisdom.
My photography has been bought and published by magazines and textbooks across the US and abroad, from Backpacker Magazine, Popular Photography to National Geographic Maps, etc.
Years photographing nature have taught me a deeper patience and observant attention that I use to engage, and I enjoy sharing what that brings to each trip.
Testimonial
” .. a top-notch guide (and person) with a highly contagious enthusiasm for the rugged Alaskan wilderness.”
