Backpacking and Packrafting Wilderness Guide in Alaska

Overview

You thrive in wilderness. Connecting people with the natural world, providing outdoor adventure experiences while educating and leading is your thing. You strive to maintain high standards of safety, planning, and training with a friendly and knowledgeable professionalism.

# WHAT YOU WILL OWN AND IMPROVE:

*1. Navigating wild and remote environments.*

*2. Eagerly informing people of place; theirs, ours, and this.*

*3. Planning, preparing, and organizing group trips with a safe and diverse team to provide exemplary service in the travel industry.*

*4. Sense of responsibility.*

# WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW:

*1. The importance of reliability, safety, congeniality, and education.*

*2. How to both follow objective protocols yet be flexible with an ever-changing natural subjective environment.*

*3. The difference between a delegated task and stuff that needs to be done.*

*4. LNT practices.*

# WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

*1. Alaska backcountry travel practices and tools.*

*2. A thorough understanding of environmental and conservation matters crucial to Alaska.*

*3. Decision-making and leadership roles.*

*4. Systems and organizational management.*

*5. Communication skills for effective education and instruction to a diverse mix of clients.*

# WHAT DOES GOOD LOOK LIKE?

The role is simple: connect your clients with a safe and healthy wilderness outdoor adventure that they’ll remember fondly for years to come. Responsibly get them in and out of the backcountry and home to their loved ones.

# TASKS

Seasonal Guiding opportunity for experienced lead guide only. Backpacking and hiking trips, the job also includes packrafting and sea kayaking trips, and rafting trips.

Prep and pack, backcountry cooking, and guiding clients, from novice to experienced guests in various regions throughout Alaska.

We have a gear and equipment manager who handles most of the trip packing and unpacking and gear repair. Approx 50% of our clients do their own food.

Season typically runs June through mid-September.

Tagged as: Backcountry Skills, Cooks and Food Service, Instruction and Guiding, Water Skills

Qualifications:

WFR, Swiftwater rescue, 3 years experience, lead guide position. Any other applicable qualifications like Avvy rescue, SAR, team management training.

Required Skills:

Backcountry cook, gear organizing, current driver's license (clean), and good driving record, trip planning, route finding, group management.

Excellent communication, responsibility and reliability, punctuality, excellent backcountry skills, and wilderness savvy. Most trips are off-trail, subalpine backpacking. Good decision-making and navigational skills are required.

Strong ability to both follow protocol and understand when flexibility matters.

Preferred Skills:

Comfortable with all ages and a diverse group of clients. Comfortable with Google Docs, Gaia GPS, Google Earth, and smartphone integrations with Gaia and Garmin Inreach. Basecamp and Notion are helpful for our planning as well.

Excellent communication and group management skills matter.