OUR GUIDES
Exemplary expertise and experience…
The Mountain Bureau LLC is an international network of guides with a home base in Winthrop WA downstream of the North Cascades. Our guides are made up of professional rock climbers, alpinists, and skiers, regarded as some of the best technical experts and educators in the outdoor industry. Mountain Bureau LLC guides are licensed and certified by the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) and only work within their Scope of Practice. We are the only service in the United States to brand and live by the term “fair-trade-mountain-guiding” and we stand by this foundational principle. We provide a professionally sustainable work environment that supports our staff and directly benefits our clients’ experience and safety.
MARK ALLEN
CREDENTIALS
AMERICAN MOUNTAIN GUIDE (AMGA)
IFMGA MOUNTAIN GUIDE (IFMGA)
LEVEL I & II AVALANCHE COURSE LEADER (AIARE)
AMERICAN AVALANCHE ASSOCIATION PROFESSIONAL MEMBER
Mark is the owner of the Mountain Bureau. Born in Northwestern Washington, he has been climbing and skiing in the North Cascades for 30 years. In 2009, Mark became the 64th American to hold full guide status with the International Federation of Mountain Guides Association (IFMGA). Mark has built extensive programing on rock, ice, alpine, and ski programs in Washington, Alaska, Canada, Western Europe, and Norway. Mark is the active president of the Methow Valley Climbers a Chapter of the Washington Climbers Coalition and works to sustain climbing environments. In 2013, Mark was nominated for the Piolet d’Or (Golden Ice Axe) Award for his ascent on the Mastodon Face of Mount Laurens in Denali National Park. But most of all, likes exploring mountains in the North Cascades.
~AMERICANS OPEN NEW LINE IN ALASKA FA; THE MASTODON FACE,AK
~ALLEN-ZIMMERMAN VIDEO- PIOLET D' OR NOMINATED 2013
~ WA CLIMBERS KICK OFF AK SEASON WITH ASCENT OF MT. BRADLEY, AK
CHRIS WRIGHT
CREDENTIALS
AMERICAN MOUNTAIN GUIDE (AMGA)
IFMGA MOUNTAIN GUIDE (IFMGA)
LEVEL I AVALANCHE COURSE LEADER (AIARE)
LEVEL II AVALANCHE INSTRUCTOR (AIARE)
Chris Wright began his guiding career in 2006 with a move to the Pacific Northwest. An avid alpinist, Chris recently made the first ascent of one of the world’s most beautiful unclimbed 7000m peaks, Link Sar in Pakistan. Chris has also received the prestigious Mugs Stump and American Alpine Club Cutting Edge Awards for climbs in India and Nepal. Closer to home, he opened a new route on the famed East Face of Alaska’s Mooses Tooth. In addition to being the 93rd American Mountain Guide certified by the AMGA and IFMGA, Chris has climbed, guided, and skied across the U.S. and the world from Canada to Alaska, New Zealand, Europe, Africa, Mexico, the Andes, and the Himalayas. His climbing achievements include everything from Yosemite big walls to unclimbed Karakoram summits, and his guiding career has taken him from the Denali to the Matterhorn, and up Mt. Hood too many times to count. He is also on the National Instructor Team for the AMGA.
~ ZIMMERMAN AND WRIGHT-FIRST ASCENT ON MT. MACDONALD
ERICA ENGLE
CREDENTIALS
AMERICAN MOUNTAIN GUIDE (AMGA)
IFMGA MOUNTAIN GUIDE (IFMGA)
LEVEL I & II AVALANCHE COURSE LEADER (AIARE)
LEVEL III AVALANCHE COURSE INSTRUCTOR (AIARE)
Erica Engle is an IFMGA/UIAGM licensed mountain guide based in Leavenworth, Washington. After close to a decade in Jackson, Wyoming, she recently moved back to the Cascade Mountains, where she was raised and learned to ski and climb. Erica has worked professionally in the mountains since 2003 and came to guiding with a background in environmental science and is on the National Instructor Team for the AMGA and the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE), training new guides and avalanche professionals. She has spent time working and playing in ranges throughout the world, including throughout Alaska and the North American West, Ecuador, Norway and Iceland, the French, Swiss and Austrian Alps, the Caucasus, Tanzania, Thailand and Nepal's Himalaya.
