Our Mountain Guides

Acadia Mountain Guides Climbing School is a company of professional guides. Since our inception in 1993, we have encouraged formal training and evaluation of all our guides. Our guiding standards are among the best in the industry and represent the highest standards in Maine. Our guides are friendly, dedicated professionals whose talents lie in their technical expertise, climbing ability and their skill as educators. The quality of our guides is what makes Acadia Mountain Guides Climbing School your best source for climbing instruction.

Our school has been consistently accredited by American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) since 1993. We required all of our guides to meet the terrain guidelines of the revised 2006 AMGA accreditation program. The revised accreditation standards differ from the past standards in that they require each individual guide to have experience, guide education and evaluation appropriate to the terrain they work on. In the past accreditation was a brief review of staffing, permits, field performance and insurance. However, of utmost importance to you are the training and experience of your personal guide who is the person tying into the other end of your rope!

Surprisingly, most U.S. guides have little formal guide education and only a handful are currently certified.

Our guides are veteran climbers with several years of diverse climbing experience. By requiring in specialized guide education courses we maximize competency and efficiency and greatly reduce risk. Our greater efficiency allows more time to teach you important skills, and to provide you with more climbing opportunities without feeling rushed. All are also certified at or above the Wilderness First Responder level of medical care. Our internal training keeps everyone up on the latest techniques and current on the best local practices.

We are committed to providing you with the best climbing experience possible. It is our goal to provide a supportive climbing environment that maximizes your time and minimizes your risk. Our mission leads us to continually develop cutting edge ideas and techniques that improve the delivery of our instruction. Many of these ideas have become the foundation guide training. We believe that the guiding art requires extensive climbing experience and a multi-faceted educational background. We take our philosophy to heart and work to promote responsible climbing and wilderness use as well as responsible guiding on both a local and national level. We are proud to be participating in the development of professional standards that other guide services aspire to. Simply put, we are attentive to the details.

We look forward to sharing our love of high places with you and invite you to take a look at our backgrounds.

JON TIERNEY

IFMGA Internationally Certified Guide
Education Director for Professional Climbing Instructors Association
AMGA Certified Ski Mountaineering Guide
AMGA Certified Rock Guide
AMGA Certified Alpine Guide
National Coordinator for Top Rope Site Manager Discipline (1998-2004)
AIARE Avalanche Education Instructor

Jon is certified internationally by the UIAGM/IFMGA and examined and certified at the international standard by the AMGA as a Rock Guide, an Alpine Guide, and a Ski Mountaineering Guide. Certification in each discipline requires passing a rigorous multi-day peer assessment exam. Less than 60 American guides currently meet this standard. Jon began climbing as a teenager in the mid 70's. With a passion for rock, snow, and ice, Jon's accomplishments as a climber and guide include several high altitude peaks as well as difficult first ascent rock climbs and hundreds of multi-pitch rock and alpine routes around the world.

Some of his favorite areas include the East Face of Long's Peak (the Diamond), Red Rocks, Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Tetons, Rocky Mountains, Shawangunks, Lumpy Ridge, Denali (Mount McKinley), New Hampshire, Canadien Rockies, Bugaboos, Quebec, China, North Cascades, Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico and Argentina as well as his home areas of Acadia, Clifton and Katahdin. He began guiding in 1983 and has been dedicated to wilderness education on a full-time basis since then. Seeing a need for improved professional standards in guiding, Jon became actively involved in developing nationally recognized guide education programs. He has served on the AMGA board of directors and is an accreditation reviewer for national organizations. For the past decade, he has strived to synthesize good concepts, challenge usual paradigms, and develop new ideas to raise guiding standards. From 1998 - 2006 Jon led the development of the AMGA Top Rope Site Manager program. He most recent project has been to co-found the Professional Climbing Instructors Association which is rapidly becoming the new standard for training and assessing climbing instructors. Jon is the owner of Acadia Mountain Guides Climbing School.

