Jackson Hole Backcountry Guide Bios
The Guides
Tom Bennett, Pat Davidsaver, Jim Kandolin, Kent McBride, Dave Miller, Sammy Samuels, Laurie Shepard, Tom Turiano, Jamie Weeks, Eric Henderson, Rob Hess, Jimbo Collins, Theo Meiners, Bruce Keller, AJ Sanders, Mikey Franco, Mike Janssen
Guide Supervisor & Lead Guide: Dave Miller
Dave started backcountry skiing in Jackson Hole in 1981 when he moved from Aspen, Colorado. This will be his 27th year as a ski guide with the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Backcountry Guides. Dave worked with Doug Coombs / Valdez Heli Guides from 1995-2002, helping to start the Valdez era of Alaska big mountain heli skiing. He has also guided for High Mountains Helicopter Skiing and Alaska Rendezvous Heli-Guides.
When Dave is not taking clients on untracked powder adventures in the winter, the summer months are spent riding his road bike, waterskiing, surfing and running his painting business of 30 years. Dave and his wife have had the honor of raising 2 beautiful girls in Jackson Hole.
Rob Hess (Assistant Head Guide)
Is one of only several guides nationwide who is certified by the International Federation of Mountain Guide Associations (IFMGA), the foremost guide certification organization world-wide. IFMGA only certifies individuals who demonstrate the highest level of knowledge and ability in the areas of rock and alpine climbing and ski-mountaineering, including leadership, judgment, client care, technical expertise, rescue skill, and environmental consciousness. Rob is also on the Board of the American Mountain Guides Association, including serving as its Technical Director.
Jim Kandolin (Assistant Lead Guide)
A Wyoming native, Jim has been a ski and snowboard guide and instructor in Jackson Hole for the past 16 years. He has skied and snowboarded throughout North America and Europe. From California's Eastern Sierra to Alaska's Chugach Mountains, the French and Swiss Alps, and many points in between.
Jim is a member of the American Mountain Guides Association. He is a certified Outdoor Emergency Care provider with the National Ski Patrol, current CPR for the professional rescuer and holds American Avalanche Institute's Level III for Guides. Jim is also a ski guide for High Mountain Helicopter guide service in Jackson Hole and Exum Mountain Guides.
Other activities include climbing, mountain biking, fly-fishing, and most important, spending time with his wife and their two children.
Jessica Baker
Founder of Ski Divas and former World Tour Freeskiing Champion, Jessica Baker has been guiding skiing for over 11 years. From a young age growing up in the Selkirk mountains of North Idaho, Jessica spent most of her youth on skis. From a successful ski racing career, to big mountain freeskiing success worldwide, it is Jessica’s nature to be on skis. Jessica has bagged first ski descents in the Chugach, Tetons, Sawtooth, New Zealand Alps, and Selkirk mountains. And has skied such peaks as the Grand Teton, Denali, Mont Blanc, Pan d’ Radou La Meije, Mt. Aspiring, and more. Certified; PSIA-III DECL, WFR, Avalanche III-Guide, AMGA- RIC, and JHMR MSS trainer. Additionally, Jessica runs her annual Signature Ski Camp with Jackson Hole called “Stretch the Limits” http://www.jacksonhole.com/lessons-guides/camps/signaturecamps.html. When not guiding for Jackson Hole Alpine Guides Jessica guides for Exum Mountain Guides in the summer, and Alaska Rendezvous Heli-Ski Guides in the Spring. In her free time you can find Jessica skiing coveted ski lines, sending her next climbing objective, gardening at home, or practicing yoga.
Sponsors: Mountain Athlete, Smith Optics, Dynastar-Look-Lange, Pistil, Bern, Powderhorn, Core Concepts, Life-Link, Bridgedale, and Garmont.
Tom Bennett
Tom has been a ski guide and a fully-certified instructor in Jackson Hole for the last 20 years. He has guided ski and mountaineering trips in the Tetons, Yellowstone, the Alaska Range, the Wrangell mountains and the Alps. On his own, he has skied most of the major Teton peaks, including the Ford Couloir on the Grand Teton, and gone on a dozen expeditions to the high peaks of Alaska, Nepal and South America. He has extensive backcountry ski experience all over the United States, Canada, the Alps, as well as Alaska. Tom works year-round as a ski and climbing guide. As well as guiding in the Chugach, he guides Mt McKinley in June, and you can find him in the summer working for Exum Mountain Guides.
