A lifelong Alaskan, Hannah was born and raised in Seward: the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park. A Stanford graduate, Hannah organized and led educational multi-day trips while completing a BS in Atmosphere/Energy Engineering and an MS in Environmental Science. She has worked as a Backcountry National Park Ranger, Ski patroller, Search and Rescue member, and Biological Aid for expeditions in Northwestern Alaska, Antarctica, and Switzerland. Hannah joined the AMS team in 2021. For the school, she primarily guides high-altitude expeditions and teaches mountaineering courses. Hannah first summited Denali at the age of 15 with her father.

Coming to Alaska by way of the Army, Chelsey fell in love with our state’s endless opportunities for adventure and began guiding for AMS in 2018. She is originally from northern New Hampshire, where she first cultivated her backpacking, skiing, and climbing skills. Since moving to Alaska and leaving the military, Chelsey has logged countless weeks exploring the Alaska, Brooks, and Chugach Ranges via skis, packraft, and on foot. Chelsey lives full-time in Alaska, and when not in the mountains she can be found fishing, mountain biking, speedflying, and working as a freelance writer.

Blaine has been guiding and teaching in the Alaska Range since 1989 and working with AMS since 1996. He was born and raised in Alaska and enjoys sharing this beautiful landscape with others. Blaine teaches and speaks at the AMS yearly staff training on such topics as guide professionalism and the physics of climbing systems, and he leads AMS custom courses. The depth of his climbing and guiding experience combined with his easygoing personality give Blaine the unique qualities it takes to be a life-long mountain guide. Besides summiting Denali 12 times, he has climbed hundreds of peaks in other mountains in Alaska and Canada, including Mt. Blackburn, Marcus Baker, Mt. Logan, King Peak, and Mt. Sanford.

His travels have taken him to Yosemite, Ecuador, Mexico, and Argentina. Blaine is also busy as a carpenter, and as a poet. Blaine is the AMS resident engineer, scientist (mad), and mathematician, to name just a few. Blaine is an instructor and board member at Alaska Avalanche School and is certified as Wilderness First Responder and Leave No Trace Trainer.

He has been an instructor with Rigging For Rescue and is keeping very busy in his retirement from his work with the Alaska State Parks. He lives with his wife at the end of the road in Eagle River, Alaska.

Born and raised in southwestern Colorado, Alma grew up skiing, climbing, and playing in the San Juan backcountry. Support from a vibrant mountain community inspired her enthusiasm for pursuing the outdoors however she could. A jack-of-all-trades and thrift shop enthusiast, “ultralight” is not a word in her vocabulary. Alma was introduced to ski mountaineering and winter alpine climbing in the rugged southwestern United States, whose landscapes provided a great training ground for climbing in the larger ranges of the world. She spent significant time in the higher grounds of the Weminuche Wilderness, Cordillera Blanca, Peru, Torres del Paine, Patagonia, and the Alaska Range. Alma’s love of winter sports and sharing the outdoors led her to begin ski instructing for Telluride Ski School at the age of 16. Alma graduated with a degree in Recreation and Outdoor Education from Western State Colorado University, where she was a student ice climbing and backcountry skiing instructor. Fueled by big-mountain dreams, she came to Alaska in 2015. Alma currently lives in Ouray, Colorado and began working with AMS in 2018.

Dan is an IFMGA/UIAGM certified mountain guide with experience all around the globe. Skiing is Dan’s greatest passion, but he greatly enjoys all aspects of mountain travel. He especially loves any opportunity to combine climbing and skiing into one grand adventure.

Dan’s career began in New England, working for the US Forest Service as a backcountry ranger and guiding for the International Mountain Climbing School. In 2007 he headed west to guide on Denali for Alaska Mountaineering School and to work for Exum Mountain Guides in the Tetons. Currently a senior guide at Exum, he continues to lead trips for AMS and has also spent time heli-ski guiding for Valdez Heli-Ski Guides, Tordrillo North, Powder South, and the Eleven Experience. He also works for the American Avalanche Institute, teaching avalanche courses around the Northern Rockies. From 2015-2017 Dan took a break from full-time guiding and worked as a climbing ranger on Denali for the National Park Service patrolling the highest peak in North America and doing high altitude rescue work.

