Northwest Mountain School

05/30/2026

We have 1 last-minute spot on our Mt. Rainier climb, June 7-11, 2026. Any procrastinators out there? Maybe not those that neglected to train, but if you have that free and are up for a great climb with a small group and 3 guides, give a shout! We just get this one climb each year. https://www.mountainschool.com/content/main/guided-mount-rainier-climb/

05/16/2026

We wrote up our recent Svalbard Sail & Ski trip. Planning to go back next year!

7 days skiing at high latitude

04/02/2026

Check out our new substack! We are looking forward to the longer format. This first one focuses on a trip we ran this January to Burnie Glacier Chalet.

British Columbia's Coolest Remote Ski Touring Lodge

12/01/2024

NEW TRIP ALERT - March 2025 - Iceland Troll Peninsula Ski Touring

We interrupt this sabbatical to bring you an adventure worthy of any bucket list - ski touring on the Troll Peninsula of northern Iceland!

If there is one thing our lifetime of guiding and family adventuring has taught us, it is the activity and the people make the trip. That, and if there is an antidote to the modern world of screens/news it is exploring the natural world.

Many years ago our good friends & colleagues, Einar & Erin, returned to his native land to run one of the preeminent local guide services - Bergmenn Mountain Guides () Now they have set aside a week for NMS to bring a group to sample the epic ski touring that has kept them there for so long.

The 6 day ski week to the “Alps of Iceland” (March 7-13, 2025) is scheduled to dovetail with our already sold out European Alps tours this spring. (Icelander & AMGA certified Ski Mountaineering Guide) will be our local guide, assisted by (IFMGA Mountain Guide).

The epic Karlsá Lodge, the only ski in ski out lodge on the Troll Peninsula, with a spectacular position overlooking the Eyja Fjord and the Gold Coast, will be our home for the week. All meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner), from the time of arrival to departure, will be provided by the lodge chef. The lodge has its own sauna and hot tub to relax tired ski muscles in whenever we don’t visit one of the natural geothermal hot springs Iceland is so well known for.

There is a link in our bio to the Bergmenn page with the trip description and registration information. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly with questions. Erin will likely be fielding your calls/emails at Bergmenn so be sure to let her know you would like to ski with Olivia and the rest of the NMS group. Let us know if you want to join in what is sure to be an amazing arctic skiing adventure!

03/18/2024

Snow all the way to the parking lot and coming out of the sky. An auspicious start to our first Ortler trip of the season!

12/04/2023

That was fast! We filled all but the 2 last spots for our Ortler trip March 25-30, 2024. We still have space on the Ortler the week of March 18-23 and Silvretta March 12-17. Apologies for the reused photos. We are in the Canary Islands getting ready sail to the Caribbean. Get in touch while we still have service. Sounds like people are scoring really good airfares. We have run the Ortler 22 times previously so we have it pretty dialed in.

10/27/2023

Sabbatical update. We are taking a break from running our biz to do what we love, hike, bike, ski, sail, and climb with our kids ages 9 and 12. These are from a Gokyo trek we are doing in Nepal right now. Together we have guided Cho Oyu 5 times (JR 3, Olivia 2) so it feels right to hike below this beautiful peak with our kids. We are not selling or closing our business. We are taking a break, developing new trips, and looking forward. Some pretty cool stuff already in the pipes.

10/13/2023

Hello! We are enroute to Nepal to trek and run some rivers for 6 weeks with our kids. We will then cross the Atlantic by sailboat in December. We will be posting limited Europe ski dates in about a week for great tours with and next March & April. We have a few groups already lined up, but will have space for about 8 people in the 6 weeks we plan to operate. Keep an eye here if interested or reach out. We plan to mostly sail and explore in 2024, but we need our ski fix. We have a few new tours planned in France & Italy.

07/07/2023

We managed to stay cool despite the heat while climbing with an awesome group of middle schoolers and today.