Meet our Mountaineering Guides

Meet our Mountaineering Guides. From years of experience, we have found that the most successful people on the mountains are those who have put in the hard work beforehand, doing the specific training required for their chosen adventure. That is why we pride ourselves in making sure that our clients have access to accurate and current information. We also send the best guides in support of your mountaineering goals.

Chris Berdoulay:                         Meet our Mountaineering guides

Chris is a fully qualified EMT and mountain guide and based in Eagle-Vail Colorado. He is a Paramedic in the Vail Valley, Climber of over 20 years. Chris has 18 years of guiding experience.

AMGA Apprentice Rock Guide

AIARE Level 3/Pro 2  avalanche certified

AIARE Level 1 avalanche instructor

Member of Vail Mountain Rescue and Wilderness First Responder/Outdoor Emergency Care. Chris has climbed and led trip on Rock and Ice. He has also lead Mountaineering/Ski Mountaineering trips with experience in North America, South America, Nepal, Europe and Southeast Asia.

Dr. Scott Mcintosh:                                           Meet our Mountaineering guides

Dr. Scott McIntosh is internationally recognized in the field of mountain medicine.  He is a tenured faculty member in the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of Utah. He received degrees in Biology and English Literature at Duke University.  He then began guiding rock and ice climbs as well as mountaineering throughout the world.  Dr. McIntosh earned his medical degree from the University of Vermont and a Masters in Public Health from the University of Utah.

He serves as the Medical Director of Summit County, where he oversees all teaching and clinical aspects of the paramedic and ambulance services. He also serves as Associate Medical Director of AirMed, the University of Utah’s medical flight service. Dr. McIntosh’s role also includes Director of the Wilderness Medicine Fellowship, which trains graduates in the academic and clinical skills of this specialty. He has authored over 30 scientific papers and book chapters in the fields of mountain medicine and emergency medicine.  Dr. McIntosh served as Editor-in-Chief of the Wilderness & Environmental Medicine Journal, the premier medical journal for mountain and wilderness medicine, and on the Board of Directors for the Wilderness Medical Society.  He has been the rescue physician on Denali for three seasons, and is the co-Director of the Diploma in Mountain Medicine program in the United States.

Dr. McIntosh lectures widely on the subjects of: hypothermia, frostbite, high altitude disorders, avalanche medicine and rescue, mountain trauma, and safety in the mountain environment.  He has been on the expert committee that has developed the Wilderness Medical Society international medical guidelines on the topics of: hypothermia, high altitude medicine, frostbite, lightning injuries, pain management, and avalanche medicine.

Research interests and areas of focus:

  • Epidemiology of mountain accidents and fatalities
  • High altitude medicine and prevention of acute mountain illness
  • Hypothermia in avalanche victims
  • Avalanche safety, trauma, and medical care
  • Mountain search and rescue
  • Skiing and snowboarding injuries
  • Helicopter emergency medical services

Mountaineering accomplishments (selected):

  • Super Sherpa’s Mt. Everest Expedition, Nepal
  • Denali, Alaska
  • Huntington, Alaska
  • Aconcagua, Argentina
  • Carstensz Pyramid, West Papua
  • El Capitan, Yosemite
  • Alpamayo & Chopiqualqui, Peru

Television and video appearances:

  • “Extreme Rescue” – documentary of high altitude rescue physician on Denali
  • “SuperSherpas Everest Expedition” Video – research physician on Mt. Everest for documentary extolling the physical aptitude of the Sherpas
  • “Ang Rita Sherpa and High Altitude” – Medical and High Altitude Expert for Stan Lee’s Superhumans Series on The History Channel
  • “Diploma in Mountain Medicine and Avalanche Rescue,” Inside Edition
  • Multiple news interviews on topics of: frostbite, hypothermia, mountain injuries, drowning, etc.
Chris Strouthopoulos:                       Meet our Mountaineering guides

Chris Strouthopoulos’ extensive outdoor experience ranges from The Nose (VI 5.8 C2) on Yosemite’s El Capitan to pioneering new ski descents in Alaska. He has taught college-level mountaineering, rock climbing, and backcountry-skiing courses, instructed for Outward Bound, ski patrolled for Vail / Beaver Creek, and tail guided at Colorado’s most extreme ski area, Silverton Mountain. He also works as a Professor of Student Success at San Juan College where he co-leads an initiative that helped raise the college’s graduation rate by 143%. More recently, he founded Ascent Empowerment Services, which offers keynote presentations and training to corporate and educational clients focusing on personal empowerment, leadership, and group dynamics. You are invited to view his TEDx talk on cultivating successful teams. He believes the most rewarding professional work he’s ever done though is co-organizing and leading service projects in Ladakh and Tibet, outfitting a medical clinic, school, and two Buddhist monasteries with solar electricity.

