Adventure guide reaches new career heights

It’s a long, unlikely trek from the climbing wall in the Carpenter Sports Building to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, but Tim O’Brien, AG ’95, sees continuity in the path he’s followed between the two.

Lighting out for the Pacific Northwest the summer after graduation 10 years ago, the New Jersey native planned to pursue a master’s degree in horticulture at Oregon State University while enjoying the rugged terrain with weekend and summer guiding jobs. Yet once O’Brien actually held a master’s degree in one hand and a job offer from Rainier Mountaineering Inc. (RMI) in the other, his priorities changed.

“When I was offered the position to guide for RMI in the spring of 2000, my plan was to use it during the summer and then find a ‘real’ job in the horticulture field that fall,” O’Brien says. “But, when October arrived and I was given the opportunity to guide on Mount Rainier in the winter as well, I really began to immerse myself in the mountain guide life.”

O’Brien says his choice wasn’t all that surprising since he’d been an avid outdoor adventurer long before a degree in horticulture ever crossed his mind. And, although his college credentials seldom come up in his current line of work, O’Brien does credit UD with giving him the best practical career preparation he could get.

“Growing up, an uncle who is an avid outdoorsman took me under his wing,” O’Brien says. “When I arrived at the University of Delaware, I wanted to continue climbing, so I looked up the Carpenter Sports Building’s indoor climbing wall and met Roger Spacht, assistant professor of health, nutrition and exercise sciences. I began working as an instructor and trip guide for him, and that really planted the seed. Down the road, I think it also gave me an edge with RMI, which is a very competitive guiding company.”

Typically selecting about one in eight of all guide applicants, the adventure outfitting company screens guides for interpersonal skills and outdoor expertise before hiring them, O’Brien says. Most guides generally work on a part-time, seasonal basis.

Now nearly six years later, with dozens of treks up some of the world’s highest mountains to his credit, O’Brien is one of only three full-time RMI employees splitting his time equally between mountain and office duties.

“I spend the better part of 80 to 90 days a summer on Mount Rainier and Mount McKinley, guiding and climbing,” O’Brien says, “but back at the office, I wear a lot of hats.” These include marketing, public relations work and development of new programs. Developing new programs, O’Brien says, can be one of the most rewarding, particularly when the research and proposal efforts pay off in a big way, as was the case with his recent pitch to UD’s Alumni Association.

Last fall, O’Brien proposed an alumni trek up Mount Kilimanjaro to the University’s Alumni Association—a move, he says, that seemed serendipitous from the start.

“I always think of Mount Kilimanjaro as being every man’s Everest,” O’Brien says. “It’s a major mountain of the world—one of the elusive seven summits—but its terrain can accommodate the widest range of clientele that adventure companies such as RMI can attract. Given this, I thought it would be a great fit for a UD travel program.”

On the way back from his honeymoon atop Mount Kilimanjaro last October, O’Brien drafted a proposal during the trans-Atlantic flight home, faxed it off the next day to the Alumni Association and received word two days later that the trip was a go.

“My thinking was that UD travel programs don’t often target-market the younger, more active groups of alumni,” O’Brien says, “and when I received an e-mail from the Alumni Association saying, ‘We’d like to offer this; let’s start promoting it,’ it seemed clear that that was their thinking, too. This is the sort of offering that fills a gap.”  

 

If you go…

Set for Oct. 16-28, the Kilimanjaro trip will include seven days on the mountain and three-and-a-half days on a game-viewing safari afterward.

Each day on Kilimanjaro will offer four to six hours of hiking, starting at a base of 8,000 feet and wending upward to the 19,000-foot summit.

Porters will carry all equipment, prepare all meals and set up camps so that trekkers can concentrate on sight-seeing.

Participants should be in excellent physical condition, to adjust to altitude and activity demands. The only additional requirements are a good pair of hiking boots and trekking poles. All other supplies, including tents and food, will be provided or can be rented.

The trip is open to up to 12 candidates. A portion of all trip proceeds will go directly to the Alumni Association for scholarships and other programs. For more information, interested candidates should call (888) 892-5462 or e-mail O’Brien at [Tim@RMIguides.com]. 

— Becca Hutchinson