Professional guide since 1983, climber since 1975
American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) certified Rock Guide (1992), Alpine Guide (1997), Ski Mountaineering Guide (2006)
AMGA member since 1988
Registered Maine Guide
B.S. Parks and Forest Recreation with additional studies in education and emergency medicine
Founding Director Emeritus of Maine Bound, the University of Maine outdoor education program
Founding Director of the Professional Climbing Instructors Association and PCIA Educational Director
AMGA Advanced Alpine Guide's Course (1995), Advanced Rock Guide's Course (1990), Ski Guide Course (2001), Ski Mountaineering Guides Course (2002)
American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education Instructor
Paramedic (since 1988) with additional training and experience in critical care and flight medicine
Wilderness First Responder and WEMT Instructor for Wilderness Medical Associates (since 1986)
Served two terms on the Board of Directors for the American Mountain Guides Association
Currently serves on the AMGA Technical Commitee and Top Rope Site Manager Advisory Commitee.
Served on the Board of Directors, Friends of Baxter State Park
Curriculum author, national program coordinator and instructor trainer for the AMGA Top Rope Site Manager Course and Certification
Guided over 60 successful high altitude (over 18,000') mountaineering ascents
Conference presentor at national and regional outdoor education and wilderness risk conferences
Author of Rock Climber's Guide to Clifton, Maine
Author of Winter Mountaineering and Backcountry Travel in Baxter State Park
Co-author of Technical Rescue Standards for Maine Search and Rescue
Technical editor of Go Climb
Formerly a mountain rescue climbing ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park and a rescue team member on Denali.

SILAS ROSSI
AMGA Certified Rock Guide
AMGA Certified Alpine Guide
PCIA Instructor Course Provider
Registered Maine Guide, Recreation

Silas is one of a handful of dually certified Rock Guides in the United States and is passionately pursuing his goal of becoming
an internationally licensed IFMGA (International Federation of Mountain Guides Association) mountain guide.

His natural affinity for the great outdoors developed into a lifetime commitment to mountaineering in the late 90's at the University of Maine, when Jon Tierney, an IFMGA licensed mountain guide, introduced Rossi to climbing. While majoring in Parks, Recreation and Tourism, Rossi quickly recognized the benefit of professional guide training. He soon began guiding student trips and later joined the Acadia Mountain Guides team in 2001.

While there are fewer than 60 guides in the US that have achieved IFMGA status Rossi is well on his way to this remarkable distinction at only 27. An active member of the AMGA and PCIA, Rossi strives to be on the cutting edge of guiding techniques and practices.

Rossi is committed to constantly improving himself as a guide and aims to offer the most
rewarding experience possible to his clients.
“My goal is to provide adventurous people with new life experiences,” he says, “helping
them push their limits both mentally and physically while effectively managing potential hazards. While there is inherent risk involved in climbing, a professionally trained guide can minimize that risk while providing an environment that is conducive to learning. Many people first begin climbing with friends, but will certainly learn the correct way to do things more quickly, and more safely, with someone who has invested in professional training and has broad experience to draw from.”

He has also guided in many rock and ice climbing areas throughout the Northeastern US, and has led groups to several high altitude peaks in Ecuador (including Illiniza Norte, Cayambe, Cotopaxi and Chimborazo). He has led mountaineering trips in the Northern Cascades and guided alpine rock routes in the High Sierra. Rossi has also enjoyed many personal trips to some of the premier climbing destinations throughout the U.S. He has explored the miles of white granite in the High Sierra, the glaciated peaks of the Northern Cascades, the endless vertical ice of
the Canadian Rockies, and as well as some of the extraordinary alpine terrain of the
Central Alaska Range.