Markian Feduschak:                              Meet our Mountaineering guides

Markian is based in Colorado and is the director of Walking Mountains Science facility. He has extensive experience leading groups in the mountain and overseeing large group projects. Here is some additional information.

COLORADO OUTWARD BOUND SCHOOL, DENVER, CO
Field Instructor, Course Director, June 1989-March 1996
Highlights of field experience include: 23 & 30 day mountaineering courses; 18 day winter mountaineering
courses; proctor and sectional instructor for semester courses, including technical rock camps; staff
trainer including: Mountain Guides, Winter Staff Training, Avalanche Level 1 Certification

COPPER MOUNTAIN AND ELDORA SKI AREAS
Professional Ski Patrol, November 1989-March 1996
 Highlights include ski area risk management, patient care, avalanche assessment and hazard control
TRAININGS AND CERTIFICATIONS
 First Aid: EMT, OEC, WFR (all currently expired)
 Level 3 Avalanche Training, American Avalanche Institute
 AMGA Rock and Snow Course

PERSONAL CLIMBING AND EXPEDITION HIGHLIGHTS
 Recreational rock climber since 1988, countless climbing accents up to 5.11, grade IV, throughout western US. Highlights include Forbidden Peak, WA; Grand Teton, WY; Longs Peak, CO
 Recreational mountaineer since 1984, countless peaks throughout western US and elsewhere. Highlights include: Mount Rainier via Ingraham Direct and Liberty Ridge; Ski Mountaineer descents of numerous Colorado 14ers, including N face of N Maroon Pk.
 Denali. Ascent of West Ridge to 16,200’
 Aconcagua. Guided group of outward bound participants. 5 out of 9 summited.
 Trekking in Nepal
 Haute Route. Guided two friends on entire route, they were experienced skiers and novices in glacier travel.​

Jesse Ramos:                           Jesse Ramos

Jesse’s appetite for rock, ice and alpine climbing has taken him all over the world. Weather in his own backyard of the Colorado Rockies or on a journey in the middle of the Andes, he continues to discover the blessings of the mountains and explore distant cultures.

Jess is originally from Boulder, Colorado but started technical climbing in the craggy, glaciated terrain of the Pacific Northwest, where he was formally trained in crevasse rescue, alpine climbing and technical rock. Jesse was employed by Olympic College in Washington, to teach, lead and instruct the Crevasse rescue course on the Nisqually Glacier of Mount Rainier via a variety of routes but he always finds himself back on the clean white granite of the Bugaboo Spires in British Columbia. Weather he’s on an International expedition or swinging ice tools at this local ice crag in Colorado, Jesse is perfectly content sharing the joys and challenges with whoever is willing to join him.

AMGA Certified Rock Guide

AMGA Certified Single Pitch Guide

AMGA Apprentice Alpine Guide

AMGA Ice Instructor Course

AIARE PRO 1

LNT Master Trainer

Wilderness First Responder

Rob Wymer:                       Ian Taylor Trekking Guide

Rob has been a UK Mountaineering Instructor and overseas expedition leader for more than 15 years. In the summer months, he can be found in his backyard of the Peak District National Park where he is a Mountain Rescue team member, and also in Snowdonia, and in winter he relocates to Scotland to spend the season instructing and guiding winter mountaineering, and running expedition skills weekends. Throughout the year he is frequently further afield working in the greater ranges and has experience in both the Indian and Nepal Himalayas, in South America, Africa and other random parts of the world such as the Caucasus and Kyrgyzstan. Rob has regularly guided many Nepalese summits including Ama Dablam, and has been on Denali in late winter. He is a font of knowledge on expedition lifestyle, and has instructed on our winter
expedition skills weekends for the last few years.​

