Guides

Josh was only six years old when he started climbing with his father. Growing up in Washington State, he spent nearly every weekend exploring and climbing in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains. After spending nearly 20 years sharpening his skills as a climber, he decided to pursue a career as a professional mountain guide. He began guiding in 2010, and has since guided expeditions all over the world.

Josh’s expedition resume includes Mount Everest (x2), Cho Oyu, Ama Dablam, Aconcagua (x8), Denali, the Ecuador Volcanoes, the Mexico Volcanoes (x6), Mount Vinson, Mount Bona (x2), and multiple Everest Base Camp Treks. In addition to his extensive expedition experience, he has guided over 175 climbs on Mount Rainier, and has over 100 summits. Josh enjoys learning the history and culture of the areas in which he works, and loves to share that knowledge with the people he guides. His passion for teaching shows in his guiding.

Josh has a Bachelor of Arts in History and Education. He is certified as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT-B), and holds an Avalanche Level 2 certification. When not guiding, Josh works as a career Firefighter/EMT and enjoys spending time with his rambunctious labradoodle.

Alex is one of our top Tanzania Kilimanjaro guides. He has run many trips with us and is one of our staple guides for the Kili program. A true professional, Alex is also super fun and loves to have a lot of laughs. He has summited Kilimanjaro more than 200 times and knows the mountain as well as anyone working today. He is incredibly patient and skilled at maximizing the number of climbers who are able to stand on top by employing strategies he has perfected over his hundreds of ascents.

Here is Alex in his own words:
“I started hiking 17 years ago in my mid 30’s. Born in the southern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, I’d see the Mountain every day as a tourist going for hikes. I promised myself to go up one day, but I didn’t know I would go this far and became a mountain guide.

After high school my dad wanted me to become a policeman which was not my passion so I had to start as porter to earn some money for College. I love hiking because the mountain shows me every moment that there are no limits to the things one can do. I have met so many people who have shown me life in so many positive ways. Now I am proud to be part of an excellent team of climbers/guides from all over the world who share the same passion.

It is always a rewarding pleasure for me to share my experience of more than 200 times up the highest mountain in Africa and also several times on mount Meru. In the past I attended the College of African wildlife management Mweka for my certificate in wildlife management before my diploma in Travel and Tourism management at the National College of Tourism in Dar es salaam. Also I have gone through many short courses which have been of great support in my work like customer care and customers services, first aid and Hotel and Tourism Management, just to mention a few.”

A veteran in the polar and big mountain arena, Tim Hewette has specialized in guiding and managing expeditions in Alaska, Antarctica, and beyond since 2004. He has a diverse quiver of field skills, an adept communication ability, and a personal interest in completing expeditions in a professional style. He lives and works in Alaska, Utah, and Antarctica. He is a veteran Denali guide and has guided a wide range of climbers to Denali’s summit, including in 2016 an expedition comprised of Navy Seals and in 2004 a custom climb including the oldest man to summit.

When he’s not guiding in the Alaska Range, he is the Field Operations Manager for Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions. Tim also occasionally revisits working as a big-game hunting guide in remote Alaska. Tim is an avid paraglider and long-distance multisport backcountry wilderness traveler.

We are extremely lucky to have chef Kumar Gurung! He is an incredible chef that has trained at the best restaurants and 5 star hotels in Kathmandu. He is a stickler for proper hygiene, hearty, well-rounded meals, with a lot of flavor and variety and he is always working hard to improve his skills and add new recipes to his repertoire. He runs his kitchen with authority making sure his team of cooks are help to his very high standards.

Kumar has been a lead expedition chef for many of the biggest names in Himalayan climbing and has been cooking for well over 20 years. Non-Sherpa Everest record holder, Dave Hahn once remarked of Kumar that Kumar’s food was the reason he kept coming back to guide Everest for as long as he did. We feel grateful that Kumar has signed on to work with us knowing that our clients will have the best food possible at base camp, be well-fed, and climb stronger because of it.

In his off-time Kumar runs a little hotel and restaurant in Kathmandu where he treats his guests to the same fabulous creations as he shares with us. If you join us on Cho Oyu, Lhotse or Mt Everest you will most certainly meet Kumar and get a tour of his kitchen.

