“Jason’s experience and knowledge of the southwest was incredible. His passion for the outdoors was also contagious. Jason was very kind, calm and caring to me when I was struggling with the heat. Jason and Terence have great chemistry at camp and made the trip so worthwhile. “

Ann – REI Adventures Guest, Arizona Ultimate Adventures trip

About Jason

As an outdoor professional I focus on building my core competencies as a multi-day hiking and mountain biking guide for REI Experiences. I have a service-centered approach, personal philosophy centered on conservation, and teach Leave No Trace principles. My background is in program management and my goal is to be an influential leader within the outdoor industry.

Month two, Continental Divide Trail in the Weminuche Wilderness, San Juan mountains of Colorado.

See Where I guide!

About the Blog

The genesis of the blog you find here began as I planned a thru-hike of the Continental Divide Trail In 2017. I started the CDT northbound from Mexico on April 10th, 2018, and completed a successful thru-hike when reaching Canada, August 25th, 2018.

What you see within the website is my ePortfolio – my resume for the outdoors, if you will. The content of the site evolves as my career in the outdoor industry evolves.

The author on the CDT’s Gila River alternate, just north of Snow Lake. Lots of surprises in New Mexico!

Background

I was lucky. As a youth, I did not come from a family with any interest in, nor spent any time in the outdoors. The only memories I have outside of the city is catching blue-gill with my grandfather at a small lake in central Washington. A high school summer road trip across the U.S. brought me to the front range of Colorado in the middle of a star filled night. I can still remember not being able to fall asleep as shooting stars, satellites, and planes streaked across a night sky I’d never before experienced.

I wound up pursuing my undergraduate degree in communications at Fort Lewis College, in Durango. A beat up house perfectly situated on historic 3rd avenue sheltered four young men and became a hub for our collection of friends and a launchpad for our outdoor pursuits. In school I worked early mornings for Jim and Bill Carver at their brewery & bakery. Then a spot opened up with the original owners and location of Backcountry Experience, where I sold packs, sleeping bags, climbing gear and boots. This little shop and the great friends around me cultivated my explorations into the LaPlata mountains and the great San Juan mountains surrounding us. Mountain biking, backpacking, skiing, rock and ice climbing, and soon, wall climbing followed. Next, adventures to the Four Corners area in Moab, Canyonlands, the LaSal mountains, Indian Creek and Fisher Tower climbing, and Zion National Park.

Cleaning a pitch on Moonlight Buttress, Zion NP, 1999.

One summer trip took me on classic climbs in Yosemite. A winter introduced me to Tim Windell, former national snowboard champion in the 1980’s, and I worked at his snowboard shop at Purgatory Resort  and a summer at his snowboard camps on Mt. Hood. One fateful summer, I hit the Colorado Trail starting near Denver and didn’t stop walking until I reached the end, 486 miles later at Junction Creek in Durango. The love affair with being outside was just getting started.


On the Colorado Trail, Mt. Nebo to the left, 1994

After college I pursued a career as a broadcast professional. I worked as the program director and on-air host for NPR and music-based public radio stations in Crested Butte and Durango. After a move to Austin, Texas where I worked in a recording studio and ran a local music magazine, I met my wife while she was a graduate student at the UT. After the 2008 economic downturn hit Austin, I moved for radio again in Tucson, Arizona, and found the wonder and magic of the Sonoran desert.

Buena 800 millas! 2017 AZT.

Julie and I married shortly after and moved to Seattle in 2011 where I attended the University of Washington and received my Master of Science in Information and worked as project manager for a software and web hosting company. I left to go back to the desert and hiked the Arizona Trail and then the Continental Divide Trail, through the high desert and mountains which shaped me years before. 

Moving to Seattle was a game changer for my wife and I. We have blossomed here together in the Pacific Northwest, backpacking, fly fishing and water sports of all kinds.

Updated 1/19/2019