Jimbo Collins
A native of Berkeley California and a UC Berkeley graduate, Jim has been living in Jackson Hole since 1990. For 17 years he has worked for the Jackson Hole Mtn. Resort as a backcountry ski guide and a certified PSIA Level-III Alpine ski instructor. Over the many seasons in Jackson, he has worked as an instructor, guide and coach for the Race Camp with Pepi Stiegler and Tommy Moe and the Steep and Deep camps pioneered by Doug Coombs. The Jackson Hole Mtn Resort opened it’s boundaries to the unbelievable backcountry terrain in 1999. Since then Jim has worked with the guide department as a guide and has been the assistant lead guide.
After Jackson's epic winter of '96, Jim traveled to Thompson Pass near Valdez AK and began working for Valdez Heli-Ski Guides, then owned by Doug and Emily Coombs. In 2001 he continued working in Alaska in the Spring for Alaska Rendezvous Guides, doing so on and off over the next several years. In 2008 Jim was offered a position at Chugach Powder Guides in Girdwood Alaska where he has guided Heli-skiers in both the Chugach and Tordrillo Mtn. Ranges.
When it's not Winter, he's probably crack climbing, boating and dirt biking near his home in Moab, Utah, where his wife Aimee operates the Moab office of Jackson Hole Mtn. Guides.
Mikey Franco
Mikey has ridden for 22 years, instructed for 18 years, and backcountry- and heli-boarded for 16 years. Mikey has been blazing trails for others to follow for a long time. He was a two-term member of the elite Snowboard Team of the American Association of Snowboard Instructors for 2000-2004 and 2004-2008.
Mikey has created and coached snowboard camps for advanced riders in steep terrain in both Jackson Hole and Valdez, AK. As co-founder and lead guide of Worldwide Tribes, he has traveled the world to ride in locations such as Sweden, France, New Zealand, Japan, Alaska, Canada, as well as the Sierras, Beartooths and Tetons closer to home.
He has attained the following certifications:
- Level 3 Avalanche for Guides through the American Avalanche Institute since 2000
- Outdoor Emergency care through the National Ski Patrol, since 1999
- CPR for the Professional Rescuer through the American Red Cross, since 1999
- Level 3/DECL with the American Association of Snowboard Instructors
Kent McBride
Kent McBride has extensive guiding and instructing experience in all the realms of climbing and skiing (since 1996). His work has taken him to many different areas around the world. Through utilizing his ability to organize exciting and interesting trips, prepare very challenging goals for his clients and helping them to hone their skills in the mountains, he has developed many lasting relationships.
Kent is one of the few Americans who has passed the rock, alpine and ski mountaineering exams to become UIAGM / IFMGA certified. This training forces guides to recognize hazards in unfamiliar terrain as opposed to memorization. Over the past 20 years Kent has skied, climbed and guided in Europe, Patagonia, Greenland, New Zealand, Chile, Canada, Mexico, Himilaya (China, Nepal, Tibet), and the major hot spots around the United States. He also has worked every season (beginning in 1996) as a helicopter ski guide extensively throughout Alaska - Girdwood, Haines, Tordrilllos, and Valdez. In 2005 he climbed to the Central Summit of Shishapagnma (8000 meters) in Tibet without oxygen and then completed the first ski descent down the Untsch couloir.
Certifications; UIAGM / IFMGA Mountain Guide, Wilderness First Response & CPR , Level 1,2, & 3 American Avalanche Institute. Sponsors; First Ascent / Eddie Bauer, K2 Skis, Madrock Climbing, Garmont Boots, Life-Link
Theo Meiners
Theo has been a successful ski instructor for 29 years. He has worked with PSIA as a professional examiner for 20 years and has 14 years of experience teaching Steep skiing camps and years of experience coaching with children and adults in ski racing in Aspen, Jackson Hole, Chile, and Alaska. He has worked as a ski patrol trainer in Chile at Centro de Ski, El Colorado, as well as Snow King Mountain in Jackson, Wyoming. Theo has recently been appointed as the National Ski Patrol regional avalanche advisor for the Northern intermountain division.