Rossi’s most memorable adventures include those on Mount Rainier's Liberty Ridge;
Dark Star of Temple Crag, Resolution Arete in Red Rock; the infamous Terminator of
Alberta, Canada; and in early 2007, four Lake Willoughby ice routes in a day, including Who's Who in Outer Space, The Last Gentleman, The Promenade, and Twenty Below Zero Gully. Recently, he and former AMG guide Peter Doucette made a 44 hour camp-to-camp push on the 4,000 foot wall of the Moonflower Buttress on Mount Hunter in Alaska.

AMGA Certified Rock and Alpine Guide
B.S. in Parks, Recreation and Tourism
AMGA Rock Instructor Course
AMGA Advanced Rock Guides Course
AMGA Alpine Guides Course
AMGA Advanced Alpine Guides Course
AMGA Ski Guide Course
AIARE Level I, II, III Avalanc\he Courses
Wilderness First Responder
Former President U. Maine High Angle Rescue Team
Leave No Trace Trainer

		ELIZABETH WILDER PCIA Certified Single Pitch Instructor Registered Maine Guide, Recreation
		Libby is a native of central Maine and a third generation Maine Guide. She instructs top rope climbs and group programs. She is also the lead instructor for the Rock Climbing and Adventure Camps. Her first climbing experiences were as a child on the polished rocks of CarderRock, MD. More recently, Libby has traveled and climbed in New England, The Gunks, Quebec, Ecuador, Minnesota, Red Rocks, Rocky Mountain National Park, Yosemite, and in several areas in the southeastern U.S. She is a former high school physics and chemistry teacher and has also run an adventure based alternative education program for at-risk high schoolers. Libby previously instructed rock and ice climbing for the University of Maine. When she is not climbing, Libby enjoys playing the violin and working on her house she built in Northern Maine. And if you are looking for great bouldering, she has it in her backyard. Read more about her in the Boston Globe Wilderness First Responder AIARE Level I Avalanche trained B.S. in Botany AMGA Top Rope Site Manager trained

RYAN CAMPBELL
AMGA Rock Instructor Course
PCIA Single Pitch Instructor
AMGA Top Rope Site Manager

Ryan grew up in Denver, Colorado but did not find his passion for rock climbing until attending Dixie State College in southern Utah. He began guiding in 2004 for the Auraria Campus Outdoor Adventure program in Denver, CO that serves the three institutions on that campus (Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado Denver, and the Community College of Denver). After completing his BA at Metro in Tourism Operations he continued on to pursue his Masters degree from UCD in their Information and Learning Technology program and continued working with the Adventure program as a graduate assistant to the director. After completing his masters in December he hopes to work as an instructor for the Recreation Professions department at Metro State.

Ryan's first love is rock climbing, but has also guided ice climbing and canyoneering multi-day trips. From learning to climb in local indoor gyms, Ryan now sets his sights on longer and longer trad routes. With Colorado's front range in his back yard, he has honed his rock skills on some of the most classic lines in the western US; from Eldorado Canyon, to the South Platte, Flatirons, Boulder Canyon, and frequent trips to the Utah desert.

Associates Degree - Communications
BA in Tourism Operations
MA - Information and Learning Technology
EMT Certified

Ian Kirk
AMGA Rock Instructor Course
PCIA Single Pitch Instructor
AMGA Top Rope Site Manager
AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Course

Ian started climbing at the age of twelve when his mother begged some local climbers to get him out of her hair for the afternoon. Being bound to an area with little rock, it wasn't until college that he began to venture outside to climb, but he certainly didn't let studying get in the way of his climbing. Since graduating highschool in 2002 he has climbed rock, ice, and snow in over a dozen states, Mexico, Canada, Italy, and New Zealand.

While attending the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Ian lead trips for the Outdoors Program in rock and ice terrain, mountaineering, white water kayaking, backpacking, and caving. Now passionately pursuing a career in mountain guiding and instruction, Ian has been working for AMGCS since 2008, and considers Acadia one of his favorite places to climb. Others include Eldorado Canyon, CO, Potrero Chico, MX, Lake Willoughby, VT, and Mt. Cook National Park, NZ.

