Andy is, by birth, a flatlander but his spirit resides in the untamed lands of the American West. Growing up in Wisconsin, where there is a shortage of terrain above 1,000 feet, limited his ability to climb mountains.
In his early 20’s he took to rock climbing on the techy quartzite at Devil’s Lake State Park. After learning how to climb – while fearing for his life on the runout, incipient crack systems at “The Lake” – he hit the road and eventually ended up in Las Vegas, Nevada where he began his career as a mountain guide. The sandstone walls of Red Rock curbed his appetite for runout climbing, but satiated his desire to climb towering walls. Although his experiences in Nevada were ultimately definitive moments in his career, the desert wasn’t his place to call home and he eventually made it to Longmont, Colorado. The Front Range is now Andy’s backyard and means for high-altitude enlightenment.
To Andy, guiding is the culmination of many years of experience working with youth and young adults in the wilderness as a camp counselor, and the passion, dedication and achievement he found in climbing. Andy is a spiritual climber and is ever searching the canyons of Rocky Mountain National Park, Zion National Park, Red Rock and every crag in between, for the answer to what it all means. He believes that the shared experience of climbing with a wide variety of people will also bring them closer to that answer, while delivering a safe, enjoyable and focused experience. Andy believes climbing in any form – whether it be top-rope cragging, classic multi-pitching in Eldo, or car-to-car alpine endeavors – is an absolutely joyful experience, that he wants to share with everybody.
Andy is a a NOLS graduate, a Wilderness First Responder, a certified AMGA Rock Guide and AMGA Alpine Guide, has completed the AMGA Advanced Ski Guide Course, Ice Instructor Course, and AIARE 1 & 2. Andy is full time guide with Colorado Mountain School based in Boulder, Colorado. He is pursuing certification in the Ski discipline in his effort to become a fully-certified AMGA / IFMGA guide.