Casey and CTSS owner Mike Hamill started their guiding careers the same inaugural class on Mt Rainier in 2000 and have worked together all over the world since then. In that time Casey has amassed an incredible resume of guided and personal climbs and become a trusted friend and our Chief Everest guide.
Casey hails from Ohio where he got his start indoor rock climbing before venturing on to outdoor rock and ice. Mount Rainier in Washington State, USA is still his bread and butter and he has tallied more than 200 ascents of the mountains. Casey takes pride in being a well-rounded climber, which has led him from the ice routes in Canada to the rock climbs of Yosemite. He’s just as happy on hard ice and rock routes as he is sharing his love for the mountains on Rainier, Kilimanjaro, in Ecuador and on Everest.
Casey is a consummate professional who is always going out of his way to make sure that his teams are well prepared, well trained and ready for the challenges that lie ahead. He inspires confidence amongst those who climb with him and we have yet to meet a client who hasn’t loved climbing with him. He is masterful at getting clients on the summit and trouble-shooting along the way to make sure they have the highest chance of success. We can’t say enough good things about Casey’s leadership.

Roberto Gomez IFMGA Guide trained at the ENSA school in Chamonix, with more than 12 years of experience guiding and helping clients to achieve their objectives. Roberto is an Instructor at the Montana Guiding School in Bolivia and South America. He is passionate about rock climbing, ice climbing, cycling and is a lover of the freedom and nature of the mountains.

Roberto is one of our Bolivian guide specialists but he guides throughout South America and New Zealand. He is currently based in Wanaka, NZ where he is working as a fulltime internationally certified guide. If you join us for climbs in Bolivia you will certainly meet and climb with Roberto!

In loving memory of Mike Gardner (1991 – 2024)

Michael Gardner was raised by mountains. He was a second-generation mountain guide who spent his childhood in the Teton Range in Wyoming, the San Juans in Southwest Colorado, and the Himalayas. Michael’s life was undoubtedly shaped by time spent in the mountains.

His guiding apprenticeship began informally at age eight under the tutelage of his father and led him to become one of the youngest guides in the U.S. In addition to his lifelong relationship with guiding and climbing, Michael was a professional skier on the World Tour circuit for many years, and in 2014, he received his bachelor’s degree in Education.

Michael was continually drawn to the wildest reaches of the planet—from Antarctica to Alaska and the Himalayas. For Michael, being in the mountains was more than just a profession; it was a lifestyle. He found inspiration in pursuing his own alpine objectives on some of the wildest peaks in the world, and his legacy leaves behind multiple first ascents and ski descents across Alaska, the Himalayas, and the Western U.S.

Michael will be deeply missed and remembered by the Climbing the Seven Summits team.

Ossy is one of our Mt Everest, Mount Vinson and Aconcagua specialists.

He regularly leads private clients on Everest for us and is a very popular guide with our teams. He is very patient and adept at understanding client’s strengths and weaknesses to maximize their success.

Ossy has summited Mt Everest 3 times including once without oxygen from the North side and has summited Manaslu without O2 as well.

Ossy was born and raised in Ecuador and knows his country’s peaks intimately. He has climbed Pik Lenin, the difficult West Face of Huayna Potosi, Pumori, Aconcagua’s South Face, the Dolomites, and throughout South America, the Cassin Ridge on Denali among many other routes.

Ossy is a fully internationally certified IFMGA guide.

Kris and CTSS owner Mike Hamill met for the first time during the autumn of 2002 on Cho Oyu 8201m, and have been friends ever since. With over 30 years of climbing,

Kris has spent his entire life dedicated to experiences in the mountains. He has been leading expeditions throughout the greater ranges of the world for last two decades and holds the IFMGA/UIAGM certification as a mountain guide. Along with guiding the iconic routes of the world he has also pioneered new ascents as well as descents on skis from Antarctica to the Himalaya and often with guests. While born and raised in wide open spaces of Montana in the United States, he now resides in Chamonix, France at the foot of Mont Blanc with his family.

Sydney is a Colorado native, so naturally, she has been in love with skiing since she was 3-years-old.

At 18 she started her guiding career as a raft guide in the front range of the Rockies and became enamored with working in the outdoors.

For years she honed her backcountry skills skiing and climbing in France, Chile, Colorado, and Tahoe, and she is so happy to be able to share her love for human-powered adventures with others.

Sydney has worked at Squaw Valley on Ski Patrol for 4 seasons and guiding was a natural progression. Recently, she was accepted to the AMGA’s Ski Guide track. Once the skiing dries up in the summers, you can find Sydney guiding trips on Mount Shasta and working in the Tahoe basin.