View from the Top

Brian Warren is a full-time, year-round mountain guide. He works in almost every iconic mountain range imaginable, guiding climbing and skiing adventures for people from all over the world.

Brian works for Jackson Hole Mountain Guides in Wyoming as a senior guide and as the manager of their winter programs. He runs every kind of rock and alpine climbing trip possible during the summer months, including the iconic Grand Teton, as well as guiding and teaching guests backcountry skiing, ice climbing, and avalanche safety and education during the winter. He is also part owner and a senior guide for Alpenglow Expeditions, a premier international guiding company that’s at the forefront of the high altitude climbing and skiing programs offered on every continent of our planet. Brian has guided all across the American West in the Cascades, Rockies, and the Desert Southwest, as well as worked on dozens of expeditions to South America and the Himalayas. He sees mountain guiding as more of a passion and lifestyle than a career, and consistently finds his work beyond dynamic and rewarding. Brian feels that if he can impact other’s lives by pushing them to their physical and mental limits in some of the most beautiful and harshest places in the world then he has had true success. It’s this success and the diverse nature of guiding that pushes Brian to consistently be at the top of his game with knowledge and fitness.

As a full-time mountain guide, my job typically keeps me fairly physically prepared for these expeditions. However, it is quite important to constantly find time outside of guiding to stay in shape by trail running, utilizing a climbing gym, and, quite simply, just being outside and moving through the mountains. Regarding the mental preparedness, it’s a lot of logistics and lists upfront, then it’s a matter of slowing down and really taking time to appreciate the experience. I work very hard with our local liaisons and depend on them to help get the majority of the tasks taken care of before the expedition. I do believe the hardest part of expedition climbing is what I call the “mental endurance.” It’s the ability to realize that it’s not a race and much more of a mental marathon as we have a lot of time away from family, businesses, and regular-day life. This is always very hard on people to not be as connected as they usually are whether it’s reading the paper in the morning or checking their email 15 times a day. We just simply do not have these luxuries while climbing and it’s tough for people to really slow down their “daily” routine and realize that we are letting our bodies acclimatize and work for us, not against us.