Expedition Guiding
Over the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of calling the mountains, rocks, and rivers of the American West my office and home. My career in outdoor recreation began in 2017, when I made the difficult decision to step away from my studies at UC Santa Cruz to pursue professional guiding. After establishing myself in the rock guiding community, I branched into multi-day river expeditions and backcountry ski touring, eventually finding a niche in planning and leading extended wilderness trips. Whether a few days or over a month, I discovered a passion for expeditions that demand a balance of technical skill, logistical precision, and resilience.
Having now spent hundreds of days in the field —and nearly as many preparing and organizing trips— I see guiding not as a distinction between “rock” or “river,” but as the practice of navigating the balance between embracing and mitigating risk in the outdoors. Although I’ve since returned to a formal academic career, I have no intention of stepping away from guiding. Instead, I look forward to continuing to lead trips and finding new ways to bridge my academic and expedition based worlds.
Pairing Science, Education, and Recreation
In my experience, science, education, and recreation have always been deeply connected. In the backcountry, learning is immediate and hands-on—whether teaching a student to navigate a rapid or explaining how a river’s flow shapes the surrounding landscape. I came to see that outdoor recreation, much like science, thrives on observation, experimentation, and reflection. This same perspective now shapes how I approach research and teaching. As an ecologist, I rely on the adaptability and problem-solving skills accumulated through years of guiding to design studies, mentor students, and balance the demands of research and teaching. My goal is to make science tangible—connecting ecological theory to lived experience and helping students recognize how curiosity in the field can evolve into inquiry in the lab.
Trip Reports
I keep trip reports as a record of days spent outside—routes climbed, rivers run, and the surprises that come with time in the field. Most of my outings mix work and play: guiding trips, field research, or personal adventures across the mountains, deserts, and rivers of the West. The notes aren’t meant to be guidebooks or polished stories, just a way to remember what worked, what didn’t, and the people and places that made each trip worthwhile. For a more up-to-date log of my travels, you can follow along through my Strava page, where I post most of my recent runs, skis, and paddles. Have any questions about a specific trip? Please don’t hesitate to reach out!