~MEET ERICA-AMGA INSTRUCTOR TEAM MEMBER VIDEO
~WOMEN GUIDES SUCCEED IN MALE-DOMINATED INDUSTRY-CLIMBING MAG
CHRIS SIMMONS
CREDENTIALS
AMERICAN MOUNTAIN GUIDE (AMGA)
IFMGA MOUNTAIN GUIDE (IFMGA)
LEVEL I & II AVALANCHE COURSE LEADER (AIARE)
Chris Simmons has been guiding in Washington, Oregon, and northern California since 1999. In 2011, He became the 75th American to hold full guide status with the International Federation of Mountain Guides Association (IFMGA)and is on the National Instructor Team for the AMGA. Chris has racked up numerous exploratory ski tours in Japan, Canada, and the North Cascades. Chris has had 15 seasons as a ranger for Antarctica’s Mt. Vinson or managing scientific teams in several of the world’s arctic locations. Chris holds a long list of successful guided trips and expeditions including visits to the North Cascades, the Swiss-French and Italian Alps, Ecuador, Antarctica, Canada, China, and the Tibetan Plateau.
~TEAM ESTABLISHES TWIN SISTERS SKI HIGH ROUTE, NORTH CASCADES
STEFFAN GREGORY
CREDENTIALS
CERTIFIED ROCK GUIDE (AMGA)
CERTIFIED ALPINE GUIDE (AMGA)
ASSISTANT SPLIT-BOARD GUIDE (AMGA)
CERTIFIED SINGLE PITCH INSTRUCTOR (AMGA)
It’s no wonder Steffan is the Bureau’s aficionado of Southwest Rock. He has been professionally guiding rock, alpine, and desert canyons since 2009. He is an accomplished big wall climber, establishing 10 new free or first free ascent routes up to IV, 5.12+ numerous single pitch and short multi pitch routes in and around Zion National Park When Steffan is not guiding, he spends his time exploring the remote frozen waterfalls of the desert Southwest, completing demanding alpine objectives in Patagonia and Argentina, looking for fresh turns on his split-board, and working on many side projects. Steffan is the host of the Peak Season Podcast for the Mountain Bureau, The executive Director of the Zion Climbing Coalition and has managed projects in Argentina working on solutions for waterless human waste management in National Parks. Steffan grew up in the Pacific Northwest’s Skagit Valley and the Mountain Bureau is lucky that he returns each season to guide in the North Cascades.
Steffan is currently an Aspirant Mountain Guide which requires passing at least one exam in Rock, Alpine and Ski.
~PATAGONIA: GRANT TO IMPROVE CLIMBING INFRASTRUCTURE, ARGENTINA
BRANDON BERTELSEN
avalanche education program manager
CREDENTIALS
AIARE CERTIFIED AVALANCHE INSTRUCTOR
APPRENTICE GUIDE (AMGA)
PSIA LEVEL 2 CROSS-COUNTRY INSTRUCTOR
Brandon is our Avalanche Education Program Manager and one of our AIARE Instructors. He has worked in outdoor recreation and outdoor recreation since 2012, in various states around the west: Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Washington. He studied Park Recreation, and Tourism at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He spent three years guiding month-long wilderness expeditions for NOLS in Wyoming. Before making his way to The Mountain Bureau, he also spent two winters as a PSIA Level 2 Instructor teaching cross-country in Mazama, WA. Since 2019, he has spent summers as owner and operator of Methow Rafting, a river outfitter in Winthrop, WA. In the winter, his passion is to introduce people to backcountry skiing by teaching AIARE and Intro to Ski Touring courses at the Mountain Bureau. Whether it is skiing, rivers, or mountains, for work or play, Brandon lives to share wilderness adventures with others.