Adele Pennington:                           Meet our mountaineering guides

Adele has been a full time Mountaineering Instructor and expedition Leader for 20 years and has worked extensively in the UK and the greater ranges. Very passionate about her Scottish rock and ice climbing she spends her winters on the West coast of Scotland instructing and guiding winter mountaineering and running expedition skills weekends. In the Spring and Autumn, she is usually further afield working in the greater ranges. Adele has guided Mount Everest twice and has successfully summited six 8,000m peaks. In addition to the 8,000m peaks Adele has summited many more technical peaks in the Himalayas and south America and made the first British female winter ascent of Ama Dablam. There is little Adele doesn’t know about expedition lifestyle and has instructed on our winter expedition skills weekends for the last six years.​

Jim Ablao:

                    

Mountain Guide Jim Ablao

Jim Ablao isa AMGA Certified Guide. In 1989 Jim moved from Michigan to Colorado to pursue climbing and began he began instructing mountaineering and rock climbing courses for Colorado Outward Bound.  For the next decade Jim worked as a Mountain Programs Instructor, Course Director and Rock Specialist with Colorado Outward Bound School, the Eagle Rock School and many other climbing programs and schools in the Colorado Front Range sharing his passion for climbing and working with a diverse clientele in the mountains and on the rocks.

In 1999 Jim and his family moved to Oregon and he began managing First Ascent Climbing Services at Smith Rock State Park.  Jim was instrumental in raising the guiding standards in the local area, expanding programs and offering trainings and mentorship.  Jim founded Chockstone Climbing Guides in 2004 with the vision of offering a professional guide service providing personalized programs that challenge clients, set them up for success, developing new skills and promoting responsible climbing and wilderness stewardship.  Over the years Jim has earned certification as an AMGA Rock Instructor, AMGA Rock Guide, SPI Provider and SPI Program Trainer.

Jim brings diverse experience with his empowering and a personalized teaching style into every guiding. Jim has climbed rock, ice and summits throughout the western US ranges: Rockies, Sierras, Cascade and desert towers and canyons of the desert Southwest.  Internationally climbing has taken Jim to summits and cliffs of Argentina, Chile, South Korea, Spain, Mexico and Canada.  He has over 75 first ascents in Smith Rock and throughout Central Oregon.   In the winter months Jim tours and split boards in the Cascades backcountry.  Over the years Jim Has shared countless climbing adventures with his wife of over 20 years and his two adventurous daughters.

Dr. Ryan Williams:                         Meet our Mountaineering Guides

Dr. Ryan Williams is a Cardiologist and professional mountain guide. Ryan is an AMGA qualified mountain guide with vast experience leading trips in Alaska, Nepal and South America. He has 15 years experience leading mountaineering adventures around the world. He has climbed 5 of the 7 summits and numerous climbs on Island Peak, Mera Peak and Ama Dablam, Kilimanjaro, Alpamayo, Huascaran and many more.  Ryan loves climbing, cycling, long distance running and has completed 2 Ironman events.

Ang Kami Sherpa:                         Meet our Mountaineering Guides

Ang Kami Sherpa has worked full time with Ian Taylor Trekking since 2015. In 2014 Ang Kami was in the Khumbu Icefall on Mount Everest when a serac fell into the ice fall killing 16 climbing Sherpa’s. After that experience Ang Kami quit climbing on Everest. He has climbed on Mount Everest 6 times. After that incident he quit climbing Everest and now works leading climbs and treks across Nepal. Ang Kami is a qualified climbing guide and has climbed Island peak over 200 times, Ama Dablam 8 times, Mount Everest and numerous 8,000m Himalayan peaks. Ang Kami is a trusted member of our team and leads all our Island peak climbs. He is from Goli village and we support the Goli Village trust which we set up after the earthquakes in 2015.

Meet our Mountaineering Guides

We can guide clients and groups in mountain training, cardiovascular and strength and conditioning schedules to suit each individual journey.  We have helped guide groups and individuals of all levels of fitness, from novice to experienced athletes, preparing them for any trekking, climbing or mountaineering expeditions. We also work with other trainers and sports massage professionals who are extremely qualified to assist you in preparing for your chosen adventure or fitness goals.