BS in Environmental Sciences

		Ande Kahora PCIA Single Pitch Instructor AMGA Rock Instructor Course Wilderness First Responder
		Ande started climbing while in college at the University of Vermont. Since then he's climbed in areeas throughout the United States and Canada, but he says some of his most memorable experiences have been right here in New England. Living in Burlington, VT, Ande spends his winters climbing ice and mixed lines throughout New England and his summers in Maine on the beautiful granite cliffs of Acadia. Ande began working for AMGCS in the spring of 2009, and has since decided to continue his career as a rock and ice guide, noting Acadia National Park as one of the best places he could imagine to be a climber or guide. BS in Natural Resource Planning
		Jeremy Kupferman PCIA Single Pitch Instructor Wilderness First Responder
		Born and raised in Thorndike, Maine, Jeremy started working for AMGCS in 2008. Looking for a job that would allow for more time to climb, he worked as our retail director for Alpenglow Adventure Sports, but soon realized that he had a nack for instruction. Having taken the PCIA Single Pitch Instructor Course in 2009, Jeremy has been guiding in Acadia since. Jeremy fell in love with climbing in 2003 while attending College of the Atlantic when his best friend introduced him to the sport. Reveling in the challange and self-discovery that each climb introduces, he shares his enthusiasm with every client and group that works with him. Having recently been introduced to ice climbing, he's taken to the sport with unabashed zeal. Having recently traveled across the country in search of new climbing adventure, his favorite places to climb include Rock Town, GA, Bishop, CA, and Acadia National Park, ME.
		Nate Miller PCIA Single Pitch Instructor AIARE Level One Course
		A Maine native, Nate spends his summers working for AMGCS and his falls and springs traveling to climb in places like Yosemite. His winters are in Maine climbing ice and dreaming of summer. "I was first exposed to climbing when I was 17 years old, within two years it had become a positive influence and great source of inspiration for me. From my perspective, climbing is a way of life which has led me to incredible places such as Ecuador, Clifton, Mount Desert Island, Mt. Katahdin, Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Moab, Indian Creek, and Colorado. I strive to be well versed in all aspects of climbing but I'm most interested in long free climbs, big walls, and new routes of any kind. I'm psyched on guiding because I enjoy sharing with other people the good times I've discovered through climbing. Acadia also happens to be a beautiful office and one of my favorite climbing areas anywhere!"
		Christian Rathkopf PCIA Single Pitch Instructor AMGA Single Pitch Instructor Course WMA Wilderness First Responder
		Christian owes his climbing addiction to his older brother who introduced him to the sport early in life. At 14, Christian had his first job as a climbing instructor and gym rat at an indoor climbing gym in his home state of Connecticut. Once in college, at Colgate University in New York, he had the freedom to further develop his technical climbing skills. During his freshman year he was given the opportunity to teach rock and ice climbing classes for the university as a member of their Outdoor Education department. Christian first began working for AMGCS in the summer of 2008 where he fell in love with the beatiful granite seascapes. Although internships for college took over his last summer, he returns eager and excited in 2010. B.A. in Geology and Environmental Studies, with Honors, May 2010
		Adam Butterfield PCIA Single Pitch Instructor Wilderness First Aid
		If we may be so bold, Adam is a prime example of AMGCS' ability to develop climbers from beginners to trained professionals. Growing up climbing on plastic during his early years in highschool at a local gym in Connecticut, Adam recognized the beauty of climbing and the loving community around it. From then on climbing became his religion. Attending AMGCS' summer camp programs for several years, he worked through the Rock Pro series to RockMeister, and eventually worked as an intern for AMGCS. We have been proud to hire him as a guide in seasons since. While attending college at the University of Vermont, Adam brought with him his love for climbing and desire to teach by working with the UVM outing club leading rock and ice climbing trips around the scenic woods of Vermont. Adam's love for climbing has taken him on adventures all over the US from coast to coast, and abroad to Canada and Mexico. As much as Adam loves to climb, he loves to share his passion for this magical sport with others.
		Doug Kensicki PCIA Single Pitch Instructor AIARE Level I Course WMA Wilderness First Aid
		Doug started climbing at age 16 at his local gym. Coming from a gymnastics background, Doug found that the transition to climbing came naturally and he pursued the sport throughout college in Vermont. While attending Johnson State College, Doug worked for their climbing gym and outing club and found himself in climbing destinations like Utah, California, Mexico, New York, and New Hampshire either learning or instructing rock and ice climbing. Now well versed in climbing and instructing, Doug has a great passion for the outdoors and loves to share his knowledge about the sport. Doug starting working for AMGCS in 2009; during this time he discovered the terrain Maine had to offer and he was hooked. His favorite places to climb are Joshua Tree and Owens River Gorge, CA, the Adirondacks and Shawangunks in NY, and of course Mount Desert Island, ME. B.A. in Outdoor Education, May 2009