Some of Dan’s accomplishments include having received the Hans Saari Exploration Grant for an early attempt to ski the South Face of Denali; the first descent of the South Face of Mt. Moran; skiing multiple routes off the Grand Teton; climbing the first ascent of the Intimidating Bicycle Ride (NEI5+) on Cathedral Ledge; and a free ascent of the Rainbow Wall (V 5.12) in Red Rocks. Mountaineering ascents in the Himalaya and Alaska round out his experience. Dan also received a valor award from the US Government for work on a significant rescue in the Tetons in 2010.

Dan is always psyched to spend time in the mountains, helping you learn and guiding you to achieve your climbing and skiing goals.

Pat started working with AMS in 2007 and leads Denali expeditions and technical climbs. Originally from Seattle, Washington, Pat attended the University of Washington, where he was a member of the UW’s 1997 national champion crew team. Pat grew up skiing, climbing, and hiking in the Cascades. He started mountain guiding in 2000 and became a full-time guide in 2004. When not working with AMS in Alaska, Pat guides in Colorado and in Wyoming’s Teton Mountains. Pat spends time climbing and skiing, with some guitar thrown in to mix it up. He calls Ouray, Colorado, his home where he lives with his wife, Dawn, who is also a professional mountain guide and climber.

Our AMS admissions manager since 2011, Bobbi moved from western Pennsylvania to Trapper Creek, Alaska with her husband Paul in 2010. She retired a from Merrill Lynch, where she worked for 23 years as a senior registered client associate. Not the type who likes to sit at home, Bobbi was hired only a few months after moving to Alaska to be part of the office team. She loves her job and all that is involved with a growing small business, the mountains, and the climber’s life. Bobbi brings a high level of organization, efficiency, and professionalism to the team at AMS headquarters. In her off time, she gets out to explore the wilds of her backyard and the Alaska State Parks and spends time with her family. She is also a highly valued member of the pet-sitting team at AMS.

A part of the AMS family since 2001, Rob is one of AMS’s fundamental guides who handles our toughest guiding and teaching assignments. He has been a full-time climber and backcountry skier since 1989, and a professional mountain guide since 1995. Rob is highly organized; he was our field staff and operations manager from 2005 to 2012. He can also be found working in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Moab, Utah, teaching rock climbing, ice climbing, and avalanche courses. He is a backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering guide and has led successful expeditions, both skiing and climbing, in Alaska, Ecuador, Peru, and Patagonia, where he climbed Fitzroy in 2001. He has worked as a snow safety/avalanche forecasting and high-angle rescue for the World Free Skiing Championships in Valdez, Alaska. A Spanish speaker, Rob has led over 15 expeditions to Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America. He is often in far-off lands, flying in his paraglider, piloting his drone, or surfing. Rob draws on his extensive expertise to work for film production companies filming and managing a myriad of risks in remote wilderness locations across the planet. He writes, “I love AMS and feel extremely privileged to work for the best.”

Curtis has been working with AMS since 2014 and guides on Denali, teaches courses, and leads technical climbs and film production assignments. He began guiding in 1980, working with Northwest Outward Bound School in the North Cascade. He also spent three years working in the backcountry of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness for the Forest Service. Climbing since he was in his teens allowed for quick growth into bigger climbs within the North Cascades and along the West Coast of the US, from Joshua Tree in winter to the Sierras in summer. Over the years, Curtis has accomplished many free climbs and walls in Yosemite, on the south face of Argentina’s Aconcagua, and on Mount Cook in New Zealand. Curtis has worked on a variety of projects, including a longtime Grand Canyon raft guide, construction, start-up companies, and as a remote field safety manger in Oman. When climbing with Curtis, people draw from his quiet confidence, strength, and extraordinary depth of mountain knowledge.

