CUSTOM Programs
ABOUT US
OUR GUIDE SERVICE | what we do
Pacific Alpine Guides is a family-run ski and mountain guide service based in the Methow Valley of Washington State. One of the programs we are best known for is Tebay Lodge in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska, where we have an exclusive partnership. Other incredible locations we guide include Japan, Chile, Norway, British Columbia, and right here in the Pacific Northwest.
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We operate year-round, around the world, specializing in backcountry touring, ski mountaineering, alpine climbing, and fast-and-light missions. We emphasize safety and professionalism, high quality mountain experiences, small groups, and low ratios. Founded in 2011, we are a guide owned and operated company.
OUR GUIDES | who we are
Our experienced, closely-knit guide team is comprised of passionate skiers and climbers who live and breathe the mountains. The majority of our guides have 10+ years of mountain guiding experience and AMGA training/certification, up to the IFMGA level.
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SAFETY
Our definition of success on any trip is coming home safely, and we make all of our decisions through this lens. When safety and success are not in alignment, we redirect our plan, adjust our goals, and still have an awesome experience in the mountains.
The culture among our guides is one of conservative decision-making. We are not the guide service that rolls the dice, skiing big terrain right after a storm or going for the summit in bad weather. We are in this for the long haul and believe that timing is everything. We ski beautiful lines and climb big mountains with a high success rate throughout the year, but we also turn around a lot too, listening to what the mountains are telling us.
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OUR VIBE
Vibe is really important to us. Some guides may be highly certified and/or highly experienced, but they are not necessarily humans we'd choose to hang out with. Some common traits our guides share:
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Humility: Many of our guides are at a level where they could easily be sponsored or run their own guide service – but they choose this lifestyle instead. The fact that these awesome humans choose to work with us year after year is an honor that speaks for itself.
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High Quality People: Time spent with one of our guides will feel more like being out with a very experienced friend. We are here to have fun; not to be stressed out. Friendly and approachable is our vibe. We are not into micro-managing or constantly giving unsolicited feedback (unless for safety reasons).
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Empowering You: We prefer to de-emphasize the imaginary line between guide and guest so that we are operating as one team out there. Safety always comes first, but within that we are here to help you achieve your goals. Sometimes that means helping you push your boundaries. And sometimes that means not holding you back just because you are on a guided trip.
OUR GUESTS | why we are here
One of the most rewarding aspects of our guide service is getting to share incredible mountain experiences with our guests. Even more rewarding, is sharing these experiences with the same guests more than once. Having repeat customers is the ultimate barometer of success to us, and we are lucky to have a high percentage. In fact, we have one particular group that averages three trips a year with us – usually Japan, BC and Tebay Lodge all in the same season (this is not the norm). More commonly we have guests who come on trips every year or two – often exploring new experiences each time.
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We have even started running behind-the-scenes exploratory trips with some of our repeat guests – trips we don't normally offer, where the entire experience is new to all of us.
Over the course of many trips, with much time spent together, these relationships evolve from feeling like friendships to feeling like family.
THE COMPANY | about us
THE COMPANY
Tyler and Melissa Reid own Pacific Alpine Guides. Tyler founded the company in 2011, and our story has evolved over the last 12+ years. Tyler and Melissa live in Winthrop, WA with their two kids, Kaia and Judah.
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CUSTOMER SERVICE
Allison Groenleer is our longtime Operations Manager and not only is she one of the nicest humans on the planet, but she does a phenomenal job of running the day-to-day operations. If you get in touch with us, you'll likely hear back from Allison, or depending on the subject, Tyler.
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PRESS
Our programs have been featured in Forbes, Backcountry Magazine, The Ski Journal, Alpinist, Ascent Magazine, and Skiing Magazine.
Our Tebay Lodge program is featured in the Red Bull series ORIGINATE, in an 8-minute episode titled "Unknown".
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