2021 Year in Review; Work

2021 was the best year of my guiding career. And that's allowing for a lot of otherwise good things that didn't happen. I didn't stay perfectly healthy (lost a week of prime summer work to a knee issue). We didn't summit on the longest trip of my year (Denali West Buttress expedition in late June/early July). Nor did we summit the primary objective on the second longest trip of the year (11300, also in AK). I didn't really work under my own company (except for one quick day of basic instruction).

Highlights:

What I did, though, was serve a badass cast of returning and referred clients on the rowdiest itineraries of my guiding life so far. Highlights include:

Guiding all three of the Teton entries in "Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America". In the span of three weeks. (E Face Middle Teton 3/12, Skillet Glacier 3/14. And again 3/28. Ford Couloir GT 4/2).
That April 2 GT guiding mission kept going. Adam and Dave and I went on that day to ski the Middle and South Tetons. This “Teton Trifecta” had not before been guided and has probably been completed fewer than a couple dozen times.
Dave and I teamed up again in May to push the envelope. Late that month we skied across Washington’s “Picket Traverse”. We did that route’s 8th known completion, its fastest known time (3.5 days) and the first guided execution.
The Teton guiding summer saw some new-to-me routes, a rowdy, snowy August Cathedral Traverse with a 70 year old client, and a sub 8 hour round trip guided climb of the Grand.
I wrapped the summer guiding season in California, again with Dave. There he and I completed the first ascent of the King Spur Traverse (VI 5.8) in Kings Canyon National Park.
All this interspersed with more “typical” guiding gigs. Two new-to-me Alaskan peaks, two independent and insanely hard weeks of ice climbing in Wyoming’s South Fork, a week in Red Rock, and countless Teton missions on snow and rock.

Hard Numbers and Comparisons:

199 days of work. Guiding plus guiding admin and my side hustles (slum-lording, gear reviewing, gear consulting)

128 days guiding (10 year average is 114)
41 trips had a specific goal (peak or route) in mind. Of those, we made the summit and/or completed the route 32 times. That's a "sending percentage" of 78%. (10 year simple average is 70%)
53 days of Alpine guiding. (10 year average is 41)
8 days of Ice guiding. (10 year average is 8)
13 days of Rock guiding. (10 year average is 27)
54 days of ski guiding. (10 year average is 39)
127 days as an employee of another company. That's more than 99%. (10 year average is 89%)
1 day working for my own company. That's under 1%. (10 year average is 11%)
122 days were with returning clients or clients that came directly to me in some fashion. That's 95% of my volume. (10 year average is 56%)
110 days I worked in the field largely or entirely without a co-guide. That's 85%. (5 year average is 79%)
18 days I worked directly with at least one other co guide.
40 nights in a tent in the wilderness. For work. Even more than that when you include rec time.
42 nights away from home in other accommodations, for work. For a total of 82 nights away from home for work. (5 year average is 71)