Greg has guided trips on Denali with AMS since 2005 and his patience, judgment, and easygoing demeanor complement our programs. In addition to Denali, Greg teaches AMS mountaineering and wilderness courses and workshops, and assists on film production assignments. Greg lives in McCarthy, Alaska, and also guides in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in the Alaska Range. He is a longtime ski patroller at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, Alaska. His life in Alaska is made special because of his remote wilderness cabin, great friends, and his never-ending explorations of Alaska’s vast beauty.

Lexie brings a wealth of technical climbing and enthusiasm to AMS expedition and courses. A climber since 2011, she has climbed in Utah, Wyoming, Alaska, and works in Talkeetna and Valdez, Alaska and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She lives in Wilson, Wyoming, and her previous work in the outdoor industry as climbing equipment manager and remote hotel manager is a solid foundation to her guiding career. A natural athlete, Lexie backcountry skis extensively in Valdez’s Thompson Pass and the Tetons. She is known for her positive attitude and unrelenting motivation for climbing and mountain travel. She knows how to decorate a cake like a boss and you might even get to hear her play the flute!

Mark is a core AMS guide and has been working with AMS since 2006. He leads our Denali expeditions, teaches custom mountaineering courses, and works on film production assignments. A climber since the late 1980s, Mark has been instructing and guiding mountaineering since 1994. Based in California, he splits his guiding year between Argentina, Alaska, and as lead guide and staffing manager at Jackson Hole Mountain Guides in Wyoming. Between those jobs, he is an international adventure traveler and photographer. He has climbed and guided in Antarctica (Mt. Vinson), the European Alps, and the Himalaya Range, ascending both Lhotse (8,516 m) and Ama Dablam (6,812 m) in Nepal. An avid technical climber, Mark has climbed over fifty 5.13s, including the Smith Rock test piece, White Wedding (5.14a). We are proud to say that Mark is a regular here at the AMS compound. What he loves the most about guiding on Denali is showing people from all walks of life the skills they need to succeed in the sometimes-harsh mountain environment.

Caitlin is the one of the founding and managing members of AMS. She has been guiding and teaching in the mountains since 1991 and has climbed in 17 high-altitude expeditions in Alaska, Argentina, Peru, and Tanzania. Her first Denali expedition was in 1994 with a small team of women climbers called “Babes for Boobs,” who raised money for Alaskan breast cancer survivors. During that expedition, she spent 35 days on the mountain, climbed Denali’s north and south summits, and was hired by NPS mountaineering rangers to help rescue distressed climbers. She has been seen climbing on television and she teaches, guides, and manages the AMS headquarters and oversees field operations. She also lectures, writes, and illustrates on the subject of climbing in Alaska. Caitlin studied wilderness leadership at Prescott College and fine arts at the University of Alaska Anchorage. and studied avalanche forecasting with the legendary Jerry Roberts in Red Mountain Pass, CO. While working at AMS she balances motherhood, trail running, horseback riding, gardening, skiing, and international travel. She is an active advocate of arts education in public schools and lives in Talkeetna with her husband, Colby Coombs, and their daughter.

A year-round mountain professional from Madison, Wisconsin, Nate began working with AMS in 2014, guiding custom and scheduled Denali expeditions and teaching Alaska Range mountaineering courses. Nate’s guiding career started in 2004, and he has been climbing since 1994. Nate is based in Boulder and Aspen, Colorado, and when not in Alaska, he mainly guides in Wyoming, Colorado, Washington, and Las Vegas’s Red Rocks and internationally on Argentina’s Aconcagua. Come winter, he works as a Diamond Ski Pro and resort trainer at Aspen Highland. He holds a strong commitment to training, from which he has been able to climb 5.13; win a 100-mile ultramarathon; and ascended Aconcagua’s Polish Direct in a week without mules. Most of his best outdoor days are spent with his son, fishing, skiing, or climbing.