AJ Sanders
Aaron Sanders, an Iowa farm boy at heart, is a fully certified PSIA ski instructor and a Division Examiner and Clinic Leader for the Intermountain division PSIA, as well as a trainer and backcountry guide for the Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard School. He is a coach for Jackson's Steep and Deep Ski Camps, as well as an instructor for Backcountry Ski Camps. He is fully certified by the American Avalanche Institute as well as OEC by the National Ski Patrol. AJ's quest to experience the mountain environment led him from the midwest to Jackson, Wyoming seven years ago, but his passion for snow and skiing culminate in Alaska.
AJ acquired his remarkable work ethic on the farm: he returns every spring and fall to help plant corn and beans. His summers are spent in Jackson as a fly fishing guide and white water kayak instructor on the Snake River. AJ is an ever-patient student and teacher; he has a keen eye and gives great attention to detail.
Tom Turiano
Tom has been skiing, climbing, and guiding in the Tetons for 24 years. He has climbed throughout North America and has many first ascents and ski descents in the Tetons. He has climbed and/or skied over 400 different mountains in the Greater Yellowstone region. He is the author of of two definitive books on ski mountaineering and mountaineering: Teton Skiing: A History and Guide and award-winning Select Peaks of Greater Yellowstone: A Mountaineering History and Guide.
Sarah Carpenter
Sarah has spent most of her life on skis. She has been a guide at JHMR since 2007. She is also the co-owner of the American Avalanche Institute and teaches level 1, 2, and 3 avalanche courses throughout the west during the winter. She has been working in the field of snow and snow science since 1998, when she started as a ski patroller at Bridger Bowl in Bozeman, MT. Sarah has led mountaineering trips in the U.S., Chile, and India for numerous companies. In the summer, she is a mountain guide for Alpine Ascents International.
Bruce Keller
Bruce has been guiding fun worldwide now for over 30 years. The Jackson Hole Mountain Resort guide service is just another extension of that pursuit. As a long time member of the guide service, Bruce looks for as much powder and quality skiing as you can pack into a day safely. When not skiing in the Jackson backcountry, Bruce is the operations manager of Alaska Rendezvous Heliski Guides in the spring. If he isn’t skiing you can find him pursuing big whitewater somewhere on the planet. A favorite venue is Grand Canyon by dory and blowing peoples minds on 3 week trips through Grand Canyon National Park. Oh yeah, I have all those other qualifications too, PSIA Level 3/DECL, WFR, CPR, Avalanche 3, continuing education for avalanche yearly and been in the ski industry since 1985. I love to evaluate snowpack whether it is maritime, intermountain or continental, but mostly to determine if it is safe to rip powder.
Aimee Barnes
Since the age of five Aimee has been on skis and started guiding for JHMR in 2007. A climbing and ski guide since 1985, Aimee has guided skiing, along with alpine and technical climbing trips in the Sawtooth Mountains, Tetons, Alaska, the Colorado plateau and Asia. In 1996 she joined Doug & Emily Coomb’s Valdez Heli Ski Guides and in 2000 Aimee helped establish Alaska Rendezvous Lodge and Guides.
In 1996 Aimee Climbed and free-heel skied off of Ecuador’s Volcanoes Cayambe (5,790 meters) Cotochaci (4,944 meters).
A full time guide, Aimee’s favorite place to spend winter is in her backyard of Jackson Hole. She is a passionate “old school” climber and guides for Jackson Hole Mountain Guides and is the director of their Moab program. Aimee volunteers her time and sits on the board of Directors for the American Alpine Club. Level I, Level II, Level III avalanche, WFR, CPR for the Pro.
Jamie Weeks
One of the country’s first snowboard guides, Jamie started guiding with Jackson Hole Alpine Guides in 1999. Jamie spends the spring months guiding in Alaska for Valdez Heli Ski Guides. He has completed Professional Avalanche Level 3, Winter Weather Forecasting, AASI Level 2 snowboard instructor, Wilderness First Responder and the AMGA ski-mountaineering guide course. A lifelong Class 5 whitewater river guide, Jamie has guided commercial river trips in West Virginia, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Arizona, New York and Maine. Jamie now spends the summer months here in Jackson guiding fly fishing float trips on the Snake River for Grand Fishing Adventures.
