For the 2025 season I am looking to hire a:
- Lead Guide (1-2 positions)
- Junior Guide (up to 1 position)
Both positions are short-term and seasonal, and need to be augmented with steadier full-time work or a broader freelance portfolio.
At most in 2025, we’d assign you to one location (Utah, Alaska, California, or Yellowstone) and between one and three trips, with the specifics being dictated by your availability and qualifications, and our needs. This year is effectively a pilot — it’ll be an opportunity to determine if you like us and our program, and if we like you. If it’s a good fit, there may be more work available in 2026.
Required qualifications: Lead Guide
To be considered for the Lead Guide role, you must have:
1. Extensive professional experience as a backpacking guide (100+ days) with a proven ability to:
- Manage groups, junior guides, risks, and incidents;
- Teach wilderness skills, including but not limited to off-trail navigation; and,
- Lead trips in the American West (good) and/or Alaska (better).
2. Extensive personal backpacking experience with a history of:
- Completing high routes and/or similar expert-level DIY itineraries;
- Using modern backpacking gear and skills; and,
- Exploring remote parts of the American West (good) and/or Alaska (better).
3. A fantastic “guide personality”: enthusiastic, patient, empathetic, communicative, personable, inspiring, adaptable, organized, responsible, etc.
4. Sufficient physical fitness to lead groups rated as 4/High fitness.
Required qualifications: Junior Guide
To be considered for the Junior Guide role, you must also have three of the qualifications describe above:
- Extensive personal backpacking experience;
- A fantastic guide personality; and,
- Sufficient physical fitness to lead High-level groups.
For this position, we do not require previous professional guiding experience. But we do prefer it:
- Good: Experience as a teacher
- Better: Experience as an outdoor guide, instructor, counselor, or educator
- Best: Experience as an overnight backpacking guide
Bonus qualifications
Among the applicants who have the required qualifications, we would give extra consideration to those who also have experience with:
- Long-distance thru-hiking,
- Adult clients,
- Early-season backpacking conditions, canyoneering, winter backpacking, and other outdoor disciplines,
- Interpretive topics, such as geology, natural and human history, plants and animals, etc
Points of comparison
If you are uncertain whether you meet the qualifications, compare yourself to some of our existing guides.
Jeff Wohl and Scott Christy were exemplary Lead Guides candidates when they joined our program — they were already pros, and they only needed to learn our program.
Before they became guides, Mikaela Osler and Witt Wisebram were exemplary Junior Guide candidates. They had the personal experience, the guide personality, and the fitness, but needed to develop their guiding skills further.
How to apply
- Complete this form, and upload a resume and/or letter of interest
- Apply by Wednesday, February 26, end of day
We plan to schedule interviews during the week of March 3 and to make hiring decisions early the following week.