PER DIEM GUIDE STAFF

PETER DOUCETTE
AMGA Certified Rock Guide

Peter Doucette has been guiding since 2001 for Acadia Moutain Guides. Peter grew up within a stones throw (okay, a big one) of Cannon Cliff in New Hampshire and began climbing vigorously while a high-school student at the White Mountain School several years ago. Peter then worked as a mountaineering instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) for three summers and as a rock and ice climbing instructor at the University of Maine under the mentorship of then program director Jon Tierney, owner of Acadia Mountain Guides.

Peter excels on steep ice but is equally at home on hard rock climbs and steep ski descents. He has climbed extensively in New England and traveled to many of the climbing and mountaineering hotspots in the western U.S and Canada as well as the Dolomites in Italy. Peter has notable ascents of routes ice routes such as Polar Circus and the Weeping Wall in Canada and, along with fellow AMGCS guides Craig Luebben and Jon Tierney, established several first ascent ice climbs in western China in 2001. Peter has also guided several ascents of high altitude peaks in Ecuador including Cotopaxi, Cayambe, Illiniza Sur and Antisana.

During the past year, Peter spent much of his time between guiding climbing and skiing in the western U.S. completing several noteworthy ascents including: Mount Rainier's challenging Liberty Ridge, Liberty Bell Crack, Mt. Shuksan, Forbidden Peak and Mt. Stuart in the Cascades; South Face Washington Column, Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome in a single day, and the East Buttress of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park; and Journey Home IV in Colorado's Black Canyon.

Wilderness First Responder
AIARE Level II and III Avalanche trained
AMGA Rock Instructor Course
AMGA Rock Guide Course
NOLS Mountaineering Instructor
AMGA Advanced Alpine Guide Course
AMGA Ski Guide Course

In Memorium

CRAIG LUEBBEN

1978 - 2009

Beloved father, husband, and friend.

Craig was one of America’s most known climbers and a guest guide for AMGCS. Originally from the Front Range of Colorado, Craig climbed rock and ice extensively throughout the western U.S., Europe, China, and the Caribbean for over twenty years; he put up well over 100 first ascents in that time.

Craig began instructing and guiding in 1981. Earning a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he was responsible for inventing Big Bros to protect off-widths cracks, and conducting research that revolutionized the placement of ice screws and greatly improved their safety. An editor and prolific contributor of stories, photographs, and technical tips to Climbing and Rock and Ice magazines, the climbing world owes Craig a debt of thanks for his contributions.

Tragically, Craig passed from this life August 9, 2009 while climbing in the North Cascades when he was struck by ice and debris. He is greatly missed.

AMGA Certified Rock Guide
AMGA Certified Alpine Guide
Served two terms on the Board of Directors, American Mountain Guides Association
Technical rescue team volunteer on Denali
Author of several instructional climbing books including Advanced Rock Climbing, Knots For Climbers, How to Ice Climb, and Go Climb