MEET THE GUIDES The guides of southwest Colorado make adventuring in and around Durango exciting and accessible for
everyone, regardless of experience. Whitewater rafting companies along the banks of the Animas River—including Flexible Flyers, Mild to Wild, and the Durango Rafting Company—are all staffed with expert guides to ensure your safety and excitement on some of Colorado’s best-known rapids. Fishing guides, including Duranglers, also work (and fish) along the Animas and San Juan Rivers; customized guide trips are designed to fit your skill level. Guides at San Juan Expeditions lead groups into the San Juan Mountains, providing everything from avalanche training to rock-climbing clinics. The Colorado Trail is yet another outdoor adventure area, where Hermosa Tours provides self-guided mountain-bike tours.
SAN JUAN EXPEDITIONS JACK KLIM
SOUTHWEST RAFT AND JEEP CHRIS CHIBOUCAS
HERMOSA TOURS MATT McFEE
640 E. Second Avenue, Durango, CO 81301 877-ROLL-MTB (765-5682) • hermosatours.net
What is your favorite trail in La Plata County? That’s easy—the Colorado Trail! What is your favorite trail to guide on outside of La Plata County? The Arizona Trail, specifically the section from Oracle, Arizona, to Superior, Arizona. What is your favorite thing you own and why? I want to own enough fly-fishing gear to start a second business. Work is what I do in between fly-fishing trips. Where do you want to travel the most? I would like to go to Kamchatka, Russia, to fly-fish. What is your favorite book? It is a two-way tie: The Monkey Wrench Gang and The Fountainhead. If you were going to get some ink, what would you choose and why? The bridge over Cascade Creek on the Colorado Trail looking upstream. It is my favorite place on Earth. What is your favorite meal to cook while on an overnight trip? Linguini puttanesca. 38 Durango Magazine Summer/Fall
305 S. Camino del Rio, Suite V, Durango, CO 81301 970-259-8313 • southwestraftandjeep.com
What is your favorite part of the Animas River? Rockwood Box is my favorite section. It’s just an all-around fun, adventurous trip through an area of wilderness that you can pretty much only see from the water. What is your favorite river to guide on besides the Animas? This is a really tough question for someone who’s been guiding for 15 years, because there are so many great rivers. I think the Cataract Canyon section of the Colorado is probably my favorite, when the water is right. The whole trip is an experience every single time you go. You are out on the water for almost two weeks, going through areas you can only access by raft or helicopter. It has everything from big rapids days to epic hikes every single day of the trip. Where do you want to travel the most? I would say to go back to the Futaleufú River in northern Patagonia. It’s a river I have only had a chance to do once, and I would love nothing more than a chance to go run that section again. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world. What is your favorite meal to cook while on an overnight trip? Good old Jambalaya is my favorite. It’s easy to make, tastes amazing, and fills the belly after a long, hard push on the water.
1303 Greene Street, Silverton, CO 81433 970-460-6065 • sanjuanexpeditions.com
What is your favorite mountain in the San Juans? It is Jagged Peak, the most remote thirteener in Colorado. Fourteeners are old news. What is your favorite place to guide outside the area? Alaska! Fly onto an Alaskan glacier from a plane that has skis that drop over its wheels to land on snow. Then step off the plane to guide expeditions to the summit of Denali, or ski untouched snow for a week from a glacier base camp. What is your favorite thing you own and why? My dogs Sandwich and Beans! Sandwich is an Australian shepherd-Anatolian shepherd mix, and Beans is a Pomeranian-American Eskimo mix. They are my favorite beings, simply because they remind me not to sweat the small stuff. Life is about dreaming and doing... and eating tasty treats. Where do you want to travel the most? I want more surf vacations in my life. I’ve spent much of my off-time exploring high peaks, exotic volcanos, and arctic environments. I would love to go surf in places like Namibia or explore the jungles of Borneo. If you were going to get some ink, what would you choose and why? Hahaha, I love this question! If it’s late-night ink? I would have to say a stick and poke of a penguin paragliding. If it’s a project tattoo? I would get a half sleeve with a raven on my shoulder symbolizing my soaring friends overhead. I would incorporate the San Juan mountain scape—that’s where I cut my teeth as a mountain guide—along with a snowflake in the raven’s eye symbolizing my eagerness for snow… always looking forward to winter.
