Bob loves every aspect of guiding, from summer rock to winter mountaineering. It seems that anybody who’s climbed in RMNP in winter recalls seeing Bob, huge smile across his face, heading into the backcountry with an eager client. He takes his same genuine, good-natured, and low-key disposition, along with skills honed since his first guiding job in 1985, with him everywhere – on climbs abroad and here in Colorado. Indefatigable, Bob spends some 200 days a year guiding.
Bob started guiding for Colorado Mountain School in 1992 and has climbed, guided, and traveled extensively in the lower 48, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Argentina, Africa, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Bahamas, and Fiji. He’s completed the AMGA Rock Instructor course and is a Level 1 AIARE Avalanche Instructor. Somewhere along the line – or maybe he was born with it – Bob developed a genuine ability to connect with people on a very real and individual level.
Bob’s father, who introduced him to the outdoors at a young age, says, “I always knew he’d do something in the outdoors since he was more comfortable sitting in the dirt than sitting in front of the television.” Despite Bob’s varied background – a bachelor’s in forestry, a master’s in outdoor education, jobs as an accountant, university professor, and Nordic ski center manager – perhaps he was destined to become a mountain guide. He grew up in Brownsville, Texas at a whopping 11 feet above sea level with no perceptible change in vertical relief for hundreds of miles. At age 8, he climbed 25 vertical feet up the tallest tree in his front yard and marveled at the 360-degree panorama of town. He’s been gaining those high vantage points ever since and taking others with him for the experiences of their lives.
